Merry Christmas!

We are enjoying our second consecutive Christmas in China, and so far this one is more relaxed and 'Christmas-y' than last year. Last year we had just arrived here and had no furniture, decorations, wrapping paper or much of an idea of how to do Christmas. This year we are settled and enjoying life. Not that Christmas is about wrapping paper and lights at all, but it helps the kids to continue to adjust. Not that we come from a winter wonderland in Georgia, but 70 degrees outside doesn't quite give you the holiday feel! Here are the kids in front of a giant Christmas tree made out of 7-up bottles!

Merry Christmas to each of yall! We hope this Christmas is a blessing for you and your family.

All I Want For Christmas

On Christmas Eve we saw two teeth fall out of two different kids! Hud started the morning off by losing his and that inspired his sister to lose hers. Here are HG and Hud with their missing teeth!

New Post! New Post! New Post!

You probably thought this would never happen, but it has. A new post updating you on life here in China. It has been a while seeing that Halloween was our last update and we are now only a few days from Christmas. But, we've been busy and blogspot has been incredibly slow recently. On to the update...

We had a great Thanksgiving. We invited some Chinese friends over and they experienced a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving meal. We had 13 dishes but said no to the turkey. The only way to get a turkey was to have one imported from the states and they ran around $45 per bird. Also we have a slightly-larger-than-a-toaster-oven and figured trying to cook a bird for so long might cause problems. So we had chicken breasts and stovetop, which did the trick flavor wise. No gravy though. Inexplicable we did not take any pictures.

We also celebrated one year in China during the first week of December. We went and had ice cream. Ice cream in winter?!?!?? Well, it has been in the mid-70's recently here and we've been wearing shorts and t-shirts in the house. We've rarely had to turn on the heaters. Anyway, this year has been exceptional. We all seem to be adjusting to the culture pretty well and enjoying life here. We've made many good friendships with local people and foreigners as well.

In the past month or so we have joined some Chinese people who are helping the homeless in the city. While it can be warm during the day, the temperature drops quickly once the sun sets behind the mountains and nights on the street can be cold. All five of us have gone out and helped bring food to street kids and homeless grandmas. The people have appreciated the food and just having someone talk to them. We are hoping to be of more help to the homeless in finding them shelter and employment in the future.

We are getting ready for Christmas and have been invited to sing a Christmas carol or two at a performance at a hotel nearby on Christmas Eve. The kids are definitely excited about Christmas and have enjoyed the influx of cookies in our house. Unfortunately, Jason has enjoyed the influx too much and will have to soon begin sugar detox.

Our business has only made a few small steps forward, but we are hoping that this next year will be one that brings clearer focus and more opportunities. We tried to help a restaurant get started here, but the owner wasn't ready to open this or next year. Currently we are looking at turning tobacco farmland into something that generates more income for the farmers.

We are excited about the possibilities this next year will bring. This first year was a learning experience and a time for adjusting to our new lives. We hope this next year we will thrive even more and continue to become more and more comfortable in our new culture.

We promise to use our camera again so you can see more pictures soon. But here's a fun one of our kids...

Halloween Fun!

We had a great end to October here in China. We made halloween cookies, went to a Harvest Festival and ate lots of goodies. Here's some shots of the kids having fun...

Cookie Making...


...And Eating.
Getting Ready.

At the Festival!

HG's Bangs!

Well, our little girl wanted bangs. What's a Daddy to do? HG went today and got some bangs. Here she is...

Felicia's Birthday!!!

Felicia turned 29....again! We celebrated with a once a year trip to the brand new Papa John's and Dairy Queen in our city. We say once a year because it will take about that long to 1) burn off all the calories consumed, and 2) save enough money to go there again. It was a great time and Felicia got 140 photos of friends and family as her gift from the kids. Our city ran out of frames, though, so it may take a while before they are all displayed.

Pepperoni pizza at Papa Johns.

Opening her gift.

Her first bite of DQ!

Only about 5000 calories.

The kids enjoying their treats.

Family Fun Festival

The International School in our city hosted a Family Festival for everyone to come and enjoy. There were all the games you see at these things in America with some Chinese extras. The boys got balloon animals and tattoos and did a football toss. HG loved this gooey game where you had to find marbles. There were also Muslim lamb sticks, Korean barbeque, hot dogs and donuts. The kids had a great time.

