Home For Christmas

This is meeting time again. Home is the magnet. The winter land roars and hums with the eager speed of return journeys. The dark is noisy and bright with late night arrivals- doors thrown open, running shadows on snow, open arms, kisses, voices and laughter, laughter at everything and nothing. Inarticulate, giddying and confused are those original minutes of being back again. The very familiarity of everything acts like shock. Contentment has to be drawn in slowly, steadyingly, in deep breaths- there is so much of it. We rely on home not to change, and it does not, wherefore we give thanks. Again Christmas: abiding point of return. Set apart by its mystery and magic, the season seems in a way to stand outside time. All that is dear, that is lasting, renews its hold on us: we are home again...

From Home For Christmas by Elizabeth Bowen, 1899-1973

Carrefour Christmas Thoughts

Silent Night, Holy Night

I rode my bike to Carrefour late this morning, after our family Christmas celebration, to pick up a few things for our lunch. We're heading to the airport late this afternoon, to fly to the US for a couple of weeks with our families.

All is calm, all is bright

I rode the escalator ramp up to the store, feeling a sudden fondness for the place that had so frustrated and befuddled me when we first arrived in Shanghai. Now, after a year and half in China, I know Carrefour. I know where to find what I need.

'Round yon virigin, mother and child

I walked through the main displays at the front of the store, all colors and styles of long underwear at this time of year. I looked into the shoppers faces, all framed with straight black hair. I no longer feel out of place among them.

Holy infant so tender and mild

I made my way to the produce department and picked out some cucumbers, carrots, apples and fresh pineapple to supplement the leftovers in the fridge that we will eat for lunch. As I picked out my fruits and vegetables, I realized the song on the public address system in the store was very familiar.

Christ the Savior is born

Maybe it's the fact that we just watched "Nativity Story" last night. Maybe it's that we are about to go back to all that is safe and familiar, so many of the people that love us. Maybe it's that this particular song was playing in a Chinese grocery store, proclaiming the Truth of Christmas. But as I had my produce weighed and walked to the check-out line, I had tears in my eyes.

Christ the Savior is born.

I left the store and found my bike, amid the hundreds of other bicycles lined up outside Carrefour. As I got on my bike and turned toward home, I passed the fresh flower vendors outside the store, whose faces are now familiar. I rode by the cart where they sell hot chestnuts and the people with DVDs spread on blankets on the sidewalk.

Christ the Savior is born. Not just for me, for my family, for Americans. Christ was born to save us all~ red and yellow, black and white. And His name is proclaimed in the Carrefour in Jinqiao, my little community in Pudong, Shanghai.

Somehow this fact makes me love the people in Carrefour this morning more... and be more even more amazed at the love our Saviour has for us.

Leaving for the States in 3 Days

Says my fourteen year old boy this evening, "I can't wait to go to America."

"What are you looking forward to the most?" I ask, expecting him to say televised sports, or the mall, or fast internet, or some other teenager-ish thing.

His response: "Oh, I don't know... just like hanging out at Nannie and Pa's and Grandma and Grandpa's".

He said that, he really did. And I am smiling, and I think his grandparents are too.

A Gift For LuLu

Guess what, Alyssa, the next present is for you!


I wonder what it could be?
Hey, keep it over here in case you need my help!I know it's getting a little past the time for Christmas pictures... thanks for indulging me!

Rock Climbing

One of our Christmas vacation activities... just a little physical exertion to work off the holiday meals! Notice who is and isn't participating... I must give credit to both my sister and my sister-in-law, who do climb but whose pictures I did not include due to the angle they are taken from. :-)

Here's Caleb, between a rock and a hard place!

Alyssa marvels at the feats of strength she is witnessing!

Caleb and Uncle Shann race each other to the top.

Look at Uncle Mark go!

I think monkey girl Gwen would have attempted the big wall if we had let her!Conquering the inverted wall!

Uncle Mark and Seth study the wall.

Uncle Justin

Lest Uncle Justin feel slighted by the lovely pictures I posted of Uncle Shann, what do you know, I also found some lovely photos of him! Once again, one of my sons must have been having fun with the camera and Justin's faces... behold! Gotta love those uncle faces!

Cousins' Bath

In mid-December when Caden was talking to my sister about our upcoming visit together at Christmas, he said, "When we are at Grandma's, I will take a bath with my Gwendolyn." They did, and it was a splashing good time!

