Christmas: The China side

 Yes, I am way behind on blogging. With two littles and them napping less as they grow, I have less and less computer time! Too busy living life to record it. ;)

We made it back to the US for a great just-over-two weeks last Friday. It's taken almost a week to get out of the daze of jet lag though. This one was really really bad, exasperated by Ellie's bad congestion and cough. Days I get only 2 hour segments interrupted by them wanting to play in the middle of the night are really hard. But Hadassah finally slept all night and Ellie only woke once last night, so I am feeling like a new person with so much sleep!

With traveling for Christmas, I still wanted to preserve some Christmas traditions for our little family. I don't know why, but I'm big on traditions. So, for us, the Saturday before we left was our home "Christmas."

In the weeks in December instead of letter-of-the-week activities, we did Christmas ones. I really enjoyed making this felt tree, after over 5 people shared various ideas for it with me. ;)

The girls were enamored the first morning they found it, but really didn't play with it all that much after that. Oh well. It was fun to make, added brightness to our wall, and there's always next year to pull it out again!

Dassah enjoyed some Christmas-theme free printables found via pinterest!

This cute print-out nativity set was especially fun. She even helped me attach magnets to the back.

It's fun to have Ellie more and more wanting to get in on the action of things!

Adding it to the fridge was fun for a few weeks too.

I love having little girls especially when it means I get to make such adorable things as these for Christmas presents! Very thankful for a husband who played with the girls all evening one weekday so I could get these done!

"Cozy time" by light of the Christmas tree became a favorite activity for Dassah. What could be better than cuddling up with Daddy and having him tell one of his amazing stories?

We had a full line of Christmas activities by the time we were done.

Our family Christmas Eve tradition, I've decided, is to eat out so we don't have dishes to do. So for what we decided was our "Christmas Eve" we went to our favorite Chinese Muslim restaurant.

It was extra fun to have it be one of the nights this dancer performed. The girls were in awe.

The girls also totally enjoyed dancing on the stage themselves! I love that they both love to dance.

Before bed that night, we had to take a picture in pjs by the tree!

The sparkling Christmas tree in the corner is definitely my favorite time of year for the inside.

We had a special gift for the girls this year too! It was surprisingly inexpensive, and worth getting for the next few months of needing to play more indoors!

We opened presents on Saturday morning before breakfast. This picture just seems to be the essence of sweet childhood...

Ellie could get into it this year too and enjoyed looking at what Hadassah opened too!

Ellie is way into bubbles, so we got a fun bubble set. You don't often have bubbles by a Christmas tree!

And the slide was a definite hit! Ellie especially did it over and over, as she loves to climb!

We had red and green pepper omelettes and beautiful strawberries...

And cinnamon rolls. Because you always need an excuse to have cinnamon rolls. Because my butter was frozen and it doesn't have the convenient markings for tablespoons like butter in America, I cut off what I thought was the right amount, but it turned out to be quite a bit more. But they were the best cinnamon rolls I've ever made, so I'll have to repeat that mistake. ;)

We took some over still warm to friends in our complex, and Dassah serenaded them with "Joy to the World." That's been "her" song this season.

This little miss kept happily sliding throughout the morning, and loved getting things to put down the slide in front of her too!

It was an amazing day outside, so we couldn't resist when friends invited us to go for a picnic and some rides at the park / amusement park nearby. We grabbed bread, peanut butter and jelly and biked over. What an amazing and fun December day!

When we got home it was time for me to start cooking while the girls napped! I had baked the treats ahead, and had fun making Christmas goodies for our drop-by party!

Ryan cleaned out the laundry porch and we set up a play area for the kids. Smartest idea ever! They ate out there (keeping mess somewhat localized) and they played and yelled and weren't too loud since they were secluded. :)

We had a full house! And we had 6 countries represented: China, America, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, and Singapore. I hope that wherever we go, we can stay connected with internationals. It's been neat to see how many are in the area these days. My Syrian friend unfortunately couldn't come, otherwise we would have had 7 countries!

We are so thankful for good friends.

Friends that have brightened our lives so much in this last year. So many reasons to be thankful too.

Some friends we hadn't seen for months but they made the trip out for the party, which was special!

It was a lot of work and a ton of clean up, but I am so glad we had the party. I love having the memories of get togethers and the excuse to see friends. And in the morning sunshine I always enjoyed the tree reflected on the wall!

