A little bit of Christmas in China.....

While we have spent two Christmases in China, I am still surprised when the holiday comes around and it doesn't feel like Christmas.  It is so strange to me that we sit here in December and there isn't much of a holiday spirit around us.  We pulled out our little Christmas tree, the stockings and our two little elves showed up ( La-la and Pinocchio causing a little mischief) so in out little apartment we have out own little Christmas.  The kids have advent calendars filled with chocolate to count down the days and we move the tree on the advent calendar on the wall.  Blake keeps telling me it's 2 days until Christmas, it's been like that all week for him :)  And he is excited about the holiday......but in the rest of China there is little to be seen of Christmas and certainly no Hanukkah traces to be found.

Blake and Grace's school had some holiday cheer, there was a Christmas tree lighting at the Marriott with an outdoor tree!  It was very nice, we saw the choir sing and then the Chinese Santa came out with a bag of candy and from what i heard from one mom, a few packs of cigarettes in his bag.  A few of the hotels have decorated and have gingerbread houses out to purchase....Walmart has a very small section with some stockings and paper decorations and Metro has some Christmas trees and lights.....but no real trees here!  Even in Shanghai I hear they are very hard to find.....so grad a good old fashion plastic one and stick a car air freshener on it and call it a Christmas tree :)

We have out little tree and I was able to get our China Christmas ornament this year....here are the three we have .....the Chinese lanters, the e-bike, and the Styrofoam cart....

The older kids at Blake's school did a very nice performance last week with Frosty the Snowman and some lovely Christmas songs, it was really cute until Grace realized Frosty melted from the sun since he was made of snow and now for over a week she has been telling us Frosty melted.  Blake and Grace were in a version of the Polar Express, which as you can imagine was perfect for Blake with his unhealthy obsession of trains!  He asks to watch the movie, read the book and make hot chocolate now on a frequent basis.  They did great!  He was the time keeper so he could yell out the hours as they approached and they did some fun Christmas songs!  Grace was a reindeer but she didn't move or sing much, luckily she looked cute in her winter scarf and just starred back at us (what more can you ask of a 2 year old).

Last weekend we were invited to a Foreign Investment Group Christmas Party.  And not only did they invite us to join, but thanks to our good friend Ronny we were invited on state to sing Feliz Navidad and participate in a cooking demonstration.....lol  It was a fun evening, they had some crafts for the kids to see that are traditional things in China such as the honey sticks, kites, and the clay figures.  Grace enjoyed eating the honey stick, hers was shaped like an ice cream cone and Blake got a sword!  I participated in the cooking demonstration and prepared some shrimp in vegetables with a chicken broth sauce.....I received an honorable mention with all my fellow competitors and took home 2 tickets to the Dinosaur Park.  I am still not sure if anyone actually WON the competition.  It was a fun night to participate in and see a little of what they think a Christmas party should be, it finished off with a dance and song by someone from the Opera and then a few ladies dressed in small Christmas dresses singing on stage :)  Ho Ho Ho....

As we count down the next 10 days until Christmas, the kids have 3 weeks off of school, hopefully we can make some Christmas crafts and bake some holiday treats!  I am going to try decorating cookies with the kiddos and make my grandma's recipe for cookies with them.

Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday Season.......