Neither store is quite like you think, but we found a few nice things like Andes Mints and Toblerone chocolates for Schäfer’s teachers. We found some bathtub toys and a squeaky ball for Selah at Walmart.

These are not the gifts I want to give Selah, but they are the gifts that I was able to find.

If we lived in America, she would have a much different Christmas.

But we don’t.

So she doesn’t.

And I know Christmas isn’t about gifts, but it is nice to give your child a toy that is certified lead free.

feel a bit anxious about everything we still have to get done… the wrapping! the hosting! the cooking! the delivering! (neighborhood gifts – not babies), but Hubs isn’t worried or stressed in the least. I don’t know how he does it – taking everything in stride.

I only snapped one photo today since all the camera batteries were charging.

My blessings watching… A Charlie Brown Christmas!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my Dad’s birthday and I wanted to call, but it’s still yesterday in America so I’ll wait until tomorrow.

(If you couldn’t follow that sentence, don’t worry. It makes perfect sense to me.)

I woke up this morning still in my Christmas funk.

I have no clue why because there is NOTHING on the calendar for today so I’m hoping to recover from past parties and reserve some energy for future parties.

Have I mentioned that Selah has NOTHING for Christmas? This doesn’t bother Hubs at all. He keeps saying, “She’s a baby. She won’t know. It’s fine.” But it’s not fine. Her brother will know and he will call it an injustice.

I know. It bothers me. It’s like the time I packed for her birth. I had the entire suitcase packed – including a small Christmas tree when lo and behold I remembered that I hadn’t packed anything for the baby.

Bless my heart.

Bless hers too.

I now regret not getting anything for her in Ikea when we were on Schäfer’s passport run. All those toys! And plush stuffed animals. Why could I not make a decision?

Anyway. Selah has nothing right now and it’s too late to order off taobao.com.

I kept thinking I would find a gift on taobao, but by the time I got the kids to bed the last thing I wanted to do was dig around on taobao for toys.

So it looks like a trip to China Walmart is in order. (I think I’m going to call it China Walmart from now on because it’s not really like Walmart in America.)

After I got Selah down for her morning nap, I found Sianna in the laundry room talking to Ayi. Ayi would hold up a shirt and ask Sianna, “Whose is this?” Sianna would then reply, “Big brother” or “Little sister”, etc.

When I picked up Schäfer from preschool, I had my camera ready. When he opened the door, this is the face I saw. Priceless. He has such zeal.

This afternoon, the kids watched Charlie Brown again.

Then we all went to Miss Jen’s for lamb sandwiches and Charlie Brown… again! The kids love it.

Then, we went to see the big tree near Miss Jen’s house. This is as close as we get to “driving around and looking at all the lights”.

When Schäfer came home from preschool, all he wanted to do was read Curious George. I’m seriously considering recording my own audio book so he can listen to the stories over and over again. Mommy’s getting a little tired of that monkey.

Hubs and Schäfer returned to the kindergarten at 2:15. I stayed home with Sianna and Selah because it was NOT worth waking Sianna from her nap. Selah just wanted to sit and nurse. I was sad to miss out, but if i took the girls I wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.

The kindergarten was having a Christmas assembly. First, they lined up. Then, there was a parade of classes.

Finally, Hubs was asked to explain the meaning of Christmas to the students. He used several symbols many which they could see around town (stars, Christmas presents, Santa Claus) to let them know that Christmas Day is a birthday celebration.

The students did good…for about two minutes. They then started getting restless.

So hubs brought his 4 minute speech to a close and the real entertainment came out. Santa Claus…dancing to hip hop music.

The students then returned to their respective classrooms to have craft time. Schäfer’s class made.. well, I’m not sure what they made. They just drew figures on foam board, and cut them out and colored them. Schäfer lost interest after awhile and made a nativity scene instead.

Schäfer took this photo of Hubs. I love his viewpoint.

When Sianna woke from her nap, she had milk and cookies for a snack. My kids are about 7 cookies away from turning into a sugar cookie!

