Santa and his 2 cute helpers.....

So Tim wanted to bring a little bit of the Christmas spirit to his classmates. He decided to take the girls up to his university dressed in their Santa dresses and pass out a Christmas treat. He only has 60 or so classmates and what better treat then a sugar cookie with frosting and individually made by his wife....(too bad most of them probably were thrown away as they are way too sweet for the average Chinese, one friend commented how sweet they were and so typical of America....oh well if the situation was reversed and they brought me some non sweet Chinese candy it probably wouldn't have gotten eaten either!) Anyways Adayla sang Santa Claus is Coming to Town for everyone and then everyone clapped. His class didn't know they were coming which was a good thing as they probably would have brought home even more stuff. As it was many of his classmates gave the girls a treat if they had one, bananas and lots of dark chocolate. How sweet of them!

The Christmas pics

So we tried our best to get the girls in their Christmas dresses for a pic, they weren't really into it....but we did get one that has them both at least facing the camera and smiling so we can't complain!

A night out in Shanghai

So we took the girls and wondered around the expat area of Shanghai one night. They had lots of Christmas trees and lights for us to look at and make it feel like it was Christmas other than in our home. The air was crisp and fresh (is that possible here?) and the girls enjoyed running and playing around as we walked. Christmas is now over....well for us it is coming tomorrow. My parents will be in tonight and so we slipped everything a few days. Adayla or Tally didn't even notice and it bought me a few more days to tell Adayla that Santa is watching whether she is being good or not!

Escapee

The other morning Tim and I woke up when we heard Tally awake and running around. We asked Adayla, how did Tally get out of her bed? She said, "She climbed over, bonked her head on the way down, then stood up and said WOO!"

So I thought, maybe we can just ignore this and she will forget she is able....hahaha! I put her down for a nap yesterday morning before we went to church and I when I went to wake her up, this is what I found.....

Adayla has said we can put the crib up and save it for the new baby. And that she and Tally can share her big girl bed. We'll see what we come up with!

The Story of Christ's Birth - Chinese version

Adayla's school, which has mostly Chinese kids with a few international students, invited us to watch their Christmas program last week. There was a play, then a few games for the kids, and then a visit from Santa. (Since most of their families don't celebrate Christmas, they asked that we bring a gift for our child, and Santa would hand it out to them.) Tally missed the whole thing as it was during her nap. But Tim and I were able to see and hear this Christmas Story:

Mary and Joseph come to town where there wasn't any room at the Inn. Then out of nowhere a "huai ren" (literally an evil person) showed up looking like a wizard and tried to get Mary before she delivered the new baby. Joseph is able to fend him off. Mary and Joseph disappeared and return with baby Jesus. The huai ren returned and an angel was there to help this time. The kids all joined in telling the huai ren to depart. Finally everyone is okay and baby Jesus is safe.

I guess the Bible version isn't exciting enough and the Chinese feel they were able to significantly improve the story. Maybe they will get the story right next year. The best-selling book in China is the Bible (as reported in Time magazine on December 17, 2007).....www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1695279,00.html

(Note: We saw this play twice, once only for Adayla's class and the other for the entire school program. The pictures were combined to show the best shots!) The rest are of Adayla with Santa and with her present. The confetti all over the floor is from these fireworks that they gave to the parents to celebrate. It said on the back don't use indoors....hmmm.

A quick trip to Hangzhou!!!

Last weekend, we left Tim at home and went to a small town of 6 million or so people. We have some other Olmsted friends there and stayed with them for the weekend. Josie had never been there and it is so different from Shanghai. The first train we could take for Friday evening was the 7:30. I thought that is perfect, it is an hour and fifteen minute train ride, we will arrive just in time to put the kids to bed. But I forgot a few things about traveling around here. We had a pack n play, one stroller, 1 diaper bag, 1 hiking back pack with our clothes, 2 small kids, 1 pregnant lady, and 1 helpful sister. We opted not to take a taxi to the train station. We didn't know how long it would take in traffic (over 1 hour) and Tally gets very grumpy. So we decided to take the metro that has lots of going up escalators, but very few going down ones. Take the DC metro at rush hour and double the amount of people that will cram into one car. Plus don't forget to add that they think mostly think of only themselves and are completely impatient. It doesn't matter that they just came down the escalator and 400 other people are in front of them, they will push to the front of the line and try to get on the train.