Soccer Stars

We started soccer this week and all three of the kids had so much fun. A real benefit of living here is that the soccer league is run by Brazilians. Its like having a fat southern lady teach you how to deep fry. Considering Jason was the kids' most recent coach in the States, this is a considerable step up. Here's some pictures from the first practice.

Hot Eats, Cool Treats

Sometimes people will ask if it is difficult to leave behind things in America to live in China. We definitely miss some things, but a lot of things we can do without, find a substitute or apparently some things just follow us here.

We loved cooking out on the grill and having hotdogs, hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob and asparagus all going at one time during a relaxing weekend during the summer in the States. So, we were missing it until we found this baby at WalMart here. While it doesn't quite have the capacity of our old grill in the States, it can still get the job done and it only cost 4 dollars. You can't beat that combo.

Also, after a long day playing outside in the sun or just wanting a little treat, who doesn't want some delicious, cold ice cream? Well, DQ has decided to follow us here and is opening soon. Now, for more than the cost of a new grill at Walmart, we can enjoy a oreo blizzard with cheesecake crumbles. Of course, due to the cost, this might be a "birthday only" kind of treat.

We are on one hand happy that we now have Papa John's and Dairy Queen and McDonald's and stuff, because it is a nice treat to have on occasion, but it is also a little sad to see China lose some of its Chinesy-ness. Sometimes, in some places, you can feel like you are in an America that just speaks Chinese. Of course, some people think that day might not be too far away anyway. Maybe we're just getting a headstart.

Jason's Trip Up North

We are having a holiday here in China with the 60th anniversary of the country and the Mid-Autumn Festival coming back to back, so Jason took to the rails and visited some friends in provinces north of us. It was an awesome time to see these friends and see what their lives are like.


Here are some photos of our friends' town in the far north. It was a little cold there, but beautiful.

Sunset view from our friends' door.

Our friends' toilet. No one has fallen in , yet. This is typical for the homes in the area.

A village school we visited.

Central Heating in our friends' home. Again, typical for the area.

The mountains north of town.

Sheep in town.

My train car with bunk beds. Surprisingly comfortable, but a loooong ride.

Our Family Expands

We have added a new member to our family....Gerby. Hannah Grace has been saving her money from doing chores and we went today to the dog market (for pets, not for eating) and picked out this cutie. Hudson calls her a "gergil". So far, she hasn't escaped so Felicia is happy.

Exciting News For Us!

While many of our 3 readers won't find this too amazing, we were a little excited to see this sign going up in a new shopping development downtown:Of course, we do already have Pizza Hut here and only have eaten there once in the last nine months, but Papa John's has better ingredients and better pizza. In reality, we will probably eat here once as well, but it is always fun to have new stuff available.

Also, next door to Papa John's was this jewel. While some think Peanuts is just a comic strip and Charlie Brown is limited to holiday specials, here in China he is branching out with his own cafe. Rumors are he will be launching a fashion line in Spring '10, soon to be followed with a Nascar sponsorship.

Summer of NaiNai

Jason's mom, NaiNai, came to visit this summer. We tried to show her a good time. Here are some shots with her...

Her first picture with the kids. Her plane landed near midnight over here so the kids woke her up the next morning. No real chance to overcome jetlag with these three around.

I can't turn this picture the right way to save my life.

Eating a handmade sugar bunny.

Eating dumplings!

In front of beautiful pools.

Around 14,000 feet.

Making chocolate for a contest that our kids won!

Summer Pictures!

Here are some pictures from this summer. It was a busy summer with a trip to Thailand, moving to our own house, having Jason's mother here for a month, a mini vacation to a mountain and an ancient Chinese city and finally helping teach an English Camp in our old hometown. Here's the photos...

Putt putt!

Hudson and a friend drawing with 3-D sidewalk chalk.

HG and Micah with the sidewalk chalk. Thanks, NaiNai!

Hudson and Micah searching for frogs.

Felicia feeding HG some rice noodles.

Playing with friends on our playground.

Swimming at the pool across the street.

Micah in the ancient Chinese town.

When you gotta go, you gotta go... on top of the old gate to a walled city.

Felicia and Micah learning about fingerprints.

Fish!

Riding on yaks. Not the best smelling animals.

Riding on horses. Better smelling than yaks.

Us at the southern most glacier in the northern hemisphere at over 14,000 feet. Five days later we were in the tropics. Both of these are just a day's busride from our city.