For our last Sunday in China before Christmas, we had to wear Christmas clothes of course! It's fun how with layers, Dassah's Easter dress works for Christmas too. We're going to miss the special Christmas Eve service with our church so are praying that goes well. But we are also very much enjoying our time with family in America. Especially now that we finally seem to be getting sleep...

We didn't bring our laptop (too fragile after the water spill) so hopefully I'll post pictures from America after our return home the beginning of January. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our China Christmas: The Pasties

To make celebrating Christmas finally complete, we had to have pasties at least sometime that week. This favorite-to-the-Lofgren-household is something that almost always happens around holidays, especially if we're all together. It didn't surprise me in the least to hear it was the Christmas dinner of my parents and siblings who were in Alabama. 

 At Thanksgiving we even got the next generation involved as a lot of my sisters and sis-in-law made (I think) 20 pasties (half pies) to feed the whole gang. When you make so many, you want a lot of hands chopping and rolling and forming! Not only is the making of them special for memories like this, most of us think there's no better taste to be found than this homemade goodness.

To my surprise and delight, as we made friends with one of the American families in our complex, I discovered that they even knew what pasties were, and had the tradition of eating them at their grandmother's house! I rarely ever even find someone in the states who knows what they are, so it was pretty cool. Since that discovery, I kept meaning to have them over for pasties, but life happens...

For Christmas she had her parents in town, the daughter of that grandmother that made them for everyone, so I invited them all over for pasties. They had blessed us with many meals when we moved into our new apartment and upon our return from America, so I wanted to return the blessing in some way.

Much joy and enjoyment was had by all, as we swapped stories of relatives and pasties and memories of when we would have them. It made the holidays truly feel complete, to have a reason to make 6 pasties (though I had to cook two pans of them at my friend's house as our oven is too small!) and have a group to share it with.

So thankful for a wonderful Christmas season here in China!

Our China Christmas: The Day

 Christmas morning. Ellie could care less, while Hadassah is super excited that it's time to finally open the presents that have been tantalizing her under the tree for the past week! We survived with only a few pieces of wrapping paper torn before we caught her in her curiosity. ;) It's so hard to understand why you have to WAIT for presents for a two year old!

But when I got her up that morning and took her potty, I told her it was Christmas morning, and she said "We get to open ALL the presents!"

 One of the best presents by far was the "water wonder" book from a friend. It's made by the Melissa and Doug brand, and has a pen you fill with water that they use to color the page and reveal colors and objects. When it dries, it turns white again and can be re-colored. Hadassah did it nearly all day that day, and has continued. It will keep her occupied for 20 minutes sometimes, so it's a great toy to allow me to nurse Ellie or get some chores done!

 We mostly gave her books and puzzles, including this elephant one we told her was just like "elephant buddy" (a beloved stuffed animal). She was excited. :) Friends also brought a lot of presents to the Christmas party, so we had a lot of presents to open! It took a while too, since she just wanted to play with whatever she opened instead of opening them all at once.

The most exciting present: a swing!! Hadasash had loved swinging in America, but here in China there are no outdoor swings, at least close to where we live. Some friends had indoor swings, so we decided to get Hadassah one for Christmas. It hangs from a strong tension pull-up bar. It was going to be in her doorway, but the bar was just a tad too wide, so we put it in the entry way instead, which actually works quite well!

 Art in red and green peppers for Christmas morning breakfast...

 Delectable omlettes

 Strawberries by candlelight

 Cinnamon roll goodness!

Funny thing is, with all these goodies, I also pulled out some leftover steamed broccoli for Hadassah. So after she had finished her cinnamon roll and eggs and broccoli, what does she say? "I want some more broccoli!" That's my girl... somehow she loves her veggies!

 Cuties in matching pjs!

 Amused Christmas baby :)

We had some friends (actually the ones in our very building) come for Christmas dinner, which was fun. Nice too, to split the cooking. She made amazing cheesy potatoes, goat cheese dip, and pie, while I made roast beef, roasted brussel's sprouts and biscuits. Unfortunately the roast beef turned out pretty tough and honestly not great... It was my first time ever trying it, and it had been out of stock earlier so we got it delivered that day and it arrived frozen, so we had some stressful time trying to get it defrosted and figuring out how to cook it. Obviously I need more practice, but large cuts of meat are expensive so we rarely get them. But everything else was delicious, and we enjoyed having friends to be with, especially in the absence of family.

But all-in-all, it wasn't as lonely as I expected my first Christmas away from extended family to be. I did have a moment while I was doing the dishes, alone in the kitchen, where I missed the hustle and bustle of my sisters around and the games that were always going on... But we are blessed here. Choosing to embrace the opportunities and memories we can make here!