So I forgot about all this and not only is it completely crammed, but we have all our junk too. I thought we would never make it! People are cutting us off (even though there isn't any room in front of us, not only to get ahead, but to see what the kids look like and smile at them. I only yelled in English a few times and only rammed/ran over a couple of people with stroller. I may of elbowed a few people too, but I can't quite remember. Anyways just when I thought these people couldn't get any ruder, a few polite ones came out of nowhere, and I had to apologize in my head for wanting to dislike them all. We arrived in time to catch our train and we enjoyed a fun weekend with our friends and seeing Hanzhou.

Strike a Pose

Adayla is my little poser. I have forced Josie to let me take pictures of her while she has vacationed with us, saying she will be thankful for them later. She does many silly different poses. Adayla has picked right up on it and insists that I take at least 3 different pictures of her everytime we stop. These are her favorite poses. The last one by the snowman is one she went and stood by, looked at how he was posing, posed herself, and then was ready for me to snap a shot.

Happy Birthday Adayla!!!!

How can it have been 3 years since this girl joined our family. How we love her! She is so dang smart (could be parent's bias), sweet most of the time, and fiesty the rest of the time. She is the best big sister and really cares about ALL the people around her. She meets you once and will remember who you are and your name for quite some time. She loves to giggle, wear shoes, watch Dora, keep things clean, color, dress up like princesses, give kisses, help her mom in the kitchen, play with her friends, go to nursery, loves her grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles and cousins, do things herself, go to school, and learn anything new. She has her upper and lower case letters mastered and we are working on the sounds. Just don't tell her anything you don't want her to remember, she won't forget it! She likes to sing all sorts of songs with her mom and tries very hard to be a good listener. She is very aware of her surroundings and notices when something changes. She doesn't like naps (though she definitely still needs them) and Chinese food (poor kid). She told me today that she is growing big so that she can carry Tally around. We love to watch her learn and understand new things, though I don't think we are ready for her to grow up, but she is on her way!

What a fun birthday party we had! The night before, we stayed up and made a yummy chocolate cake (right off the back of the Hershey can....highly recommend it! A few minutes longer than a box, but much much tastier!) She had talked all week about having a birthday party and wearing a birthday hat (no idea where she got this from...) I had no idea where to buy birthday hats without spending , so I had to break it to on her birthday there weren't any birthday hats, but at least we had birthday presents! Thankfully she didn't remember too much about candles because I had bought some, but could not find them (a small downside as to having a helper lady). She had put them away and hid them from me. Adayla was all about us singing "Happy Birthday", licking the frosting from her cake, and then of course opening presents. She got some much needed big girl toys: a piano, books, a few play food sets, and a Hello Kitty make-up/jewlery set. Happy Happy Birthday Adayla!!!

Hong Kong - A beautiful city!

After recovering for a day, literally, we were ready to see this city and it was AMAZING! (Quick note: Hong Kong was a British colony for 100 years and was only turned back to the Chinese 10 years ago. So it is a fully "western" city! It is clean, you can drink the water, people wait in line (other than the visiting mainlanders), the medical facilities are up to standard and etc.) We loved it and wondered why couldn't we move to Hong Kong. Oh, because there wouldn't be much immersion going on! Many of the people speak at least some English and English signs are everywhere. I almost missed using my Mandarin. We enjoyed lots of good food, the weather was beautiful, and the scenery couldn't have been better.

Hong Kong is a series of islands. It is very hilly (which almost killed us with the strollers and stairs) and green, which with the water is nearly breath taking! I think there are somewhere around 7 million people there and they all seemed to be out the Saturday night we were there. Blocks upon blocks were people. Just outside shopping, eating, and hanging out. We even ate at Hard Rock Cafe and watched a laser light show done from the big buildings on another island. But I think my most favorite part of Hong Kong was that they like their drinks cold and sweet things! So you could buy slushies on the street made with fresh fruit juice and slurpees at 7-11. Yummy!

We spent a day taking a tram to the top of one of the islands, which gave us some nice views. They had trails to walk around on, we didn't stay for dark, but I can only imagine. Another day we hit the other amusement park called Ocean Park. It has rides, but also a dolphin show and some cool aquariums. Parking with the kiddie rides are on one side of the mountain and then you take a tram up and over the mountain. Again, some amazing views. We wanted to spend a day in Macau (an hour ferry ride to another island that was occupied by the Portugeese for 400 years), but the girls were wiped out and we just didn't get there. I guess we will just have to go back to Hong Kong again!

Its not that I don't like Shanghai, but I fall in love with all the cities we visit. If you ever feel like taking a vacation, come visit us, but stop by Hong Kong on your way home.

Josie with all her friends at night on the streets!

Views from The Peak

Laser Light Show, the lights "dance" to the music!

