Christmas 2012

Our Yankee Swap/White Elephant from last night was nice, but it definitely would have been better with more people (we have only five). To keep Matthew occupied while we swapped, he was allowed to open one of his gifts - a Tatty Teddy Bear. It's not really, er... intriguing, him, but, hopefully, it will later. The gifts: a cozy blanket contributed by Jenna, a notebook and elephant key chain contributed by me (Abby), a dragon key chain contributed by Emma, a big tea mug contributed by Mom (Cheryl), and a wooden FAITH stand and decorative plate contributed by Baba (Rick).

We have just finished our third Christmas here in China.

WHO GOT WHAT?
The blanket went to me.
The notebook/elephant key chain went to Emma.
The dragon key chain went to Mom.
The big tea mug went to Baba.
The wooden FAITH stand/decorative plate went to Jenna.

Christmas morning was superb. Perhaps the best of the three we've had. There weren't too many gifts, nor too little - just enough for everyone. :)

Unfortunately, there was no white Christmas. :/ It snowed two day before, a little frigid on the 24th, but the 25th actually had a rather pleasant forecast. I, myself, am happy about that. White Christmases are far too cold. (<-- That makes me sound like a weirdo)

We had Jenna's friend and previous roommate (Lily) come out with us for dinner at Grandma's Kitchen, a cozy restaurant at a mall in Qu Jiang.

On our return home, we went our separate ways, and the family played Apples to Apples (a Christmas gift to me!).

And, on December 26, the parents are going to Shanghai to get fingerprinted for Matthew's adoption. Hooray! One step closer to making our little buddy a Lindner!!

May your Christmas be merry. :)

And, I quote Charles Dickens' dear Tiny Tim here, "God bless us, everyone."

December

Remember when we said we were bad at updating blog?
Well, here's your proof. Our last post was three months ago.
Oh well, what can you do about it?

Once upon a time, we were fostering a little girl to prepare her for her family. Good news, she went off at the end of November (see the things we miss out on saying when we don't update this thing?).

Matthew is in the stage of toddler-hood where he imitates everything you say so it sounds like he's mocking each word. WORDS SO FAR: table, sit, ball, doggie, all our names, numbers 1 through 10 in English AND Chinese, letters A through D (maybe even E), cookie, bike, walk, car, truck, Barney (that annoying television show), Spongebob, Chuck (the dump truck), pop, door, and key.
Not bad, Matthew, not bad at all.

Mother is concocting some new events for Christmas she's hoping will become traditions. For example, opening of presents Christmas Eve night and opening of stocking Christmas morning. This year, we're doing a little game called Yankee Swap (or White Elephant, as Jenna calls it). Each participant (all family members excluding Matthew) must purchase gift[s] that total 30 yuan or over. Christmas Eve or some time around they're be swapped from person to person. In the end, each participant will have someone's gift - sometimes even their own.

I'm not crazy about opening gifts Christmas Eve, but I've no problem with Yankee Swap/White Elephant. So far, I've only spent 17 yuan so far and I haven't a clue what to do with the remaining 13+ yuan.

The Christmas tree went up the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Ornaments are red and white/silver, there are sparkly snowflakes, toy snowmen with hat and scarves, and a star adorning the top, covered in red and gold tinsel to make it noticeable. Oh, and Jenna's homemade gift ribbons are there, too. Couldn't find any here, so she found a way to make them out of magazine paper.

Apart from the tree, not much hints it's Christmastime except for a moose holding hearts on our bookcase and rubber decorations on the whiteboard next to it. And that's fine [for the time being]. We'll probably cut snowflakes sometime, and that may help.

No snow yet, although the weather forecast foretells such weather. I'd been fine without it, but everyone else wants some. It's just been cold with thick pollution (or fog or something). Yippee.

~ Abby

The Very Beginning - August 2010

At the present date, we've been in Xi'an, China, for a little over two years, and, frankly, we don't want you to jump into something you have no idea about. So, we'll start at the very beginning now.

Reason for coming to China: To study a new culture and learn the language.


We got to LAX  on Wednesday (August 4th) at 7pm for a midnight flight to ensure that all of our twelve suitcases got cleared to board the plane. It took a lot of artsy rearranging from luggage to luggage at check-in so that we could avoid weight penalties. Pretty successful, minus one (rather hefty) fee on one piece of luggage.

The next challenge: a fourteen hour flight to Guangzhou. Rick, Cheryl, Abby, and Emma all got one row, but Jenna had to sit two rows behind with a group of teenage boys. Cheryl immediately felt claustrophobic due to the poor spacing of the seats  in the economy class. Luckily, she was to sleep on this long flight with some "help". Jenna took her "sleep-helper" and slept eight and a half hours straight, followed by two power naps ranging from 30-40 minutes. The girls received maybe five hours of sleep, but, to everyone's joy, were not cranky at all. Rick was just Rick - can sleep wherever.

All of us ordered lactose-free meals for the flights. Four of the five of us got a vegetarian meal and Abby received a low-sodium meal . We were all very grateful to get the vegetarian meals, because none of us were really feeling like having the curry-flavored mystery meal.

We arrived at Guangzhou Friday at 6am local time, Thursday at 3pm Californian time. (Side note: China is fifteen hours ahead of CA, not twelve, like we thought.) We had a three hour layover where we filled up on Goldfish crackers and Luna bars, and threw a few "would you rathers?" back and forth.

The flight from Guangzhou to Xi'an was a breeze. Our seats were all scattered but the flight attendant had people move so Cheryl and the two girls could sit together. Rick was about three rows away from them, and Jenna was assigned to the back of the plain - typical. The food was great, or maybe we were just all really hungry. Again, Jenna slept for the majority of the two hour flight.

Our welcome to the Xi'an airport was a swarm of Chinese people pushing and shoving. It was scorching hot.  Jenna and Rick were put on luggage duty, and Cheryl was in charge of guarding the laptops. The girls were told to just look pretty and not to get lost.

Some friends met up with us who had a tour bus, waiting to bring us to our apartment. yes, a tour bus, where there were about seven seats left after loading in our luggage.


We were expecting to have to go searching for our own apartment, but were pleasantly surprised to find that our friends in China were allowing us to stay in their fully-furnished apartment on the fifth floor with a view of two old-looking houses across the way. Said friends were also preparing us a home-cooked meal - an authentic Chinese soup.

Then, jet lag, ah, beautiful jet lag, settled in. Rick, Cheryl, and Jenna all took showers, then crashed on their beds.
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There, now, reader, you are prepared to start on our journey with us, as it lies presently.