A White Christmas

After my semi-rant/pity part blog post the other day where I mentioned that Christmas means there should be snow on the ground, we got three inches of snow the following day! That's definitely rare for our city!

Two days prior, our former tutor gave the kids small toy snow shovels for Christmas. I scoffed at the idea of them being able to ever use them in our city! Joke's on me!

As soon as the kids opened their curtains they ran in to find us and announced that they were going to go put their snow pants on, get their shovels, and get ready to go out and play...at 6:30 a.m. I suggested we at least eat breakfast first!
We were dressed and out the door by 8:30 a.m.

My three children handle snow very differently.
The Littlest One apparently isn't very impressed. He was either too weirded out by all the white, too cold to care, or too bundled up to be able to move. Either way, he wasn't digging our play time in the snow!


Every time I set him down in the snow, he'd scream and his feet wouldn't leave their spot.



The Middle, his approach was the opposite. He chose to become one with the snow.



Almost every time I saw him, he was making another snow angel.





The only time he seemed a little less enthusiastic about the frozen flakes, was when his daddy pelted him in the face with a snowball.



But it didn't take long for him to be thrilled about it all again.



And then there's The Oldest.
As soon as we were out the door, she set out on an adventure.



To find what, I don't know, but she was putting that shovel to use.



And her daddy taught her a thing or two about making proper snowballs...of which she later put to good use on innocents passersby.



A beautiful little snow bunny!



She also attempted a few snow angels, but was less enthusiastic about being in such close contact with the frozen stuff!



We found a few neighbors attempting a snow man...



So we combined our efforts....well, no, once we started helping, they just enjoyed watching. :)



The outcome was a midget snowman, with carrot nose and all!





Snow! Such a fun surprise! A white Christmas to fill up our hearts with fun memories!

Christmas...12,000 Miles Away

Our apartment complex decided to decorate for Christmas this year. Well, if you count putting up a poster of Santa on the front door of each building. The vast majority of Christmas "decorations" in the Big Chicken are chintzy, aluminum-foilish, creepy santas, and look like something that didn't quite make the cut for The Dollar Store.



When Christmas time rolls around each year and I'm in Asia to celebrate it, I find myself longingly wishing for the festive street lights,
houses covered in icicle lights,
poinsettias on the Church stage,
evergreen trees that drip pine needles on the floor,
snow drifts so high you can build forts,
hot chocolate when you come inside after building said forts,
fire places with the smoky smell of burned mesquite wood,
baby girls in their fancy Christmas dresses and tights,
Nutcracker plays,
browsing the ornament selection at Hobby Lobby,
attending nieces and nephews Christmas plays,
caroling at the nursing homes,
Christmas candles burning on my mom's kitchen counter,
the beloved Christmas decorations pulled out after a year of hiding away in the attic.

I could go on and on...



My heart desires to pass along these things to my children. To educate them on the "feelings" of Christmas. The smells. The glittery Christmas lights. The aisles stocked full with Christmas goodies, treats, decorations, and colors...
I want so badly for them to grow up experiencing Christmas with the wonder and anticipation that I did as a child. I want so badly for them to wake up on Christmas morning in their Gigi's house and open up a horse blanket and bridle just like I did when I was little. My heart is overcome with grief sometimes when I think of the things they are missing out on.



Truly all of these things are such wonderful gifts. The things that I grew up with, I wouldn't trade for a thousand years. All these memories I have stored away in my head of what it's like to grow up celebrating Christmas each year, I treasure them.

But my children's Christmases are going to look vastly different than mine.

And it's ok. It's more than ok. I'm choosing to look at it as a gift and a blessing that their idea of Christmas isn't going to mean pine tree smells or poinsettias. It's going to mean something completely different than my idea of Christmas. And while my heart struggles with this, I'm choosing to understand the Father's plan in this.



I'm not sure how they'll describe Christmases someday when they are grown and can blog about it all by themselves.
But here's how I want them to understand it.
Christmas is about waiting. It's about preparing. It's about anticipation.
The Savior of the World's birth is coming. So let's prepare our hearts. Lets await with such eager anticipation we can hardly stand it. Lets read the prophecies in awe that for thousands of years his birth was foretold and anticipated. I want each day before Christmas to be exciting, celebrated with songs that have been sung for years and years about the baby's birth that changed history. Lets prepare our hearts to receive the greatest gift God has ever given.



