Christmas 2010 Part 1

I can't believe it's March and I'm just now posting pictures from Christmas. Unfortunately most of my pictures are just of the boys opening presents. But I'll try to post a couple more of other things in another post.
Transformers were the theme this year for Reister - he got one from Nana & Granddaddy, and a couple others from Robin & Paula and their families

Mason was slow at opening but enjoyed it

Reister's gift from LiLi and Poppo (my parents) - a Veggie Tales DVD - always a hit

Mason's from LiLi & Poppo - Boz - a new favorite of his

We got the boys spiderman pajamas from the newly opened H&M clothing store in town

Mason's favorite gift - from us and Nana & Granddaddy - a 'piano' with a microphone!

Stockings were a hit too!



Nothing like cheap stocking stuffer toys :)

Reister displaying the transformers

We really had a wonderful Christmas this year. For the month of December we took time each night to use the advent calendar you probably saw in the background which helped the boys learn the Christmas story. We also were able to spend a lot time with local friends celebrating the True meaning of Christmas.

Trip to Shining City Part 3

This will be the third and final post on our trip to the Shining City.
Here is our friend Lucy. We met her on Christmas 2006. She is actually from the province where we live now but moved to the Shining City to first study English and now works there. She is a sweet sister and very dear to us. We enjoyed catching up with her a little in KFC and she loved seeing the boys. They have grown a lot since the last time we saw her.

Here are some other dear friends of ours, Jack & Cherry. We went to their wedding in 2006. They are pregnant with their first (and likely only) child. Cherry is wearing a special smock dress that is supposed to protect her belly from harmful elements.... :)

We went to one friends house to hang out with several families at once. All the kids gathered around the computer to play games and watch movies. In the culture here, the older children are supposed to take care the younger and that includes letting them play first or more. Reister was loving this special attention.

Here's all the guys that night. We sure love those friends and it was bittersweet to hang out with them knowing that it was for such a short time and we have no idea when we'll see them again.

Here are the women and children

Here's a kids only shot

We stayed in the apartment of some American friends who were out of town. They live in a pretty snazzy complex and there was an elaborate Christmas display I just had to get a picture of.

Here is our old househelper "Big Sister Wang" She was so happy to see Reister since she took care of him for over 2 years. He was really happy she brought him a toy :) He also enjoyed playing and talking with her.

She enjoyed holding Mason. She met him when he was just a month old but then we moved shortly after. We visited the Shining City in the summer of 2009 so she had seen him briefly then.

These two women are both good friends of mine. Crystal is on the left and Hui Fang is on the right. I introduced them because I thought they'd enjoy hanging out. They were pleasantly surprised to find out they share the same family name. Hui Fang is who I call my "local BFF" from the Shining City. I got to see them both a couple times and am so thankful for that quality time with them.

We saw several other friends but i can't post ALL the pictures! It was such a tremendous blessing to return to our "old home" and reconnect with so many friends and 'family'. The Shining City will always have a special place in our hearts and we continue to lift up all the people there. We appreciate you remembering them too!

Trip to Shining City Part 2

Well, sorry about that long delay in getting the second post about Shining City up. I actually think I'll have a 3rd one too!

We spent several mornings at a newly (to us) opened coffee shop - they had great coffee, and breakfast items. We met some friends there too. I wish it had been there when we lived there!
Here's the inside:

And the outside:

Here is the front entrance to one of our old homes in the Shining City. We didn't go in the yard to look around but enjoyed driving around in a taxi looking at it.

The city had a lot of these around town under overpasses. I liked this one because it had a local minority man grilling lamb meat skewers - shao kao - which is a famous snack food of our old city.

Here is the entrance to our first home in the Shining City - it was in the yard of a local preschool/kindergarten. The people waiting at the gate are waiting for it to be 5pm, when they can go in and pick up their kids. When we lived there it was always tricky figuring out how to get in or out of our gate around that time of day. Sometimes the guard would let us out but sometimes not (because parents would flood in when they opened the gate!)

Here's a shot of the main city center square. I was still loving the blue skies and clear air and had to get more pictures of it.