Christmas Fashion

Matching Christmas dresses for Madelyn and Nellie, created by Grandma!

Uncle Shann

I did not take these pictures of my brother-in-law, but found them when I loaded photos onto the computer. I'm sure he was fooling around for Caleb or Seth. I'm also sure he'll be pleased to see that I've posted them!

The Miracle of Flight

Techincal Difficulties and Other Thoughts

Is anyone else having trouble posting pictures to blogger the last couple of days? They seem to duplicate themselves miraculously, causing each picture to appear a dozen times in each post... weird. It's probably one of those OIC things... you know, only in China.

Anyway, I am a little frustrated because I have photos from Chistmas to post. I hope to post them eventually!

In other news, I am just now enjoying some Christmas cards! Before we left for our trip to the US, we had only received a couple of cards. Scott went into the office last Friday, the day after we got back to Shanghai, and he came home with our weekly packet of mail from the States. I was so excited to find a nice group of Christmas cards and photos among the usual mail. Just yesterday I hung the photos up in our kitchen doorway... I'm enjoying your smiling faces a little late, but they are all the sweeter for the wait! I'm hoping for a few more cards in next week's mail!

Returning

Nearly two years later to the day, we made it through immigration and customs at O'Hare airport, returning home from China just days before Christmas for the second time. I realized it as we walked down the same corridor tonight, that it was just this time and place two years ago that we were about to introduce Gwen to her grandparents and siblings who were waiting anxiously to see her face.

This time, the feeling of returning home from China was different. Our family was together, coming off the first 6 months of a different kind of adventure than the adoption one had been. Because this time China isn't just the far away place we went to get our daughter, but rather it's our home, at least for a time. A home that we've grown familiar with at least a piece of, and that we've grown to love.

But China is still a foreign place to us in many ways, a lot because of the language barrier. One of the things I was most looking forward to about being in the US again was understanding everyone, not just a select few. At the O'Hare airport I went into a newstand to look for some contact solution, which I had forgotten to buy before we left China. I walked right in and asked for it, and the women working at the counter found it for me, just like that. I almost cried with the ease of the transaction. No fruitless hunting on my own, unable to communicate my needs. Just ask.... ahhhh.

Everywhere in the two US airports we were in tonight I could read all the signs... again, ahhh. In the airport restroom, Gwen asked me if I had tissues. "We don't need them," I answered her. "In America they have toilet paper in the bathroom for you." Ahhh, the comforts of home.

As we left the airport in our rental car, all the streets were familiar. The short way we traveled to Scott's parents' home felt like going back in time. They are streets we've driven hundreds of times, since our childhood. Are all these places still here? Even after we've gone far from them, they waited for our return.

And then we pull into the driveway, the familiar driveway. Snow covers the grass, and the Christmas tree lights shine in the front window. Inside, Nanny waits for us. There are cookies in a tin on the kitchen counter, and milk in the refrigerator waiting to be poured. It's nearly 1 a.m. local time, and we are home.

Home Is Where the Heart Is

It's beautiful day in Shanghai. Sunshine, high 50's. The maintenance crew in our complex planted hundreds of pansies this afternoon, in deep, jewel tone colors. My girls climbed little trees out behind our building with a friend, and the boys skateboarded in their shirt sleeves. I relished the time outside, watching the kids and visiting with a neighbor in the adjacent building.



But actually, this isn't what I'm looking for right now, nice as it is. No, I'm dreaming of colder weather... perhaps even a white Christmas. With the weather the U.S. Midwest has had over the last few days, the chances of a white Christmas are very good.



Because tomorrow we're leaving the 60 degree weather that's forcasted for Shanghai, getting on a plane for the long trip towards that snow in the Midwest... home for Christmas.



That's where half our hearts are, after all.

Shanghai Christmas Morning

... just about a week and a half before Christmas Day! We celebrated with just our family here last Sunday morning.
Thank you, Sethy! Caleb and Seth bought each other very similar hats!

Madelyn was pretty pleased with her ballet outfit and shoes... lessons coming in January.
Orange crocs!

Christmas Performance

Who remembers singing "Away in a Manger" with your Sunday school class in front of the congregation, dressed in your Christmas best? I sure do. We practiced and waited in the fellowship hall in the church basement until it was time to walk up the stairs and file into church. I remember wearing a red velvet jumper. There were candy canes for all after the service. :-)

This past Sunday was Gwen's first time, and she was pretty pleased to be the one carrying a doll to represent Baby Jesus. It did hamper her ability to do the motions the class had been taught to do along with the song, but she managed to do them in miniature with just her fingers. Madelyn and Seth's group, Children's Church, sang seperately from Gwen's. Seth was on the stage at the front, but Madelyn was in the aisle, standing at the end of a pew. Children's Church, which is about a hundred kids, is too large to all fit on stage so they spread out around the sanctuary.

