Found: Tickle Spot!

I love the looks on both Uncle Shann's and Isaac's faces in this photo!

Giraffe for Aunt Sarah

I am jumping back to some Christmas pictures here. :-)

Madelyn created some art work for several of her aunts and uncles that we had framed (at one of the incredibly inexpensive framing places here in Shanghai) for Christmas gifts for them. She came up with this fun idea for a cute giraffe made of shapes she cut out of different colored paper for Brad and Sarah, knowing that Sarah has always loved giraffes. I love this sequence of pictures that Scott took of the three of them as the gift was opened.

Cool Dudes

Seth and Caden had a little fun with hair wax when we were together at Grandpa and Grandma's house. :-)
Going to try to post a few Christmas pictures here and there in the next few days!

A Few Photos From Christmas in Shanghai

We had our family Christmas celebration here in Shanghai on the Sunday morning before we left for the US on Friday. It's been tricky to make our family Christmas special and meaningful the last few years, when we've been in the process of preparing to leave the country for several weeks. I was really thankful for how it worked out this year, it seemed less rushed to do it almost a full week ahead of time.

Caleb hung out in this scarf from Seth and gloves from his stocking all morning, along with one of his favorite knit hats.
Seth gave good thank-you hugs to all!

Madelyn was super excited about the gift she had picked out for Scott... it was an orange striped tie with matching orange cuff links. Here she can't wait for him to get his first glimpse! If you look closely at Scott's left cheekbone, you'll see the matching yellowish bruise he got playing basketball a few days before.
Gwen watched intently while I opened her gift to me. Remember her Christmas shopping excursion at the 2 RMB store? She gave me not one, but two bead necklaces she bought on that trip. I wore the black one to church last Sunday. :-)
Gwen in her new Uggs... fake, of course!
One of my resolutions this year was to spend less time on the computer... thus my slowness in posting pictures. Maybe I'll have to take fewer pictures as well!

Notes in the New Year

Feel free to skim or skip... this is just a bit of stream of consciousness about the last couple weeks and the coming week!

We're back at home in Shanghai. We've struggled with jet lag in varying degrees all weekend. Tonight at dinner Gwen was whining pleadingly to be put to bed. Madelyn, Seth, and Scott soon followed her. Caleb, on the other hand, being a teenager, has been able to sleep in later in the morning than any of the rest of us, and is currently out playing basketball with a friend, at 9:45 at night, the last night before school starts again for 2010.

I used my wakefulness due to jet lag at 4 a.m. the other morning to my advantage... I got up and undecorated the Christmas tree in the quietness of the house, with only one of our cats for company. I worked for an hour and then went back to bed, feeling pleased with myself for using the time so well. However, the pieces of our artificial tree are still lying in pieces on the living room floor, two days later. Hoping to get it put away soon...

Madelyn is looking forward to her birthday. She will be ten years old on the tenth of January, in the year 2010! Fun. She and I planned several months ago that she could do a mini room-redo for her birthday. I'm hoping it means we get some things sorted and cleaned up; I know she is planning on a new comforter for her bed and hanging long curtains to partition off part of the room. Happily, I think we will be able to do both. I was pleased to find a long tension type shower curtain rod at Carrefour tonight for only 38 RMB that I think we can use to hang the curtains. I got her some lavender-fading-into-white sheers at Walmart in the US that we will hopefully hang up tomorrow.

Although the boys return to school tomorrow, and Madelyn and I will resume school then as well, Gwen has another week off. I'm hoping to get in several phonics lessons with her this week while she is home with me. English phonics is the one thing missing at her school, since they are spoken to in Chinese all day. I've been using the phonics program with her that I used to teach the other three kids to read, but doing it kind of hit or miss. This week will be catch up time. Gwen is hoping to go to the Science and Technology Museum this week, which she loves! Her favorite things to do there are to wander through the extensive animal exhibit, showing real (now stuffed- this fascinates her) animals in their natural habitats, and riding what she calls "the fruit ride". On the fruit ride you sit in a huge strawberry, watermelon or apple, and take a trip into a giant mouth and through the digestive system. You can imagine how it ends. Fortunately the narration throughout the ride is all in Chinese, so we don't get the full effect, but I imagine Gwen gets a lot more of it than I do.

