But first, it was New Year's Eve! Liz and I had decided a while back to hire a chef to cook for us and celebrate the evening together with our families. What a fun night! Definitely different than how I've celebrated NYE in the past but, hey, I'm not in a traditional place for celebrating any American holiday anyway. :)
Here is Chef Li preparing our dinner. He and his wife showed up around 6 pm with the intention of serving a 9-course meal at 8pm. Ah-mah-zing, the spread they put on!! Liz and I had selected the menu the week prior. There were fresh prawn crackers, spring rolls, dumplings, chicken satay, a thai salad, peking duck, a few beef dishes, spicy chicken, noodles, sweet and sour pork, and more. We had WAY too much food and it was all really good!!
A view of the spread halfway done-
My ayi had helped me purchase some fireworks a few days prior and we were ready to see them fly!These fireworks are SO illegal to privately own in the US. I thought we were going to get busted setting them off here but we were going to try anyway.
Here's Ben's brother-in-law, George, and Ben with our loot. :)
I took some pictures of the fireworks but none of them really turned out. Just picture the 4th of July, but smaller. :) So instead, I'm posting a picture of our little crew outside enjoying the show.
So we ate, we chatted, did fireworks, ate some more, played with the kids and soon it was midnight!
Unbelievably, all of the kids made it to midnight (except Coop- he had gone to bed much earlier). They were so wired and, at the end, totally crashing, but had so much fun all night.
We ended up finding a channel on tv playing the countdown celebrations in Singapore. Never thought I'd be counting down to the New Year with those in Singapore!
Happy New Year!! Champagne for the adults and fizzy grape juice for the kids. We were in the tuk tuk by about 0030 (Sophie was so tired she actually fell totally asleep on the way home in the freezing cold!) and all were asleep by 1. So glad we could ring in the New Year with these fantastic people.
We took New Year's Day off to just recoop and relax. Slept in, went for a swim, etc.
On Jan 2 we hired a driver again and headed to SheShan Sculpture Park. Yes, I know. The last time we went was in January and we swore we wouldn't go when it was cold again and yet, here we were. Why?? I would love this place when it was hot out and yet I keep going when it's freezing!
Anyway, just like last time, we had fun but it did get quite cold.
Here's Coop, Donna and Soph hanging around some sculptures...
Soph and I being artsy. :)
A few pics on the jumping bubble thingy again. Always our favorite part of the park! Coop had SO much fun on it this time. He was laughing hysterically the whole time. :)
Daddy and Coop jumping together-
Soph sliding down a bubble head first. :)
Even Claude and Coop were having fun on it together!
Another attempt at me being artsy. Coop and Daddy checking out the outdoor auditorium with the weird gigantic wire person thingy in the background. :)
My gorgeous family hanging out on the climbing nets-
Coop and I did not go up into the treehouse- we couldn't be bothered (to quote my Brit friend, Liz), so we went and had a snack while everyone else went. Soph came out, saw we were eating, and made a beeline for us. :)
Sophie was still obsessed with these stone statue people. She was hugging them and talking to them. That one has a very active imagination. :)
We ended our trip there in a small coffee shop where we thought we were going to have to pay $10 a coffee but they ended up being free! Soph was toast after running around in the cold all afternoon :)
So, I'm looking through my pictures and I'm not seeing anything else that I took while Donna and Claude were here. What???
Given, a few days after we went to SheShan, the kids were back in school and Ben was back at work so we pretty much just went back into our daily routines.
On the 12th they left and flew to Hong Kong for a week. They loved it there. It was warm and they saw pretty much everything they wanted to see and do.
After they came back it was more routine daily stuff.
Ben took one more day off of work and we went downtown to the World Financial Center, also known as The Bottle Opener. It is currently the 4th tallest building in the world and they having a viewing deck on the 100th floor. The smog was pretty bad that day so we couldn't see very far but it was still really neat to experience. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, AGAIN, so no pictures! :(
We went out to dinner with them a few more times and really just enjoyed our time together.
Donna and Claude left to go back to Michigan on Jan 29th, a Tuesday. This was Donna's birthday and we talked about how this was the longest birthday she'll ever experience being that she was flying "back in time". :)
A few favorites they had of their visit:
-Claude loved to go on walks and would often end up in Zhudi town exploring the VERY local
people and stores. Also the wet market. He liked it there too (ick) :)
-Another favorite Claude had was our clubhouse library. He would go there almost daily to read and
catch up on the local news.
-Both Donna and Claude fell in love with the egg tarts from our local bakery. This was an almost
nightly treat for them, especially once the local grocery store ran out of their tapioca pudding. :)
-I think their favorite place to eat was Luke's. Donna couldn't get over the pumpkin penne and Claude
liked this indonesian fried rice they have.
-By far their favorite place for a cup of coffee was Cafe Du Village. I think they went there almost
every day for a mocha and something sweet to eat. It's a great place to read and run into people!
-Donna loved reading to and with Sophia every night. She also liked helping Soph with her
homework. She was so patient with her!
-They both really enjoyed going swimming with the kids. We did this every weekend and had a lot of
fun with it.
As for anything else, you'd have to ask them. :) I think they enjoyed their time here and were a bit torn about leaving. It's nice to go home but hard to leave the grandchildren. ;)
We felt the same. It was great having them here but also nice to have our house back to just our little family after 7 weeks of having visitors. It was also so weird to think the next time we see them (in person) will be when we get off the airplane having moved back home.
I get so torn when thinking of that. I find myself wishing to pick certain parts of my life here and combine them with parts of my life in the US. Never fully satisfied and at peace with where I am, always wanting to change something. It's not a great thing to feel and I'm working on it. In my current Bible study we are doing Breaking Free by Beth Moore. An intense look inside of myself finding the things that are keeping me from the relationship God intended me to have with Him. Whew, do I have a lot of work ahead of me! Good thing He's patient with me. :)
So, anyway, that was January. Almost caught up! :)
Thanks for sticking with me. God bless!
thanks for writing - miss you!
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