I'd still love for them to come away from it all with gingerbread smells, with stockings individually labeled with their names, and singing Jingle Bell Rock.
But at the end of the day, if that's not their idea of Christmas, it's ok. If they envision creepy poster Santa and chintzy Dollar Store snowmen, it's ok.

Most of all, I just want their hearts to understand the preparation of the awaited King. The coming of God's first born.
And we've been given a gift to be so far removed from the things that mean "Christmas" to me, so we can pointedly teach them the true meaning of Christmas. The reason for it all. The point of all the hustle and bustle should be for Emmanuel, God with Us.



They won't be surrounded by hustle and bustle. They won't be sat on Santa's lap at the mall. They won't grow up going caroling and driving around the city streets to see the Christmas lights. They won't grow up performing as the donkey and Mary in the church's Christmas play.

They'll grow up hosting Christmas parties to share the truth about why we celebrate Christmas. They'll grow up learning the prophecies foretold long ago and sharing about it each day with neighbors that come over and ask what that day's story was. They'll grow up excited to tell the next taxi driver that it's Christmas time and we're celebrating Jesus' birth!

And in fact, this year we'll be in Taiwan on Christmas day. We won't even be in our home away from home. We have to make a visa run because ours expires on Christmas Eve.
So this year they'll celebrate Christmas in another Asian country. And they'll hopefully understand that Christmas isn't about where you are or who you're with.



It's still hard for me to not try to pass along all these ideas of Christmas that I have built up in my heart and mind. It's a daily struggle for me to not try to recreate my idea of Christmas for my kids. Instead I'm going to allow them to understand Christmas in their own way. To grow up with a different idea of Christmas than I did, and hopefully with one that still grasps the point of it all.

"Behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2: 10-11

Which Camera?

We went out for a family dinner the other night at the local Hyatt restaurant. We got all fancied up, put the kids in nice clothes, I lugged along my camera and planned for some fun pictures in front of the giant Christmas tree at the hotel.

I'm not sure at what point in the planning process that I lost all common sense. Because apparently I've forgotten where I live and what it's like to stage a little photo shoot with my children.

Not of their own fault of course. They're adorable, naturally. But all those other cameras pointed at them bring about quite a distraction.



Yep. Not one of them looking at my camera.

Still a cute a cute shot. But really....guys look at MOMMY! not that lady over there...or that one either...nope not her either...no not that guy either...look HERE!!  It didn't work.
Too many flashbulbs going off. Too many ooohhhhs and aaaaahhhs that they were far too distracted to all simultaneously look at mama.

Ok then, lets try for individual shots...



Well, maybe that is asking a bit much of a toddler to not understand which camera to look at.

Eden was more redeeming. She's becoming pretty fond of me taking her picture.



She's also pretty good at saying, "1 Kuai per picture please!" when people ask to take her picture.

And then there's Salem. When faced with a crowd he waivers back and forth between completely annoyed bordering on the edge of ticked off...


and so shy that he gives a creepy smile.



But for "distracted" pictures, I think we did ok!
Next time, I think I'll do better at working the distracted factor into the family pictures equation and opt for the natural lighting in our own home!

The Littlest One

I always used to hear these stories from moms that went something like this...
"I had just stepped away from little Johnny when he climbed up into the pantry and stuck a toothpick into his eye..."
Or
"I was only away from little Joshua for 2 seconds when he managed to plug in the vacuum, turn it on, and suck up his sister's hair..."

All of these stories got catalogued in my brain as "Impossible." "Farce." "Something that doesn't really happen in normal households."

That is, until this little one entered Toddler-hood.



That little mischievous grin. It clearly screams that he's been up to no good. It's saying, "Why yes mom. I did just throw all of the Nativity scene including baby Jesus into the trash can. Well except for these two favorite camels of mine."

So it was on one of those fateful "I-had-just-stepped-away-from-him" days that I heard a large thud followed by an ear piercing cry emerge from his room. We'd just been playing on the rug in his room, I got up to go grab my cell phone in the living room and when I ran back in to find him he was laying at the foot of his window sill. It's my best guess that he climbed up onto his window sill, thought he was superman, and dove off head first.
Because this was the outcome:



A giant goose egg and Australia-shaped bruise stamped on his forehead for all to see how his mommy "just stepped away from him for two seconds."

And then there was this moment that all I needed to do was slap together some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and during that 14.7 seconds he managed to find the dried black beans.



