Christmas with Chinese Characteristics

The title on this one is a little bit of an inside joke- everything that I have to proofread for the university’s website or presentations refers to innovations and something (like engineering) with Chinese characteristics.  It usually implies that those characteristics will improve the original, that is not always the case. So our group here has started tagging it on to everything that is close but not quite right.

We had a Christmas party here on the 23rd, and while not everyone could make it, we had a nice group of friends over. We had some Chinese friends and some expat friends, and mostly people who work at the university.  We had good food, good friends and good conversation.

I got to make Christmas cookies and made a lot of peanut butter blossoms and sugar cookies. I was so excited to share them with everyone because it’s the first time I’ve gotten to bake here.  I had a small issue getting some of the ingredients, but next time will be even better.

Alex got to introduce his friends Kitty and Kelli together, had a rousing nerf gun fight (until, like every mother has always told her children, someone-Alex- got hit in the eye with a nerf dart), and played My First Carcasonne with them.  Usually he gets stuck with just grown ups so, it was great for him to get some kid time. They also got to go outside and play a little bit of frisbee with some of the adults at the party.

I said a few posts ago that I would post pictures of our apartment when I had the house decorated for Christmas. So when everything was cleaned up for the party was a perfect time to take some pictures.

Christmas Eve was a pretty chill day, just hanging out and wrapping presents.   Christmas morning I was the first one up,  I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid I couldn’t sleep at night because I so so excited to see what I would get. Alex slept in until 7:30- I couldn’t believe it.

We always open stockings first.

And then he moves on to bigger presents.

Uncle John and Aunt Heidi sent him and Mark a matching present.

And then came the Santa presents…

All in all we had a great Christmas,  Mark got a game and a dutch oven, I got a sewing machine and a Chinese copy of Nightmare Before Christmas. So a belated Merry Christmas (Shèngdàn kuàilè) from Haining!