A Christmas Blog

This year was our second Christmas in China. It was similar in many ways to last year, but naturally quite a bit different as well with Eden here.

We had a big party with some friends the friday before Christmas. We sang songs, decorated sugar cookies, & read the Christmas story. They loved it! Especially decorating cookies!

Then on Christmas Eve our good friend William spent the evening with us. It was his first time to see Eden. He is one of the few Chinese locals that Eden has smiled at!


Then Christmas day we spent just the three of us hanging out at home. It was wonderful to spend our first Christmas with Eden with just the three of us. I think maybe she knew it was Christmas day because she woke up at 6:30 a.m. (which thankfully is unusual for her) like all little kids do on Christmas morning. But poor kiddo didn't have anything to unwrap because we can't resist opening packages from America when they arrive!
But here's Brandon showing off his gift from me and Eden.

We spent the day relaxing in our pajamas...

There's a lot that is different about spending Christmas in China. We didn't have the usual "hustle and bustle" of getting to 4 different Christmas dinners in one day. We didn't have the arguing of who's family gets Christmas day and who's gets Christmas Eve. We didn't have any stocking stuffers or an evening by the fire.
But still, there was a lot that was the same. I made a ghetto version of my Aunt Susie's dressing, (only had so many packages of corn bread...who knew Ritz crackers could be substitued for so many things!) and Aunt Terri's bacon wrapped green beans, and Granny's buttery mashed potatoes. (we all know food helps it feel a little more like Christmas!)
But the main thing that is so great about spending Christmas in China is the reminder that it isn't about all those other things. Because they don't celebrate the holiday, there's little to distract from the true meaning of Christmas.
At about 10 a.m. on Christmas day a man from the power company showed up at our door telling us we needed to go pay our electricity.
Brandon: "Today?"
Man from the Power Company: "Yes. Today. Or we'll shut it off."
Brandon: "I'm not going today. It's Christmas day."
MFTPC: "Really?!"
Brandon: "Yes. I'll come tomorrow."
MFTPC: "Ok. Come tomorrow...and Merry Christmas!"

Businesses are open on Christmas day. Kids go to school. William attended 8 hours of class. Things go on as usual. But we hope someday the people of Silk City celebrate Christmas, but not because Santa Claus is coming to town...but for the real reason of Christmas. And they'll celebrate as they go to class, to work, to school or wherever they go. It'll be different from the way we do it, but no less special...and maybe even more so.

Silent Night

The Making of a Christmas Photo

I should have known that taking on a 2 and a half month old and limited sunlight coming in through my bedroom window was too much for me to handle. But I had to try...here's the process of trying to get a good Christmas Photo of Eden.
Our first attempt:

But as you can see, the hat was a bit too big and she was showing too much of her belly to be "ladylike."
So we resized the hat. And here she is trying it on before we attempted the 10 minute process of putting the tights on her.


So then it was go time...

And sneeze time...

and tired time...

And move so fast the pictures look blurry time...

Then de-hat time... At which point, she decided smiling was no longer necessary.


Next day...New outfit.

And then she was only interested in chewing on her hand.


We got some pretty cute ones, but we'll have to wait to post those until after grandparents open their Christmas presents!
And here's our best family one for this year:

Dr. Whut?!

Brandon spent the last four days in a nearby city with an insanely awesome import store. We love this place...and the lady there LOVES us! We blow way too much cash each time we visit that store...which is really only about once every couple months. (that's how we justify it!) :)
Anyways...since Brandon went to said city by himself he also got to visit the import store by himself. HUGE mistake on my part. Self-control is one of those virtues he exhibits very little of when entering a grocery store containing brands like Betty Crocker, Kelloggs, General Mills, and of course (and the point of this post) the world's best soft drink.