This one is funny - we actually wanted a hamburger for the girls, but the sign here at McDonald's said that the hamburgers were sold out. What? How is that possible? I asked the cashier for a hamburger, and she said it was sold out. My Big Mac was ok, and she said I could have a cheeseburger. Huh? How 'bout a cheeseburger, but hold the cheese?!

Disneyland in Hong Kong

We spent a week in Hong Kong (another one of those last minute trips), leaving Shanghai the day before Thanksgiving. So we actually spent Thanksgiving at Disneyland in Hong Kong. Josie had talked earlier in the month about needing to go to renew her visa and so we started looking at tickets. We found some great deals and thought lets do it. Josie decided she did not need to go (well until the day before we left) and so she joined us a few days after we arrived.

We arrived to the airport just in time and thought everything was timed just right, but this was one of those times China shut down airspace for 2 hours....so everything was delayed. This happened to be at the same time China denied entrance of a US Navy ship to dock in Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving weekend to R&R. Many of their families had already flown to Hong Kong and were waiting for them by the time they were denied. So, we can't complain over a few hour delay.

We arrived at the Hong Kong Airport and made it through customs and caught a cab to the Disney resort hotel. As we situated ourselves in the taxi (very nice, like the Japanese taxis!), I thought I smelled a stinky Tally, I asked Tim to do a sniff check. He picked the perfect spot, right at the top of her diaper where it happened to be leaking out. He was Timmy Poopy nose, all I could do was giggle! Tim didn't think this was one bit funny, but I was laughing so hard, I couldn't even find the wipees. We got Tally cleaned up and Tim's nose cleaned up by the time we reached the hotel. It was late and time to get to bed so we could wake up the next morning to visit all the princesses!

The kids loved it. Adayla was very into the pretty princesses and Mickey Mouse, she could definitely do with out Goofy. Adayla's favorite ride by far, was driving the cars with Daddy! She laughed and laughed. We watch the Christmas kick off parade, enjoyed the "snow" on mainstreet in shorts, and caught a Lion King show. Tally watched the entire show while dancing with them and Adayla was wiped out, so she took a nap on the floor. A fun way to spend Thanksgiving together.





I have never been to Disneyland or Disneyworld in America, so I have nothing to compare it to. I think Hong Kong China is much smaller and the rides are mainly geared towards small children. I do bet that Disneyland in America doesn't have thousands of Chinese sharing their experience with you. The Chinese LOVE Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, and anything related to Disney. We are not necessarily talking about the kids, either. Many of the folks there were without kids, ranging from college age young adults with their friends to couples to married without kids to tour groups of older people. Tim would not let me make fun of them as Disney was not part of their childhood, so they relax and enjoy it now. I still laugh at the 40 year old man happily posing with Belle (and the guy posing with Minnie too!)


We nearly closed down the park and then went to get our luggage to move to a different hotel in Hong Kong. We arrived later than we had planned and checked in about 10pm. Our kids were wiped out and so were we. We were the only ones waiting for the elevator (2 grumpy kids, a pack n play, 2 strollers, and a suitcase). We waited for at least a few minutes and finally one opened up! The 6 Chinese old men that had showed up after us ran in as fast as they could. This was after a day at Disneyland where the same type of things happened and we were tired of it! Tim couldn't hold it in, he stood in front of the doors and let them have it in Chinese. They are retarded and didn't get it and he continued to stand there (it wasn't Tim's Chinese either, many of them just are only focused on themselves!) Thankfully for them a hotel staff stepped and made us move to the other elevator, I think Tim was content standing there as long as needed. It is our most frustrating thing about China, you have to be here to experience it. But it is going to make me crazy and I don't let them run over me anymore. I will quit talking about it or I am going to get mad again.....I should just get used to it, it is still going to be my life for quite awhile.....

Tally's Nap Time

So here we are at our fellow Olmsteder's house and we set up the pack n play for Tally to take a nap in the office. (He was very gracious as he is a bachelor and we showed up with our two kids!) This had worked well before and she took a good nap. She woke up really early this day and I thought we could put her down for an hour before we headed out. She didn't fuss and so we thought she had gone to sleep. Then about 1/2 hour later we hear her talking and so I thought I would give her a few more minutes. Another 15 minutes go by and she is silent and then again she is talking. This is very unlike Tally as she usually loves to sleep! She will either talk and talk or just fall asleep, well this time she was apparently distracted by the orange highlighter she had somehow found in the desk drawer. She had an orange face, marks all over her blanket, and orange on her jeans and shirt. Buster! She was happy as could be when we found her!