In the Party Mood

Last night we went to our first Chinese Christmas party. Some of you may be really really shocked because this is our second Christmas here. Last year, however, we had just moved to our present city, so we didn't have any parties to go. I'm not sure what I expected but as usual, expectations never turn out. It ended up being a really nice party.
The soiree of the season was held at a Brazillian BBQ--yes, I know, the words Twilight Zone have already been suggested. It is a really fancy restaurant that is located at one side of a really nice hotel...and as usual, directly on the other side is a slum. Now, we had been to another Brazillian BBQ place in town (yep, there are more than one!) and were less than excited about the food. But the food at this restaurant was very tasty! The best beef I've had in a while, really tender too! Tim tried the camel but said the flavor was a little odd, imagine that.
With all that said, we made it past all the intestines, donkey meat, and unidentifiable items to have a very lovely meal. We went on to the social graces of the night. The school officials came around to toast all of us foreign students. The whole "cheers" and clanking of the glasses is a big deal here. But there is a little more too it than just throwing one's glass up and hollering "ganbei!" Now there is actually a proper ettiquete, which there probably is in the States too, but I'm ignorant of it. The higher the ranking the higher the glass is head, but it is always polite to defer and hold your glass lower. So with two people, each trying to be the more "humble" of the two, a lot of glass bobbing goes on as someone is always trying to move his or her glass lower. We hope we made it through the evening without seeming too proud or without causing anyone to lose face.
I have almost forgotten to tell you all of the most entertaining (by far!) part of the evening. At some point, the restaurant switched over from Muzak to a real live sax player. Here we are in the middle of China in a Brazillian restaurant watching the lounge-singer version of a sax player wearing skin tight (no, the pants could not have been tighter) pants, a leopard print shirt and a Crocodile Dundee hat rocking out to Kenny G. I have to add this, of course, to compete with someone else's Christmas party that had a Cruise theme--complete with Gilligan's Island (wannabe) cast and Karaoke (yeah, we avoided Karaoke yet again--crying kids can be such a blessing!).
I hope everyone else at home is enjoying Christmas parties, seeing friends and being with family. Enjoy all the lights and smells of Christmas for us. Tim bought me a sweet pre-Christmas treat--Cranberry juice! Wal-Mart just happened to be selling it today, how cool is that! So I'm off to sip a little!
If I don't get back to blog again before Christmas...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

A quick update...

So, it's been exactly a month since my last "real" blog...I'm not even sure anyone is reading anymore! Then it was the week before Thanksgiving and now it is the week before Christmas. From the chaos of Thanksgiving to the chaos of the the countryside to the chaos of sending Tim and Elijah to Hong Kong...Christmas is really starting to feel like a vacation. I'm not studying again until after the New Year, Isabella is starting "real" kindergarten...Speaking of kindergarten, the kids are no longer going to Chinese kindergarten. I have already had one person express his great disappointment in this happening, so sorry (or not) to all those who feel that they have been let down by my not taking the kids to school any longer. Poor Isabella, the school has begged me to bring Elijah back, but have said that they don't really care for her...which only reinforces my suspicion that they like smaller children and the older the children, the less they are liked. And another way that I have been branded as a "bad mother" is that in this culture, a baby is carried around at all times. I can see a grandma from my balcony. She holds the baby while she watches her soap operas. She holds the baby while she puts clothes on the line and takes them down and while she sweeps and while he sleeps...in short, she never puts the child down. Apparently, the grandmothers down stairs have been talking saying that I am never at home and that I don't carry the baby enough. Another foreigner who lives in the complex thought they were talking about her, but I assured her that they were pointing to my building and that she off the "bad mother" list.
In the Holiday report, I heard a rumor that the news is reporting that China celebrates Hanukkah...I'm sure that this report comes from the East part of the country but I am unaware of any Chinese person who even knows what it is! And their celebrating Christmas is interesting. There many Christmas trees up in stores, most of which make the Charlie Brown Christmas tree look good enough to put up in the White House. It makes me long for Al's huge Christmas tree with all the lights and decorations place nicely (and evenly). But yet again, I have so far been able to control myself from "fixing" everyone else's tree. As for our own celebrations, Tim's school is taking the foreigners out for Christmas. We are going to the Brazilian BBQ restaurant, which I fear has little to do with either. But it is a nice place and relatively western. I am going to make cookies and caramel popcorn for the officials and teachers. I hope they will like these gifts, but even after almost two years, I'm always at a loss for what is an appropriate gift. Anyway, these are the things going on here at Christmas time. We hope to be able to talk to everyone on Christmas day...either ours or yours, whatever makes you happy! We really miss everyone at Christmas time especially.

Don't get too excited...

Well, I would like to say that I am sitting down now and finally getting out something really interesting for you all to read, but alas, no. This is mainly an apology for neglecting my page, although I am sure that this was inevitable. I would love to say that this is just because I am a mother of three living in a foreign country...but those of you who know me really well will laugh and say, "nah, she's always had time management issues." So, I promise that my intention is that once Tim and Elijah return and life settles (at least a bit) I will post again with pictures and everything!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are having a blessed time preparing for Christmas and celebrating the arrival of the Christ child!!!
Looking forward to having a break to sit down and write again...