We're still discovering black beans under the counters and refrigerator.

And in only 16 months of life, this boy has managed to give us more medical scares than we thought possible for such a small human being. Excluding his hospital stays with RSV and pneumonia, and the mystery fever when he was just a week old, he continues to perplex us with other random maladies.

For instance, one morning he woke up and his whole body looked like this:



Perhaps because during his free time he takes toys in and out of the trash can.

Oh please do forgive him for that Baby Jesus. And protect the sweet boy please.

Because he sure needs it!!

Jesse Tree -- Advent

I'm normally a total procrastinator. I'm that student staying up until 4 a.m. to finish reading the book for the book report that's due the following day. I tend to order birthday presents the day before people's birthday and look at them shockingly the next day and say, "I'm so sorry! Your present hasn't arrived yet!" (I totally just blew my secret)

But this year, I actually had some sort of forethought. I actually did some planning ahead. I know. Shocking. My dad probably just fainted.

I began thinking and planning for Advent this year at the beginning of November. Seriously. Don't be too proud of me. This sort of planning ahead doesn't happen too often around this household!

It began with me thinking through putting up Christmas decorations and imagining little hands stealing my carefully placed ornaments on my Charlie Brown-ified Christmas tree. I began thinking of creative ways to keep them off my tree. 

Brandon suggested an electric-shock fence. 

I decided to go with a little less call-CPS approach...

Make them their own tree!!

My initial idea was to make a bunch of cutesy fun ornaments. Maybe three with each of their names on it. Stars. Gifts. Glittery balls. Anything that might distract them from pulling the cherished ornaments that I drug across the ocean with us off of the already-leaning tree.

But as the idea continued to develop, I imagined how I could incorporate our Jesse Tree tradition into this. Because last year our Jesse Tree Garland was a little pathetic. I'd suddenly remember it was time to do that day's JT Devotion and would scrounge around in Salem's toys for his plastic snake to string up on the garland for the story of Adam and Eve. That was the total procrastinator coming out in me. It was a sad and pathetic little gathering of random toys (does a Lego man count for Moses?!) and coloring pages.

So I set out for Pinterest, despite my previously mentioned dislike for all things Pinteresting, to find some ideas on how to make advent-ish type felt ornaments. Sure enough, Pinterest did not disappoint and I found lots of inspiration. I geared ours more toward our choice of Jesse Tree devotionals. 

And then I began sewing my fingers raw...

Here's a few of my faves.

Adam and Eve and the Stump of Jesse

I had a lot of fun figuring out how to put some of these ornaments together.

Jonah and The Flood

Creation and Bethlehem

Is it a little strange that my globe doesn't even have The Big Chicken pictured on it? 

Abraham and Isaac (and the Ram) and Elijah

The Angel and The Lion and the Lamb

All 27 of them...

(That was before the final finished product with the red border.)

I'm slightly terrified they'll be ripped to shreds, the kids will yank all the buttons off, or Caleb will eat one of the ornaments. So maybe for this year we'll hang it out of reach. So much for the hands-off-my-Christmas-tree idea. :) 

But I know they're really excited about it. Which makes it worth all the work and anti-procrastination efforts, especially if it helps them treasure the significance of Jesus' birth.

It starts tomorrow, ya'll!!

The Thankful Tree

I'm not so into this Pinterest craze lately. I got on Pinterest the other day to find a chocolate cake recipe and an hour or so later I emerged from the Pinter-vacuum feeling like a total failure of a human being because I've never made a fireplace mantel out of pallet wood that I salvaged myself or repurposed one of my husband's old dress shirts into an infinity scarf.
If you've never Pinterested then you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. (and way to go, you!  You aren't missing anything.)

But back before I got over the Pinterest sensation, I did come across a winner. The Thankful Tree.
And I will say that it is one of our family's favorite new traditions. This has been our second year of filling up a thankful tree and the kids love it. Eden remembered doing it last year and was really excited to start it again at the beginning of November.
This year was a little more difficult scrounging up those tree branches as the trees had all grown a bit taller a year later! (eh-hem...seriously, who WAS that crazy white foreign lady out there pulling perfectly good branches off of trees?!?!)

I figure starting a Thankful tree tradition with kids ranging from 1-4 was a great idea. Because really, we can only go up from here. This year Eden graduated from being thankful for her Cinderella movie last year to being thankful she can sing and dance this year. I'd say she's starting to grasp what we're going for here.




