We got back into our apartment on December 15th, and that gave us just enough time to set up our Christmas tree and do things mostly like usual.
Nothing like being back in your own home for your own traditions. Not everything arrived in time, and not everything was wrapped completely but for the most part it was a normal holiday at home.
Alex got new ships for their Star Wars Armada game, for those that aren’t familar, it’s a game with lots of figures and little ships that you play on a gigantic table. More than a few tears have been shed about this game, but it is/was his favorite game for a while.
For a long time now, Alex has been using my stocking for his. My mom made that stocking for me when I was little- she made one for Alex too when he was a baby, but he has outgrown that one. She also made Mark’s stocking (not pictured anywhere here) . This year a friend got Alex a personalized stocking that will be his going forward and I’ll get my stocking back.
Stockings for us are mostly small gifts, treats, and things you need, like a bookmark.
Alex has started his own tradition of writing Mark a letter to go with his presents each year, telling Mark about the wonderful things they’ve done together and how Alex feels about him.
One of the great things about being back in China was getting to see and catch up with our friends. Lily, Simon and Elektra have been great friends and as soon as we were back we made plans for a strawberry picking excursion. Lily is one of those people who always knows a cool new place to eat, or something fun to do!
She found this strawberry picking place, attached to it is a park/playground and a great restaurant.
This place has different greenhouses with different types of strawberries, some good for just eating, some good for dipping in chocolate, small and large.
Alex patiently stopping for a picture in between greenhouses.
They had ducks and chickens- you could buy them and take them home but they were expensive. They are fed mostly strawberries which is supposed to affect the way they taste but we haven’t tried them.
He is critcal of what looked like a great strawberry but once he picked it he could see one side was mushy. He did great picking strawberries, which made up for the fact I wasn’t doing so good because I was too busy taking pictures.
Elektra is so fun, she takes a while to warm up to you (and even now gets shy at the very beginning of a get together with us) but once she does, she is a blast to hang out with. She knows all the poses for taking pictures, and when she catches on that you’re filming her- you can’t get another candid shot.
Elektra really likes Alex, and he enjoys being a big brother figure to her.
This is the owner of the strawberry greenhouses, she was with us to show us which places had the best strawberries and help us collect more because we were a little slow.
As you can see from Mark’s basket, we had a lot of luck with finding good strawberries! I think we all had a good time, and it was nice to be out in the world doing activities again.
Just the guys!
All of us together with our strawberry hauls!
Elektra kept sneaking strawberries when no one was looking. We were trynig to limit the number they ate since we were going to lunch right away, but every time her mom wasn’t looking, Elektra would grab another strawberry.
While we were waiting for our table for lunch, the kids played on the playground. It was warm enough that Alex was just in his polar fleece, which created an unbelievable amount of static electricty on the plastic slide.
When they would come down the slide Elektra’s hair would literally stand on end, and they began the game of zapping the adults with the static electricity.
She has such a mischevious smile here, she was really having fun with Alex.
The restaurant has great food, and we’ve been back a couple of times with Simon and Lily since then.
Alex is a terrible influence and created the character Coke the dope using his empty coke can, an orange, and some bottle caps. There was a little song and every time he would say it, Elektra would repeat it. I was sure she’d be repeating it forever.
Alex and Elektra with their Coke the dopes.
Traveling Expat Family 