Schäfer has been enjoying this balloon. I’m amazed that he’s played with it for three days in a row. It has helped him get some energy out.

Tonight, was a very special night for our family. We made eggnog and watched Rick Steve’s European Christmas. I cannot express how much Hubs loves eggnog + traveling through Europe.

See his delight?

Eggnog is so incredibly good and rich. I can’t believe this is my 5th year to make nog from scratch.

Sorry Selah, no eggnog for you this year.

I officially began a little Christmas funk today. It must only be natural to want to be home with family. Blog reading has been a little difficult for me since so many friends are returning home and posting wonderful photos of their kids with their grandparents.

Schäfer has met his grandparents twice.

Sianna once.

Selah has never met any of her grandparents and she’s about to turn one!

I talked to Hubs about it. Of course, my feelings were normal, but the reality of our situation is that both of our parents are divorced making 4 sets of grandparents who live in 3 different states. So even if we were in America, 3 out of 4 grandparents would be disappointed that we were not spending Christmas Day with them.

Blah. The Christmas funk.

I’ve also been feeling a little sad that we can’t get Schäfer a certain fire truck that would endure the test of time. We know he needs a Tonka firetruck because anything else will break within a week. I’m only mentioning this fire truck thing now because we have a certain grandparent who would go buy it and pay the $60 USD in shipping to airmail it to China – but we just can’t justify that.

Hubs found a generic firetruck on taobao.com. Most of the toys that we buy in China don’t last a week, so all we can do it hope this firetruck will stay together.

Even though I greatly miss my family, I am thankful to be here.
Today was a good and very festive day.

Our beverage is almost like a spiced cider made from Granny Smith apples.

We call it Chinese Cider because the main ingredient is:

Apple Vinegar Juice

Yep.

INGREDIENTS
1 2L bottle of Apple Vinegar Juice
8 whole cloves
5 cinnamon sticks

DIRECTIONS
1. Put everything in the crock pot so that your home begins to smell like Christmas.
2. Add 1 liter of water to kill the overly sugary taste.
3. Serve warm.

Don’t be surprised when your guests beg for more!

I love this age.

Schäfer and Sianna both are obsessed with these “watches” that Hubs makes for them. They drive me crazy because Schäfer doesn’t want his 3 layers of shirts + polar tec + down coat to cover it up. The preschool doesn’t have heating so he has to keep those layers on!

Today was an average Monday.

After breakfast, the girls took a bath.

By the time they were ready, I had to leave to go get Schäfer from preschool.

I got a couple of packages mailed. We called an express service to come to our house to get the packages. It was all very strange because the man did not bring his scale nor was he inclined to go get his scale. He guessed the weight of each box. He said the price and I bartered him down. Truly, this is a sign that I have lived in China for too long.

We received another box of butter. I’ve been going through the butter making all that cookie dough. By the way, each 200g stick is only 180g. This is China. That’s just how it is.

When I bake and something asks for a 1 1/2 cups, I measure it out on a scale since my stick isn’t 1 cups worth. It was Hubs who realized that these sticks of butter are not what the packaging says.

This afternoon, I decided to make a wreath.

Selah got fussy so Hubs took over and made a better wreath that I could have.

I love my girls in their “puff puffs”.

So thankful that Sianna likes to do crafts.

If that’s not festive, I don’t know what is! Sometimes I don’t know what I’d do without my random collection of construction paper.

Hubs has decided to become a Milk Tea Master. Right now, he’s perfecting Hong Kong style milk tea. YUM.

Tonight, we got all festive and made hot chocolate, popped popcorn and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas special.

Well, Hubs and the kids watched it. I fed Selah and put her to bed on time. Anything to avoid a meltdown.

Now, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Tonight, I started editing photos. Ugh. We’ve got a lot. and I’m behind so it’s not all that fun. I love seeing the photos, but the deleting, adjusting, editing, captioning and uploading takes some time.

After 48 hours of rest, we’re back to Christmas parties tomorrow!