Salem...well, he's got a ways to go. But again, some day when he's 17 surely he'll look back on our 2012 Thankful tree cards and totally get a kick out of being "thankful for monkeys and tigers."

Then there's this boy...

 who I'm sure is thankful for grapes, ritz crackers, and moments that people forget to shut the bathroom door and he gets to play in the potty. He can't voice it yet, but I'd guarantee those would be on his Thankful tree cards. Meanwhile, his name is written on several of our cards of things that we're thankful for!

Plus, it's a total conversation starter. "So, um...why do you have dead tree branches in a vase on your dining room table?" Ahhh yes...well, lemme tell you about the One whom we owe all our thanks.

So each year we'll look back on the previous year's Thankful tree cards and see how the Lord has continued to provide, prepare, and lead our family through all sorts of exciting, uncertain, happy, sad, and wonderful circumstances.

As we put up our Christmas tree the other day, Salem exclaimed, "Wow Mommy!! That's a REALLY BIG thankful tree!!"
Truly, son! God has blessed us so much we could fill a Christmas tree with thankful cards too.

Kids Will Be Kids

Today was one of those days.

A day where everything is as it should be until your house helper gets a call from your children's preschool classmate's mom saying she's on her way over because she needs to apologize for her son hitting your son and about your son's head leaking blood.

screeeeeeeech...as your day comes to a halt.

"Wait...what? Salem's head is leaking blood?"

Yes, that's the quite literal translation. I may still be fairly new to this whole Chinese speaking thing. But leaking blood...yep, I caught that one.

So I say to my house helper, "Is he going to need..." and then I made sewing motions on my head as if she totally knows what I'm talking about. And her reply is "yeah, probably..."

Immediately I turned and went to do two things.

1. Change my pants. Because if I was going to be spending the rest of the afternoon in a Chinese hospital, my pajama pants weren't going to cut it. Especially since it was 2 pm. (oops)

2. Look up in my phone dictionary how to say "stitches" in Chinese so I don't have to make sewing motions on my head 37 times that afternoon.

After switching pants I came back into the kitchen and my house helper begins to clarify... "In Chinese we have two terms for leaking blood...one is like dripping blood, and one is like a scratch." 

"Ok great. So which one does Salem have? Is his head dripping blood or is it scratched?"

"I think just scratched."

Great...wish we could have clarified that to begin with before my mind fast-forwarded through all the gory details that were sure to happen that day.

About 5 minutes later the kids, two of their teachers, and the preschool offender's parents show up at our front door.

A big ole goose egg. No leaking or dripping blood. Just some tear stained eyes of a boy who was ready to see his mama. 

I asked him what happened... "I hit a wall!"

"what? I thought your friend hit you?

"No. I hit a giant pink wall!!"

Apparently he was shoved into a wall. And what Salem clearly remembers from the incident is that that wall was PINK.

But it's nothing a little 'Mater band-aid can't fix.

Meanwhile, we enjoyed some cultural oddities. Since I've never had a child in preschool in America that's gotten pummeled by a classmate, I'm not sure what the right course of action is. But here, the parents come, they apologize, they talk about how they need to do a better job of disciplining their child. We say, hey...kids will be kids. Don't worry about it. (because this actually is the SECOND time this couple has had to come apologize on their son's behalf...the first time for biting Salem. And no, he did not "leak blood" then either)

 But perhaps the most important aspect of the whole visit is the gift giving, which really is expected no matter the circumstance. When you show up at someone else's house, you gotta have something in your hands. And where it gets tricky for us Americans is that it's not what's on the inside that counts. It's totally all about the value and the packaging. The more expensive, the better. The fancier the package or wrapping...the better. The more reusable the package or box, even better. I hear that usually the actual gift inside is tossed out and the outer wrapping is put on display. That's a hard thing for me to grasp as I give cookies to neighbors in twice-used ziploc bags and wrap books in newspaper. (oops, again)

So today, the offender's parents brought us a giant pink sturdy expensive box of eggs. 36 eggs in fact. 

I'm glad I signed up to bring deviled eggs for our Thanksgiving meal next week!

I felt that it fit quite well with the situation...goose egg...chicken egg... I dunno.

I'm thankful these days don't come around very often.

You know...the days where you get a call about your child leaking blood. 

Yeah. I hope that doesn't happen again. At least for awhile.

