2nd Christmas in China

                                                                Card by tinyprints

This year's Christmas was much more normal than last year's strange Chinese worker jackhammering out our shower at 8:30 Christmas morning fiasco which lasted all day and inevitably left us opening presents well past Sal's bedtime. This year, we slept a bit later than usual, and all woke together. Nick grabbed his camera and went to the living room so he could capture Sal's reaction to Santa's visit.

I'm not sure he really "gets it" yet. I mean, he went from thinking the Duck Dynasty patriarch was Santa on a CNN news story, to  later seeing a Chinese Santa at  Christmas Eve dinner. Poor kid has got  to be confused. He knows Santa has a beard, and that's about it.

NZ and I have given up gift giving to one another while here  to simplify life ( and to be honest, there is nothing here in China that either of us want), but we did receive many thoughtful gifts from overseas. Sal made out like a bandit, and enjoyed his Mickey ball and Duplos from Santa. He also got his very own clock-the kid has a love for clocks and watches. It's quite funny to see how excited he gets when he spots a clock somewhere. 

We are happy to have survived our second Christmas here in China, and even more excited that we only have one more left before we can go back to our friends and family in California. 

Next on our agenda is getting healthy (Sal and I are both sick this week), then getting through New Years, having my sister arrive, giving birth to our daughter, NZ's birthday and Sal's birthday....all before mid January.

WIC cookie exchange

I keep mentioning WIC in my posts, but rarely remember to take pictures from the events we attend. Last week, WIC hosted a holiday cookie exchange at my friend Heather's apartment. 

The cool thing about having a cookie exchange with an international club, is all the truly traditional cookies and sweets we get to sample. For this years cookie exchange, we had guests from all over the world...America, Spain, Belgium, France, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Canada, United Kingdom and Romania.

                             Some of my international friends  (Photo credit:Heather Ratliff)

Check out the table. It was stocked full of delicious desserts and recipe cards to share.

  (Photo credit: Heather Ratliff)

I made toffee to share, and sure hope nobody broke a tooth on it. It's one of my favorite Christmas treats, but my dentist would probably scold me for eating it. There was apple bread, wedding cookies, peanut butter cookies, no bake oatmeal stacks, brownies, custard, gingerbread and so much more. I was stuffed by the end of the day, but was sure to bring a sampler home for NZ who always happens to miss out on the WIC fun. 

The kids had fun playing together. It has been fun to watch them all grow up, as this time last year they were just babies, and now we are all staring potty training and big kid beds down the barrel. Crazy how fast time flies.

                         

                            Aiden, Sal and Dakota (photo credit: Heather Ratliff)

I had fun too. I love that we have so many events hosted in our complex, so it makes it easy to attend even while massively pregnant.

                             My friend Heather, me & Sal (photo credit: Heather Ratliff)

                                          Happy holidays to all! 

Little Hands Wreath

 

Little Hands make perfect Christmas wreaths.

 

 

All I had to do was get Sal to hold still long enough to do a rough tracing of his hand to be used as a pattern. I cut out 9 little hands, overlapped them and glued them together ( which failed). My glue wasn't strong enough to hold them together, so I ended up stapling them, but if I were in the States I would have just used my glue gun or Aleene's craft glue. I had a left over bow from our Christmas Tree explosion that I topped the wreath with  and hung it from a 3M command hook which seems to be our ONLY option for hanging things here.

 

An easy, cheap way to commemorate baby's first Christmas.

Still on fast forward

I'm going to be real, and honest here.

I thought that once I had a baby, or was at least pregnant again, that I would once again feel the excitement over the Holiday season..

Yet, here I sit, once again, wishing this season would be as easy to fast forward through as commercials during a DVR'd episode of Pan Am.

Totally not what I expected.

I remember after Halloween was over, feeling excited for Thanksgiving, Black Friday deals, Christmas decorating and gift buying.

That was.... until I was put on restriction the first week of November.

No excess activities. One errand a day, max.

Totally threw a wrench in my plans..In my perfect world, I would be done with work as of November 1st, and would have time ( & energy) to visit friends, shop, decorate and really just relax and enjoy having freedom to do whatever I wanted before we learn about sleep deprivation, midnight feedings, and 2 minute showers.

Right now my reality is sleeping in, moving from our bed to the sofa, and deciding what errand I will go on to get some human interaction that day--and fearing that if I overdo anything, our son will be born early. I am back to wanting a fast forward button through the Holidays, just so we get to the day where we get to meet our son, and know that he's here alive and well.

Once he gets here, time can stand still. That'd be alright by me.