After snack time, I gave Schäfer a coloring book to entertain him while we had a meeting. I wasn’t sure if he would be interested in it since he doesn’t like to color, but he worked all of the mazes and the “which one is different?” pages. Maybe next year he will be interested in the coloring pages.

Around noon, Hubs and Schäfer attended a wedding. Of course, we were all suppose to go, but the girls were in need of naps.

When Hubs and Schäfer returned, Hubs said we made a wise decision because the restaurant was very smoky.

This afternoon, the kids colored paper that I’m going to use for wrapping paper. I bought a roll of paper the last time we were at Ikea. This worked OK for wrapping paper, but it was more heavy duty than I would have liked. Next year, I’m going to buy a local paper that I can get in large sheets.

I wanted to roast a chicken on my birthday, but by the time I got started cooking supper, there wasn’t enough time. So we roasted a chicken today and enjoyed leftover birthday cake.

Hubs decided to let Selah go for a spin in the Tonka truck. It’s the closest thing we’ve got to a sleigh ride.

“Mommy, are you sure about this?”

Hubs and Schäfer pushed Selah back and forth.

She loved it. And so did her little hedgehog.

“Not too fast big brother!”

“Here we go!”

Weeeee!

While the Tonka game continued, Sianna helped me decorate Christmas presents with stickers.
(This cupcake sweater is her favorite thing to wear.)

There nothing quite like sitting by a warm… oven.

After the kids were sound asleep, we watched The Help since we had to stay up until midnight to do a skype call.

Of course, Selah woke for a midnight snack so I was only involved in the call for a minute or two.

He put Selah in bed with me for her morning beverage of choice. I can’t believe a year ago she was in my tummy.

The party showed up early at 8:55am. Here we go again. (Gotta love people who are free in the morning!)

Our extrovert, Schäfer, has a lot of fun at these parties. I’m not sure if the guests enjoy hauling him around, but he loves it!

Schäfer negotiated he and Sianna split one candy cane instead of eating any cookies. These candy canes have been a big hit.

The kids are worn out. After a quick spaghetti lunch, I put everyone down for a much needed nap.

I laid down with Selah thinking I would take a nap too. It took Selah for.ev.er to fall asleep. I laid there for a moment and though, “Well, I guess I’m not tired. I think I’ll get up.” At some point between having that thought and getting out of bed, I fell asleep and got in a good 2 hours of much needed rest.

Once everyone was awake and changed and stopped SCREAMING, I asked Schäfer to watch Selah so I could take a shower. Just to make sure he stayed focused and played with Selah in the living room with her baby toys, I offered 2 Thomas youtube episodes as a reward.

Please know that our house is extremely baby proofed and I’ve never asked Schäfer to watch Selah before, but today is my birthday and really the only thing I wanted was a quick shower.

When I turned on the hair dryer, I blew a fuse so I got dresses and went to fix it.

While the kids watched Thomas, I started my birthday cake. Of course, I quickly had little helpers.

I compared the Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe to the Deep Dark Chocolate Cake recipe and learned that they are exactly the same except for the type of Chocolate you put in. Thank goodness I have that solved.

Hubs was out all afternoon. He came home from the market with a chicken that I wanted to put in the oven rotisserie, but when I looked at the clock, I knew I’d better make it something simple  – especially since I had just put the cake in the oven.

Spaghetti again.

Then, we sang the birthday song and blew the candles into another year.

love my little ones.

For my birthday, this year, I wanted to curl up on the couch and watch home movies. Sianna snuggled right beside me. Selah walked all around the room. Schäfer snuggled on the other side of me.

What’s great right now:
Hubs
the kids
our home. plumbing that works. boxes are unpacked.
Thailand in less than a month.

What’s hard right now:
my weight
Selah hasn’t met her grandparents
feeling tired/stressed

Happy Birthday to me! The past year has been amazing. Hubs is the most amazing Husband and my best friend. This season with little ones is hard work, but such a blessing to experience so many firsts.