Take a gander at the number on the right hand corner of the box. Yes. Count em folks. 36.
36 Dr. Peppers.
36 Cans of Goodness.
36 Mouth watering carbonated beverages.
If he'd brought home 36 of anything else I'd have been crazy upset. But his lack of self-control when it comes to Dr. Pepper is something I appreciate. I have no qualms with clearing out shelf space for 36 cans of that good ole Plano, TX creation.
We have every intention of rationing them as well. We have to spread out our indulgences a little. So I'll add it up for you.
If we only drink them on special occasions, hard days, celebrations, holidays, "I hate this language" days, and of course Sundays, then they should last us until about mid-January. And that's not including those days where we just see it on the shelf and can't resist. ehh...maybe end of December is more like it!
hmmmm speaking of...I think I'm a little parched...

Achievements, Annoyances, & The Cutest Hat Ever

Eden has figured out how to prop herself up on her arms now when she's on her belly! And she's so proud of herself when she does it. This past wednesday she was no where close to even doing it...I thought. She would just lay there all relaxed and bored with belly time. And then Thursday we rolled her over on her belly and WahLah! She figured it out. She's brilliant I tell ya.
So that's the achievement for the week.

Here's the annoyance segment of the post:
Lately when we take Eden out to go shopping people always stop and ask me how old she is. So I tell them she's two months old. Their reply: "No. No. She's at least 4 months."
What do I say to that? I don't know. But here's what I'm tempted to say:
"Oh shoot. You know what? You're right. I must have gotten that day where I labored for 17 hours straight in the worst pain of my life and pushed a child out of my body confused with another day."
But alas. I don't know how to say all of that in Chinese. Which is probably good. Cuz then I'd probably say it.

And Ladies and Gentlemen.....let the suspense build........
Presenting Eden and The Cutest Hat Ever!



She was so proud of herself sitting in the big chair and modeling her new outfit. Thanks to the A6-Pack for outfitting our little girl with some adorable stuff!


And then she slept.... And no, we didn't leave her there hanging off of the chair to sleep. I took her out of the carrier and she was still so exhausted she just chilled wherever I put her. So I did what any mother would do. Took a picture.

What do your eyes say?

Throughout history people have been known to go to drastic measures in order to become more beautiful. Not too long ago Asian women practiced foot binding. They believed smaller feet (and on occasion, broken toes) were more beautiful than regularly sized feet. And almost equally as disturbing, western women wore corsets to form odd looking waists and ridiculously overflowing busts. All over the world people do odd things to themselves because they think it makes them beautiful.
Stretch their neck out with rings.
File their teeth into points.
Put holes in their nose and put a ring in it.
Asian women put a bleaching solution in cosmetics to make their skin "milky white."
Western women go to the equivalent of a life-size George Foreman grill to achieve the "bronze glow." (or sometimes just orange)
People are always looking for ways to become more beautiful.

Last week our househelper came over wearing unusually large glasses. Upon closer look, I discovered she had stitches on both of her eyelids. She had surgery on her eyelids to get the "double eyelid" look. This a fairly new obsession among Asians. They turn their "single eyelid" into a double eyelid because apparently it is more beautiful (and also just more western...which in the end is the goal for them, I think) It looks like this:

Left - single eyelid Right - double eyelid

Asians are turning their perfectly beautiful eyes into eyes with an extra wrinkle above them.
It broke my heart to see Zhang with stitches on her eyes. She said, "It hurts to blink, but soon I will be beautiful." She already is beautiful. Incredibly beautiful.
And I thought to myself the rest of the day...When Zhang looks at me, does she see my double eyelid and eerily white skin and desire that? Or does she see my heart and see the difference He has made in my life and want to be part of that?

Because folks, if all they see is our double eyelid...we've got a long ways to go.

2 Months!

Eden turned 2 months old yesterday! We celebrated this week just by doing the usual.

sleeping...

bathing...

exercising...

playing...

The sound on that video isn't your speakers shorting out. That's the elephant's ear under Eden's arm. We think it has a cheeto's wrapper in it. :)

relaxing...

And then we did something special! Decorated for her first Christmas...