Tis the Season!

Ok, sososososooooo late again. :/
I wanted to get this blog out at least a week ago before all the family came and, again, I failed. It has been so busy with Thanksgiving, friends moving away, all of Soph's end of term stuff and I participated in a mom to mom sale and then getting the house ready for visitors...ugh.

When I left off we were about to celebrate Thanksgiving and Ben's birthday.
Ben discovered he had a few extra days of vacation recently so he decided to take his birthday off and the 2 of us hung out for the day while the kids were at school. We worked out, played tennis and went for lunch, got a shoulder massage...a very relaxing and fun day!
After bailing on the idea of cooking due to cost, I coaxed several of my foreign friends to join us for a buffet at the Shanghai Racquet Club that night. So, my English and Aussie friends celebrated their first Thanksgiving! It was not as homey as celebrating in someone's house, but still was a good time.
Since it was also Ben's birthday that day, some of his guy friends from work came and the men hung out for a few beers after to celebrate.

Here's Ben opening a few presents on his birthday morning-

Around that time Soph had a random day off of school so we had a mommy and me day. :) We started the day with a haircut...

then went for "coffee" (mocha and a muffin for me- babycinno and cupcake for her!)...

then we went swimming (no pics, sorry), followed by lunch and then we had our nails done! A really fun and packed day of fun for her and me. :)

Somewhere in there we also had a night out with friends for dinner and a comedy club. We've been trying to pack a bunch of stuff in bc our dear friends, Edmee and Theo, are moving back to the Netherlands Dec 17th forever and we're in denial!! :(

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is the traditional day to get our Christmas tree and we thought, why should living in China change the tradition?? So, off we went to the Flower Market to find a tree. No, we couldn't cut one down this year, but we were still hoping for a real tree.
After finding the real trees we realized the tradition might have to change for a year. :) The real trees were in these huge pots and had very few branches, looked mostly dead and were crazy expensive. So, we headed a few aisles over to the fake ones. :)

The Sat night after Thanksgiving Ben's work held a family Thanksgiving party for the expats and we headed over to the Hongqiao Marriott for some dinner and shmoozing. :)
We are really beginning to realize that, as much as we want to celebrate things together as a family, our family is different and therefore needs to do some things differently. My heart struggles so much with this. I wanted to be there as a family but feared it would be too much for Coop. And it was. He was overstimulated and not having fun. I should have let him stay home with a babysitter bc he probably would have had more fun then, but, I want him with me. The problem being, I want him to have fun, play with other kids. And I think he does, sometimes, but not in those times. Am I making sense? I want the family I cannot have...
Not to get too much of a sour puss, we did have a funny moment of trying to take a family picture. I thought since we were all dressed so nicely that we would take advantage and get that great shot for our Christmas card. Heh... :)

And...that's where we gave up for the night. :) Now that I think of it, I should have had Ben photoshop all the best ones into one picture. Hmmm, oh well, too late. :)

The next day we put up the tree we had gotten the day before, Soph and I made paper chains, Ben and Soph made paper snowflakes, we put up the few ornaments we had purchased at the flower market, and there we had our beautiful tree!

On Saturday, December 1, Sophie's school had their annual Christmas Fayre (yes, 'fayre', not 'fair', I dunno, the Brits are a bit weird, remember... :)
Once again I found myself a bit disgusted at the waste of money spent on the tickets to this thing. :)Fancy, in color, a million of them... would never happen at home. :)

Unfortunately it was rainy and chilly that day so it was a bit of a dismal turnout...

Even Cooper couldn't be bothered... ;)

Coop and her bud, Ciana, with their teacher, Mr Jones.

So, the idea of the fayre was to have booths selling things, a raffle to win prizes, some bands playing, crafts for the kids, food, drink, etc...
Here's Soph and Coop decorating cookies. It was all fun and games until Coop grabbed that orange bowl of chocolate sprinkles and threw them everywhere. Eek... :/

So then we moved to another table to enjoy the cookies. Coop highly approved-

Soph had filled hers with gummy bears and M&Ms and sprinkles of all colors...she was a happy girl

Here's Soph decorating a Chrsitmas card. She put so much work into it and then I totally left it on the drying rack!!! Ugh!!! I really liked it, too. :(

At the end of the day we went and saw Santa! Again, Cooper wasn't having any fun and was very overwhelmed and needed a nap so Ben took him home while Soph and I went to see the big red guy.
For some reason Soph was nervous.... :)

When the time came, she chatted with Santa, he asked her how old she was, if she'd been a good girl and what she wanted for Christmas- Barbie and the Popstar dolls, Baby Alive, a mini Christmas tree.