Meanwhile, Sianna never moved. When she finally turned over, she moaned and remained groggy until I delivered her to the breakfast table.

After breakfast, Sianna put on her outfit and said, “I like it.” Then, Sianna handed me her hairbow bag and said “I want Christmas tree.”

I love all of her expressions! (Thank you Aunt Gloria for the shirt!)

Since I had two Christmas tree hairbows, I thought I’d try to get a photo of the girls together.

Maybe next year!

Today we hosted 3 Christmas parties. We thought we had three parties today, but then Hubs thought he was mistaken, since our first batch of guests showed up an hour late.

Hubs thought that he must’ve scheduled them for next Friday instead. Just as we were about to head out the door to go for a walk, our guests arrived. So let the parties begin!

Just as soon as we have the furniture arranged for the party, Selah makes a mad dash to the Christmas tree.

The Cookie Factory is open for business!
Party #1

I have been especially thankful for my larger oven with a double rack. The bottom rack bakes the bottom, the top rack bakes the top – after a little switch around we’ve got twice as many cookies as ever before!

I always limit the kids cookie intake before the party begins. But as you can see, the kids are ready for cookies just as soon as they come out of the oven.

Little cutie!

These cookie cutters get a lot of attention during the Christmas season!
Party #2

Love using symbols to explain Christmas.

After party #2, Schäfer kept watching one of our Christmas movies.

Love seeing him and Raffe snuggled under a blanket.

During party #2, someone asked Schäfer Raffe’s name. Instead of calling him “giraffe” in Chinese, Schäfer gave Raffe a Chinese name: Zhang Jing Lu (张颈鹿), which is a play on the Chinese word for giraffe: Chang Jing Lu (长颈鹿). Zhang is one of the most common Chinese surnames. I don’t know if Schäfer intended for it to be this, but if so it was very clever!

Party #3 began in the evening.

Evening parties are always the most fun.

Evening parties can also create new spaces for feeding supper to my littlest ones.

At this point, we were tired of sugar cookies so we also made some gingerbread dough. Gingerbread is our family favorite, but after a nation-wide taste test (by a couple of dozen people in our living room) sugar cookies were the preferred cookie of young, Chinese urbanites.

Selah’s first cookie. (My gingerbread recipe is egg free.)

Yep, she loved it!

More please!

During party #3, Schäfer and Sianna asked if they could split a candy cane instead of eating 3 cookies. I agreed because the kids have been doing their best.

Christmas parties are not difficult. They are easy, but keeping three kids in line, while directing the cookie making, powerpoint projecting, white elephant swapping, picture taking and carol singing can be a challenge.

For the most part the kids were well behaved. There was a bit of drama when Schäfer definitely understands the gift exchange game, but that doesn’t slow his disappointment when he opens a picture frame instead of a firetruck.

We’ve added another element into our parties: home movies. We learned that our guests love seeing movies of snowy North Idaho.

Whew. Three parties. Good times, but now we’re ready for sleep.

I moved the sectionals back around the tree. This is how our tree normally looks.

Whew. Selah keeps me on my toes.

She is into everything.

And she’s very quick.

Schäfer loves to “read” by the tree.

It’s amazing to me that he can’t read yet, but he loves to look at books.

We had our first Christmas party today.

It felt very relaxed and didn’t seem like much of the hoopla that they use to take. (I remember cooking for 30+ people.)

Well, first of all, I had Ayi’s help this morning so the house was ready for guests.

Second of all, Hubs has refused to let me cook anything. My main goal during the party is KID MAINTENANCE.

Our party went relatively well.

It generally goes like this:

Welcome!
Bake cookies together.
Understand Christmas.
Eat cookies.
Drink Chinese wassel. (my creation)
Photos by the tree.
Eat cookies.
More Chinese wassel.
Gift exchange.
Sing carols.

The gift exchange is a simple game of pick a number then steal a gift or open a new gift.