Here's Madelyn, singing "Gloria!"

Gwen cradles Baby Jesus!

Counting the Days

-2 weeks until we get on the plane to head home for Christmas

-2 days until the anniversary of the day we left for China to go meet Gwen

-1 week until the 2 year anniverary of Gwen's adoption day

-17 days until my Christmas baby (Seth!) is eleven years old

-19 days until Christmas!

China Tree

So here is our Christmas tree... the first real tree we've had in a dozen years! When we were cleaning out before we moved, I threw away our old artificial tree. It's best days had long since passed. I wasn't sure we would be able to find any type of tree here, though, so I brought along three little skinny artificial trees I had used on our hearth at our old house. They are now set up in our foyer, because at the Concordia Christmas bazaar the weekend before last, we were able to order a live, potted tree. It is not a variety I have seen in the US, with very prickly needles but light, flimsy branches. It has a bit of a sparse, Charlie Brown tree look to it, but we are very pleased to have it! I had brought a small selection of our ornaments with us, and I found tree lights at Walmart a couple of weeks ago. Never mind that the lights are three-way blinking colored lights, which in the past would have been my last choice. Somehow that doesn't matter so much here. The kitties are having a ball with the tree, batting at lights and dangling ornaments. They must have had fun early this morning, because when I came into the living room later, there was quite a shower of needles on the floor under the tree. Hopefully the tree can make it a couple more weeks, until we leave for the US!

European Christmas in China

Yesterday we went to a European Christmas market in Shanghai! It was on the grounds of a Paulaner (German) restaurant. It was a beautiful, 60 degree day, so it didn't quite feel like a Christmas market in Germany, but they were serving gluvwine (a hot spiced wine), which made it seem more authentic! Enjoying my gluvwine! It made us nostalgic for the brief time we spent in Europe a dozen years ago with our dear friends Bill and Rebecca, and also for Mary and Justin who are enjoying the real Christmas markets in Germany right now.
Madelyn checks out some jewelry for sale. All of us did a little Christmas shopping.
If you ate at the Paulaner, you could redeem the price of of your tickets into the market towards your meal. The restaurant was very festively decorated, playing Christmas music, and with a Chinese Santa walking around with treats for the kids. There was also a free kids' buffet and crafts and toys for the kids to play with while in the restaurant! Madelyn and Gwen enjoyed this very much, and it made for a relaxing meal for the rest of us.

Christmas Thoughts

Yesterday I ventured to Walmart in Shanghai for the first time. I had heard from other expats that the Chinese Walmart was somewhat disappointing, so I hadn't bothered to go. But yesterday I was thinking about Christmas tree lights, and Walmart seemed like the logical place to look. I was not disappointed... I guess I would have been disappointed if I had assumed that the Chinese Walmart would be like the ones I have shopped at in the States, but I knew it wouldn't be. There was a small display right inside the front door of a dozen rather paltry looking trees, with gaudy decorations. A huge stuffed Santa greeted us at the door. "Jingle Bells", with Chinese words, played on the loudspeaker. One two-sided shelf contained two different types of tree lights, and some plastic snowflakes. A wall rack had various other tree ornaments, none of which appealed to me. But I was pleased to see the lights, and bought six boxes.

Later, when the boys arrived home from school, I showed Seth the lights. We were excited to learn, just a few days ago, that the school will be selling live potted Christmas trees at the Christmas bazaar this Saturday. We definitely want one! I brought many of our ornaments with us to China, in hopes that we would be able to find a tree here.

But Christmas in Shanghai isn't really the object of our imaginations these days. We are counting the days until we get on the plane for the looong flight to the US, when we will back on familiar streets, hearing voices we understand, and surrounded by people we love. Seth summed up his thoughts about Going Home For Christmas when he said, after seeing the lights I'd bought, "You know what I'm really looking forward to about going home at Christmas? Sitting on the couch in Aunt Jenna and Uncle Andrew's family room, smelling good things to eat."

Doesn't that just sound like family? Anyone who has ever gone away and come home again understands. It's a good thing.