Mason made new friend with the daughter of our American friends. She's about 4 months older than him.

The we took a kids picture of all the kids of the 3 families that ate dinner together one night.

This was the second one because Reister wanted to take one "in order".

One more post of our trip to show you some more of us with local friends that we saw.

Trip to Shining City Part 1

In early December we took a trip back to the city we lived in for almost 3 years, the Shining City. We went for about 5 days, and were able to see lots of old friends. It was such a blessing!
Here's Micah and Reister on a pedestrian cross over on a busy well known road - #81 road.

Me and Mason facing the opposite direction on the same cross over. We LOVED seeing the blue skies and sunshine that are so hard to come by where we live now. It was colder, there, though, but we went prepared!


I took a lot of pictures that included the sky... ;)

I thought this door was pretty

This was a new building since we left - at the end of "Big North Road". Again, beautiful blue skies (even with the haze of pollution lower down)





Although the city is less modern and developed than where we live now, it is really nice. We reminisce about the small size and how easy it was to get around, meet friends, shop, etc. We often took buses rather than taxis just because it took about the same amount of time. I'll post some more pictures in another post.

Open House at Reister's School

At the end of November, Reister's school had a open house morning where parents could come and observe what a "normal" morning at school looked like. I went and got some pictures:
Every morning they do "exercises" to music and sometimes use props. There is one other American boy in Reister's class, and he's to R's left.

I was impressed with how well Reister knew the routines and moves

After exercise time, they went to the bathroom and then had an interesting activity in which the teachers slowly led the kids in a line around their classroom in a follow the leader type thing. The kids were supposed to be quiet and they had music playing. I assume it was supposed to calm them down.

Later on they had their Montesorri time where the kids could choose the toy or activity they played with. Actually Reister was supposed to be in the back with the group of kids watching the teacher - she was teaching them Math with manipulatives. But he didn't want to do that and the teachers encouraged me to not force him. He is playing on a carpet mat with a developmental toy.

Here are some of his classmates playing with blocks during that free play time.

Here is the other side of the classroom where children are playing or coloring at tables.

This boy, Li Zhuo Long, is the one that grabbed Reister's hand the first day he went back to school last summer. He is still Reister's favorite friend in the class, but he also has several other kids enjoys playing with.

Here is Ms. Li, the head teacher of his class, helping him complete the challenge of the building toy.

I enjoyed the morning but I did learn one thing. Our goal in putting Reister in local preschool is for him to learn Chinese. But i observed that he didn't have much opportunity for language practice when he got to chose his own toy and play by himself on a mat. I know they do lots of other things that require him to listen and interact with the local teachers and kids, but it did kind of change my perspective on the advantage of Montessori type classes. I think it's still good because that's the kind of environment he's somewhat used to at home, but I think the more formal classroom setting will be good in the future when he's required to listen and respond more. His Chinese really has improved a lot in the last seven months but he's got a long ways to go. :)

More Thanksgiving activities

If you remember I took up running in 2010. (I'll let you decide if it's running or jogging based on my time) I had been running with two other girl friends here in our city and we decided to organize an informal 10K for Thanksgiving. About 15 people participated, I believe and it was fun. I ran it in 54 minutes 55 seconds. I was pleased with that! We did it at 7am on Thanksgiving morning, so we "earned" our right to feast at lunch! :) My friend Liz made certificates for everyone:

Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving a bunch of (mostly) American guys (and some girls - but not me) got together for some good ol' American football. They even had shirts made! They played on a really nice field that is on the campus of a sports university. They assigned teams (enough for 4 teams!) ahead of time and played 3 games. I took the boys out to watch and there were other kids too that they played with. Honestly it was kind of hard to actually watch the game with all the sideline action of kids and moms visiting!
Here's the action: Micah is on the left side with the red shirt and white longsleeves underneath.

Here's Mason and his buddy, Josiah. Josiah and his family live in another city. They stayed with us the night before Thanksgiving and his mom ran in the race with me.

Self- portrait

Reister's back is to the camera - he's in the brown fleece. He's playing with his good buddy Micah.

Heres the group shot of everyone who played. The boys are with Micah on the front row.