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Christmas morning....
The kids drew names and exchanged gifts. Go Decathlon! It's a great sporting goods store and we find lots of fun things there. Including the gifts they bought for each other. Maybe someday we'll figure out how to do homemade gifts for each other??
It was a simple and wonderful Christmas. We had friends over for Christmas Eve Dinner. Mexican Food. Somehow that tradition stuck. I try new things all the time so I'm not sure what's tradition and what's not. But I love the big dinner on Christmas Eve and a relaxing family day on Christmas. So fun. Callie got a really cool yellow Baby G-Shock watch. Brock got legos. Dash got legos. Chael got magnet toys. Brian got a toaster! (Thanks Osbornes!) And I got a big card that says, "Best Mom Ever!" And back rubs!
We are grateful for the international birthday party around the world where we all celebrate one of the most important events in the history of the world. I'm so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who gave His perfect son. He was born. He lived a perfect life. He died for us. And He lives again. How can we not rejoice?
Sushi in Shanghai! We found a sushi caboose. Everyone loved it!
We spent a few nights in Shanghai at the Westin Hotel after Christmas-- swimming in the hotel pool, shopping and eating yummy food. We loved it. We had a really great time. Instead of flying somewhere we just decided to go to a nice hotel and swim in a pool! Shanghai's a fun place to do that.
JiaoZhou Lu, Shanghai Lane House where we use to live!
This is Da Mama and Da Baba who lived right below us in our 1938 Lane House off of Jiao Zhou Lu in Shanghai. Three blocks North of the Jing An Temple. And Ayi who lived down the lane. We moved in when Callie was one month old and moved to Hangzhou when she was three and Brock one month old. They were ecstatic to see us! Well, mainly the kids, but! They were soooooo happy to see us and insisted on ordering pizza and hanging out and our children felt really special. They could see just how much our Chinese neighbors loved them.
Da Mama and Da Baba own a little shop on the first floor. There kitchen is right behind it. They would sit Callie in some propped up chairs and feed her dinner all the time. She just had to say "unh!" and reach for something and she had all sorts of ayis and mamas coming to her aid. Chinese people love children so much and really feel a deep sense of duty to help children. It can come across as interfering to Westerners but I've tried to teach my children that Chinese people go out of their way for them because they love them.
It's true that foreign children attract attention and people love to take pictures with them and even pet them or hold them. I remember pointing out to Dash who (don't tell him!) is quite shy, "Look how many friends you have, Dash! Everybody loves you!!" This sweet shy boy didn't see all of the attention as horrific as he could have. It was when he was a little older while I was pushing him in his stroller he told me, "Mom? I have lots of friends." I realized he felt this way because I pointed it out to him often when we were on the busy streets or anywhere when people came over to him to say hi.
Da Mama and Da Baba are the kind of friends that look out for you and protect you. They are very Shanghainese! and we just love them! It was a wonderful reunion and so wonderful to see them again. Everyone came out to chat and of course just tell us how awesome we are. Because I have four children, they call me "Glorious Mother". Who wouldn't love that? How can we not love them when they are so good to us?
Spidey Bros.
Shopping at the Science and Technology knock off market is one of our favorite things to do in Shanghai. These brothers are rockin' their new spidey shirts that we got for $2. They were walking like this towards the subway and we asked them to hold for a picture.
There's sharks in the water.
Pizza Express!
We ordered two pizzas. It wasn't enough as they are super thin. But it is delicious. So then we hit Carl's Jr. We don't have that in Hangzhou!
There's a Forever 21 in Shanghai! So I found. The boys played dress up while Callie and I shopped. Well, mostly me. :) I made Callie try things on and shop too. She's taller than me now! And needs clothes....
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