As for Salem, he's just fine. Says his forehead hurts. Says YiNuo (the offender) is still his best friend. And maybe he'll be steering clear of pink walls for awhile.

Silence coupled with Thankfulness

On our blog, silence is usually one of two things.

1. Nothing to write about, or at least drawing a blank as to what to share among the blogosphere.

2. Busy. Busy. Busy.

This time around, it's the latter. I feel I've got too much to write about, just no time to do it. Here's a quick update on our world lately...

We've reached a much sought after benchmark as far as our language progress. We're hopeful that within a month we won't be thought of as full-time language learners anymore. Will the end ever come to language learning? Definitely not! But at least I won't have a tutor showing up at my front door every morning at 9 am anymore. We're so thankful for the time we've gotten to commit to learning this language, but we're even more grateful that it's drawing to a close.

I've been spending every wednesday morning with the kids at their preschool, helping out the teachers, teaching "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" until my back nearly breaks, and hugging little necks from 7:30 - 11:30 am. Just so you know, Ring around the Rosie is a hit anywhere, no matter if they understand the words or not! Getting to know the kids' teachers better has helped me to further understand the Lord's provision and how he's so graciously provided teachers for our children that love them and love Him. So thankful for them.

We spent a week mentally and verbally prepping for leading a discussion on parenting. About 50ish preschool student's parents came to hear us teach on "American methods of parenting." It was completely daunting, since we often feel inept at parenting...much less at communicating it all in Big Chickenese! I'm thankful for the opportunity as it was truly encouraging and challenging as we found ourselves being careful to practice with the kids what we were teaching! Not to mention that it totally stretched our language!

We had our first snow last weekend which means it has cooled down quite a bit here. But as it's not quite mid-November, the government regulated steam heating hasn't been turned on yet. We're walking around at home in big fuzzy slippers, layers, and cuddling under lots of blankets on the couch for multiple nights a week of family movie night! Thankful for these chilly nights and how they can make us slow down.

And with the winter has come the usual cough/congestion that has made it's rounds through all of us. Anyone want to send us another BIG bag of Hall's cherry flavored cough drops?! I've had them sitting high up on the medicine cabinet for a year and a half now, since we arrived here, and within one week we've dwindled them down to two! Thankfully we're all feeling much better and are no worse off having consumed so much mucinex and and so many cough drops!

This is my favorite time of the year. Fall, transitioning to winter, choosing gratitude and recalling on things that the Lord has been faithful to provide for our family and the ways He's gone about revealing himself to us, molding us and conforming us more to His image. 

My Life is Weird

I took the kids out for a walk around our apartment complex the other day because their fighting was making me insane it was gorgeous outside. 

We stumbled across this man sitting conspicuously all by himself rolling a couple unshelled walnuts around in his hands. He wasn't eager for any conversation nor was he overly friendly. But I HAD to have a picture of him and his US Army getup. 

So what does one do? Pull out my phone and quickly snap a picture before he tells me not to???

or...

Knowing he won't refuse, say, "Hey...my daughter would LOVE to have her picture taken with you...is that ok?"  ("hey eden...pretty please go stand by ShuShu so I can take is picture, mmmkay??")

Why yes, that was me. Using my daughter as an excuse.

I felt like the whole thing was priceless. His kind face. The camo. The fact that it said US Army. 

I asked him if he knew he was wearing "American Soldier" clothing. His response was equivalent to, "mmm...hmmm...what of it?"

So since then, each time we pass by US Army ShuShu, he smiles kindly and waves at Eden, thinking he has quite the admirer.

And it's been with his help that we realized Eden has reached a new milestone.
Yesterday morning as Brandon was walking Eden out to her teacher's car to go to preschool, they walked by US Army ShuShu with his unshelled walnuts rolling around in his hands.

ShuShu said, "ammmph whhhhheeeyey gllllummmm baayyyyy?"

Brandon chuckled, smiled kindly and was about to say, "Sorry...what? Can you repeat that?"

But before he could get that out, Eden responded with, "Yep! Headed to school!" (in Chinese...of course)

It blew Brandon's mind.

With this news we've reluctantly given up having "private conversations" in front of the kids using Chinese with one another. That still works with Salem, but I'm convinced it won't be long before his language surpasses our progress as well. Soon enough they'll be making fun of us in Chinese with us completely clueless as to what they're discussing.

Note to self: learn how to say chonies, pee, and poop in Chinese before Salem...otherwise he will most likely use those words against me.