Our time in Chicago and Cleveland was wonderful. What a treat it is to be with those whom we love at Christmas! There was a Man Hike through the winter woods for the boys and two of their uncles, sleepovers for the girls at Aunt Jenna's and Pa and Nannie's houses, a walk through the woods lit with Christmas light displays, and baby boy cousins who have grown much bigger than they were in the summer. There was a Cavs game with seats that offered an amazing view of Lebron; Avatar, Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, and Princess and the Frog movie outings, and dinner for all at Bubba's BBQ. There were new blue glasses for Madelyn and new school pants for the boys. There were games of Guesstures, Scene-It Sports, Loaded Questions, and Malarky. There were lots of cookies and many cups of coffee. There were several nativity finger puppet shows, one much better than the other according to Caden. There were nieces singing in church on Christmas Eve and salmon for supper afterwards. There were little girls in pink coats passing out sandwiches. There was a birthday treasure hunt for Seth, leading him inside and out in search of the thirteen clues that led to the location of his gift. There was a dirt pudding birthday cake, complete with sour gummy worms. There was packing and packing and packing, and good-bye hugs and prayers and leaving for the airport while it was still dark.

And now we're here and regular life begins again. The weather is warmer here than it was in the Midwest~ today we flew a kite and threw the football around under a pale blue sky and warm winter sunshine. We also sorted through clothes in various closets and filled bags to give away. We went to church at 3 pm like we always do, and then out to dinner at Element Fresh, one of our favorite spots just a short walk from church. After dinner I walked to Carrefour and bought the curtain rod along with other odds and ends, took a taxi home and found most of my family sleeping. I've fiddled around tonight with various small tasks, and gotten school stuff ready for tomorrow.

Caleb has come home now from basketball, iced his bloodied lip, and gone to bed. I think I will go there now too.

Slugs

There are five tenth grade boys hanging out with the PS3 and 2K10 (a basketball Playstation game, for the uninitiated). They have been in roughly the same position for the last five hours. Madelyn and I have taken food in to them at various points, apparently aiding their long period of relative inactivity. But they haven't been quiet. Oh no, quite the contrary. They're very much into their game, alternately shouting and jeering at one another's virtual basketball skills.

Finals ended today. Christmas vacation starts tomorrow. I guess I'll allow my son and his friends this indulgence for once.

Christmas Shopping

When Caleb and Seth were preschoolers, I took them to a "Christmas shopping for kids" shop that was set up in a nice department store downtown. They were each assigned a helper who was dressed like an elf who would take them around to the tables of items, help them make selections, wrap and label their gifts with them, and handle the purchasing of their items with the money we had given them. It was a great thing for them, to feel like they had done their own shopping and had surprises for their family. It was all a very neat and tidy process.

Yesterday afternoon I took Gwen to the 2 RMB store in Yuyuan to do her Christmas shopping. Kind of the Chinese version of the dollar store, but even cheaper. No neat and tidy process here. It's an open booth, so it's quite chilly. No specially selected items for children to choose from, but rather lots of junk to sort through to find anything resembling a treasure. Lots of people in bulky coats pushing their way through the small shop. But Gwen was in her element when she realized she was going to get to actually choose these gifts herself. Quickly she was boldly making choices for her cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, siblings and for Daddy. She changed her mind a couple of times, but had everything decided in the space of about 15 minutes. She proudly marched out of the store with her two plastic bags clutched in her arms. After we got out out onto the sidewalk and I congratulated her for her great shopping, she was nearly bursting with joy. Seth took her back in to choose something for me, and she was so tickled to have a secret from me, too.

When we got into the car, I called Scott to let him know we were heading home. Gwen had to get on the phone to tell about her shopping experience. She wanted to tease Scott about what she got him, so she said, " I got you a potty, Daddy." Peals of laughter followed this statement, and then she said, "No, I got you a bracelet!" More laughter... then, because secrets are so hard to keep, she said, "I didn't get you a ruler, though!" She had gotten him a measuring tape, which she called a ruler. Just couldn't keep from almost telling, silly girl!

This morning Gwen is chomping at the bit to get her gifts wrapped, so after our scrambled eggs we're going to have a wrapping session of the treasures from the 2 RMB store.

I love the excitement she has about the gifts she is going to give. :-)