This year, we started the gift exchange game after years and years of receiving too many hostess gifts. In Asia, if you are going to someone’s home, it is custom to bring a gift.

We decided that having the gift exchange game allowed people to come with a gift and leave with a gift. (We do tell everyone before hand to bring a 10rmb ($1.58) gift to be used in a game.)

Unfortunately, our four-year-old had a major meltdown during the gift game because he was expecting a pretty high value, much anticipated, much wanted gift… like a space shuttle! or a fire truck!

He ended up with a pair of his/her key chains.

Bless his heart.

He finally regained his self control and joined us for a few carols. Well, I mean he came and sat in my lap during the carols.

Thankfully, we had a playdate tonight which made everything better or at least it made him forget about the gift drama from earlier.

Selah is experiencing some holiday grouchies. She’s been skipping her morning nap and taking a short afternoon nap (45 minutes – 1.5 hours depending on the day – when she needs a solid 3 hours of sleep).

Thus, we’ve been enjoying a TOTAL MELTDOWN by 6:30pm. It’s not pretty – especially when I’m hosting a friend. This makes Hubs (who has no milk whatsoever) go help Selah settle down while I eat supper with my friend.

Otherwise, Hubs is left at the table with a woman who is not me.
According to Hubs, it’s STRANGE.

Early this morning, I found the kids in their room reading a book by the heater.

Sianna helped me stir granola.

Selah skipped her morning nap and barely made it through lunch.

I was nervous to ask Ayi to work 2 hours on Friday and 2 hours on Saturday, but she agreed with a small wince on her face. I told her it was because we had so many Christmas parties. I really need her help! There’s no way I can get the house ready with three kids.

This morning, the girls played with toys in the office while I did some e-mail. At some point, Sianna slipped out of the office. I walked into the living room and found her standing there with 3 5×7 photos wadded in her hands. Somebody wanted attention – even negative attention is attention. So I stopped doing e-mail!

Schäfer said he wanted to write “Merry Christmas”

I had him write it on a 5×7 piece of paper so I could frame it. I can’t wait to compare it to his handwriting next year.

Time to paint!

Sianna loves to paint, but if I don’t watch her closely, she’ll toss the brush and dump the watercolors straight on the paper.

Schäfer painted a picture of a Christmas tree that I’ll probably keep forever. I immediately hung it in our new gallery.

The kids cared nothing about making moose (aka reindeer) with their hands and feet. Sianna’s lip tuck and pucker shows her lack of interest in any more crafts.

I traced them anyway and will probably put the craft together. When they are older I know they will enjoy seeing their little hands.

I also traced each of the kids feet. Selah and Sianna are currently wearing the same shoe size.

We went outside for about an hour today.

The sky was gray and it started raining, but there was enough time for Schäfer to ride an elephant.

This evening, we had leftovers for supper.

Hubs made Schäfer a jet pack.

I tried to take a better picture, but it’s hard to stand still when you’re traveling at warp speed.

Selah started her meltdown at 6:15. I took her to get ready for bed while Hubs read to the kids and got them ready for bed.

When it’s sleeptime, Sianna and Schäfer PLAY. It was 8:30pm and they were still laughing and being loud. Schäfer said he invited Sianna to sleep in his bunk (they love to host slumber parties) but she wouldn’t come up. I told him that Sianna could sleep in the top bunk when she’s 4. She sleeps a little too wild to put her up there right now.

Once the kids were settled, Hubs and I did a little Christmas shopping on taobao.com.

We did find a Cranky the Crane that Schäfer has wanted for well over a year. There was only one on taobao and it was half the price as the real deal on amazon so we ordered it and hope it’s in good condition.

We also found a pink backpack for a certain someone. I’m still looking for hairbows to go in Sianna’s stocking.

Selah’s Christmas and birthday remain a mystery. I’m looking for some toys that are wooden that will stand the test of time, but have yet to find exactly what I want.

I do love shopping from the convenience of my own slightly heated living room.

Tomorrow, the Christmas parties start. Tonight, I feel the calm before the crazy.