Our China Christmas: The Eve

Christmas Eve was our family day. We took everything a little slower in the morning, with Daddy home, a successful party in the books, and no special plans. Because Ryan was home, I was able to leave him with Ellie and a bottle of pumped milk (we're giving her a bottle once/week to make sure she takes one in case we can get away on a date - and so far she's taking it great!) while I took Hadassah on a walk to the university campus across the street. It's been a while since it's been JUST me and her outside, and it was fun to explore our old favorite spots on campus. I love my biggest girl. :)

It was cold, though, so we didn't stay out as long as we could. The promise of leftover party cocoa with marshmallows helped us hurry home, and we enjoyed the sweet treat together. Spending Christmas without extended family may be a rare thing for us, as it's an easy time to travel with vacation days and other family off work. But, it is special to build memories of our own. And I'm someone who likes traditions, so I started a list based on what we did this year... If we're traveling, maybe we'll just declare the week before we go Christmas for us, and do the traditions then. Like using paper plates to make less dishes (thus more time for family fun!) and having a family dance party to Christmas music in the living room. :)

 Since I'd done a ton of cooking for the party and we planned a special Christmas dinner with friends, we headed out on the crowded subway on Christmas Eve for a dinner out. It was a normal work day for most people, so the subway was crowded with people going home. But, Hadassah's getting old enough to stand and hold onto the center pole, which she enjoyed. And Ellie just slept and slept in the ERGO carrier, making it easy to be out and about!

 We ate dinner at Blue Frog and Grill, which was delicious! Wow. We ate too fast to take pictures of our food (knowing Hadassah could get squirmy or Ellie wake up any minute) but the burger and fries and beef fajitas were the best we've had. For all our hurrying, we actually finished eating before Hadassah, who devoured all of her steamed vegetables and a fair share of what she'd picked from the kids menu: noodles!

 It was fun to be out as a family and see some holiday decorations and lights... Most places don't decorate much and I miss that, but the malls usually go all out, so it was worth going 30 minutes by subway to get to a place all fixed up for the holidays!

 It made it feel more like Christmas to see lights, and their decorations were lovely.

 We stopped by our favorite frozen-treats place at this mall for their fresh mango popsicle, and while it was still good, we decided it was definitely fit more for a summer treat. :)

 We then went to the pet shop in the basement, as Hadassah absolutely loves animals, so wanted to give something special for her amid all the craziness of walking here and there. She loved seeing the animals, but "I want to touch them!" was her constant desire. She still misses and talks about my parents' dog and cat.

 When we got home, we had Hadassah open one present, a book called Daddies. "What do Daddies like to do best? By bus or taxi, car or train, daddy rushes home... to us!"

Then it was matching PJ's for the girls (sweet gifts from some of their cousins!) and off to bed for them. 

Ryan and I then enjoyed the Christmas tree... so peaceful when it's the only thing lit up! We shared memories and exchanged our gifts for each other. We decided that will definitely be a tradition - it's so nice to see what your sweet spouse thought up without the distraction of kids opening their toys! And Ryan totally surprised me, by taking a taxi to a mall on his way back to work from lunch one day, picking out beautiful earrings, and even making his own wrapping paper to print at work since he couldn't find Christmas wrapping paper in the store (neither could I - I didn't even look, though!). All his effort made me feel extra special. :)

Our time was cut short by a baby's cry - Ellie still has trouble settling down and sleeping for more than 45 minutes at a time in the evening. But we really can't complain. For all my worries of messing her up immensely by switching her days and nights at a month old, it seems like maybe that actually helped... A week after coming back to China, she was sleeping 8 hours at a time. Now, she often goes a solid 10 hours, once she's finally out for the night (usually after 9 PM she doesn't wake). No clue what it is... whether the jet lag righted her confused night and day, or the fact that she's a bigger baby makes her sleep longer stretches, or that she eats every two hours usually from 4 PM on due to her shorter naps in the evening. Or the fact that Ryan convinced me not to wake her to nurse in the night, when I thought "she should be up and eating by now!" Either way, we are very thankful. And yes, I am keeping an eye on my milk supply, but so far she nurses really well during the day and doesn't seem to have a lack. So I am enjoying full nights of sleep - and feeling rather crazy for getting them with a 7 week old! I know it may not last, but she's gone at least two weeks with no night wake ups, so I am just thankful, knowing it's definitely not something I made happen, and hoping it continues! :)

It was a beautiful Christmas Eve... a wonderful day with the ones I love best.