 After we left she realized she had forgotten to ask Santa for girl legos and was just devestated! I assured her we would write him a letter to better clarify her list (as she also had already received her own mini tree from the flower market). Oh goodness, she was so relieved! :)

The next day a bunch of us went to the Hongqiao Hilton for a Sunday brunch to celebrate the holiday season and the kids also had done a secret santa and they exchanged their gifts that day.
These pics might seem a bit familiar as we also celebrated Mother's Day at this hotel. It has such a great kids area right next to the adult space so everyone can have so much fun!

However, the kids area is not exactly known for it's healthy eating options. Hence making the kids eat their fill of normal food before heading to the kids section. :)

Sophie enjoying Snow White with her 'candy floss'.

Coop even had fun there!

My beautiful girl-

Coop enjoying some Dora in between play in the kids area-

Our friend, Ben, decided to try some chicken feet. Sooooooo gross!!!!!! He couldn't even get beyond that first bite! :)

The kids opening their gifts after all the fun-

Soph loved her princess craft!

Coop really loves his drum!!

Here's a pic of my best buds here in China! Me, then Laura, Liz, Sally and Edmee.

All the familes together- we make quite a crew!

Our family- wish I had this pic for our Christmas card! However, it works for my Facebook pic

Last week (Dec 7) we had a girls' night out to celebrate Edmee. The ladies went out to dinner at El Willy -a seafood tapas place. Not my cup of tea but still a fun night out with the ladies!

 

Liz, who just had a baby 8 weeks ago. She just threw them up there. She's amazing. :)

Our view from the bar as we enjoyed a drink before dinner-

Passionfruit juice mixed with sparkling wine. Yummy!

The next day the girls had their turn at home with the kids while the men went out and drove gokarts. At 80mph on an outdoor track! So glad I wasn't there to see their lives in danger. :)
We were having a relaxing morning watching some Dora and Coop decided he'd rather watch it through the slots of the stairs. :)

Later we went over to Liz's house for some McD's lunch (and had a french fry disaster :). Coop wanted to try out Riley's rocking chair thing. I think he's a bit big... :)

Sat night (Dec 8th) the couples all went out together for a last night out. Predrinks at Dr. Wine (the boys enjoying some Kwak beer).

Outside of the bar was this man selling gigantic teddy bears from the back of his scooter. Odd!

Outside of the bar were also these teeny tiny chairs all lined up in a row. Thought we'd make the boys try them out.

Inside Maya, an amazing Mexican Restaurant. Liz and I had been wanting to go here for more than 6 months so we were SO excited to go. You can see my passionfruit margarita there in front. Yummy!! The guacamole was also ridiculously good! :)

Liz and I shared the chipotle chicken quesadillas and meatballs. The quesadillas were so good but the meatballs were only ok. Overall a huge success, though!

On Tuesday, December 11, my Bible study group held our Christmas party at our host, Jackie's, house. These are such a great group of women and they have each blessed me so!

Some more of the ladies-

That night Tai Ping had yet another professional photographer coming over to get some pictures of her at work. She is to be in a book, 100 Influential Women of Shanghai! She was showing off some of her amazing skills that night when she made a dinner for us.
Here she displays her apple bird with cucumbers and cherry tomatoes carved to look like bushes and flowers. This is totally how I have her serve dinner every night (yeah, right ;)

She did make these amazing fried chicken/onion patties. They were covered in chopped bread before frying. Super tasty- the kids even ate them up! Add a bit of lemon on top, super good!

Here's the photographer taking some pics of Tai Ping playing on the IPad with Soph. For the record, this has never actually happened in real life. :)

Tai Ping with the photographer. She's such a great lady! :)

 

 

So, that night happened 2 days before all the VPs got here to celebrate Christmas with us. These last few weeks and months have absolutely flown by! I can honestly say I'm trying to slow these last few months down a bit as I have a feeling they will go even faster and then we'll be home!

 

Now Danny, Jodi, Donna and Claude are here, seeing the city and battling jetlag. :) The only one mising is Joel and he truly is missed. There's a hole in the VP house this Christmas that is Joel-sized. I hope he knows how it's not complete without him!

 

My plan is to post again after Danny and Jodi leave on the 30th as we have a lot planned between now and then. Donna and Claude will then stay for another 4 weeks after they go, which will be fun and a challenge equally. :)

 

I write this 2 days after the Connecticut school shootings and my heart is still heavy from this. My heart is heavy for those poor families that must deal with the loss of their child and for the family of the man that performed this terrible thing. So much sadness. But peace that comes from knowing God is still in control and that these sweet children are being held by Him in Glory. Thanks be to God for this!

 

I pray each of you has a family and love-filled Christmas with wonderful memories and great traditions, whether new or old. May you each remember the reason for the season as we celebrate Christ's birthday and the gift that God gave to us that day.

 

Christ's blessing to you!