Well, the kids officially finished their first semester at the local school. You can see some of the awesome things they made in the pictures below. They also did a short play in each grade. Kylie was a queen and Colt was supposed to be an ugly giant. haha. Their school moved this year and is now in the center of a village. So, that’s fun for them to be around roaming cows and chickens and see the farmers and fields every day. I took a few pics and included those too. Caden loves to explore there too – he was chasing a puppy and somehow squeezed between two houses in a crack I thought would be too small.

Now we are on winter break from January 21 – February 21. During this time, everyone here will celebrate the biggest holiday of the year – Spring Festival. It’s comparable to Christmas in that everyone goes back home to be with family and eats lots of food

I’m enjoying this time when everyone is excited and the red lanterns are going up everywhere. It just a happy time. . . with lots of random fireworks.

I recently had to travel to Hong Kong by myself to switch over from a tourist to work visa. David had also just taken a trip out of the country for 5 days the week before so I was looking forward to a quiet time away for a few days myself. I have traveled to Thailand with Kylie and Colt before and have taken fast train trips in country. . . but never left the country by myself. We had made the trip to HK probably 25 times though, so I should be a pro. Honestly, I just follow David. He is the navigator. This was going to be a test of my bad sense of direction

I made it to HK no problem. Getting from the train station to my hotel though, I think I walked the wrong way at every possible turn. I was still trying to get used to following google maps – haha. But, I made it. I checked in then went out to get some dinner. One advantage of all the wrong turns was I saw lots of good places to eat.

The next morning I found the office to turn in my paperwork. Then I had to wait for 2 days. So, I did some computer work, read some books, exercised, and found yummy foods. You can see the pictures below. I ate a big ‘ole burger and a milkshake (I ordered the Americana milkshake with peanut butter cups and coco puffs – haha). I did get better following my map and navigating the metro thankfully. No getting lost! Hong Kong is such a big place with so many people. . . not a favorite destination of this West Virginia born and raised gal.

Got the visa and made it home a day early! Woo hoo! Missed my family and was ready to be back

Caden turned 6 on January 22. Instead of gifts, our family does “experiences.” I feel like the kids will remember the things we do together more than a toy they got for their birthday. At least, that is what I hope So, the birthday person gets to plan the day. Caden’s plans were a special chocolate pancake breakfast, then to the trampoline park for the day. Pizza, milk tea, and donuts for lunch, and Mexican for dinner and family movie/game night. We were going to celebrate with a cake with his classmates at school. This was his master plan.

However, it didn’t work out that way.

I came back in country with my visa last Wednesday. David has also made a trip out of country this month, but the kids “60 day” mark that THEY had to leave the country because of the tourist visa was a week after I got back (the 23rd). I begged the school I work at to get the visa processed because it should only take a week – then we wouldn’t have to leave again for the kids 60 day mark because we would be off the tourist visa and on my work visa. Well, the school was busy with end of semester stuff and wasn’t able to get it done. I tried everything and even spent 2 days going back and forth between police stations, entry-exit bureaus, and registration offices trying to take care of it myself, only to find out. . . the school had to give the official signature. So, we are still waiting on the school and David had to take the kids out of country. I couldn’t go because until my visa is processed I can’t leave the country again.

So, poor Caden’s birthday plans only made it through pizza lunch, milk tea, and donuts. Then the 4 of them headed to the train station and off to Hong Kong. They were back within 24 hours though and I had balloons, birthday cake, and Mexican for dinner waiting for them. They took it all in stride and were just as happy as a lark about everything regardless. We also watched old videos of Caden and reminisced about what we love about Caden. He REALLY liked that Then we had family game night. They got to watch their movie on the train.

It may not have gone as planned, but it was memorable and he didn’t have any complaints! I was disappointed, but didn’t let it show in front of the kids. I’ve learned early on to keep it positive and the kids do great!

Here is my post about purple sweet potatoes per Ms. Beverly Johnson’s request Purple sweet potatoes have a very distinct taste. We eat orange sweet potatoes plain, but the purple ones not so much. They can be steamed and made into a very thick warm “juice” or can be steamed with the rice, which is what I did for dinner the other night.

I was looking up the benefits just for this post. I mean, I knew it was good for me because it was purple. . . but I found they are full of cancer fighters, anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties.

I was super thankful for our kids school taking the kids to the village around their school to visit the elderly and be a blessing by playing music for them. It’s always good to serve others and spreading joy is contagious!

Christmas was a lot different this year. First of all, it was on a Tuesday. So, I had to work and the kids had school. Nothing special. Didn’t feel any different than any other day really. David had made a special dinner when I came home with the kids – homemade Mexican (delicious, but not too traditional).

Another reason is things have changed around here. The govt. doesn’t want Christmas celebrated here anymore since it is another influence from the Western World. We had seen postings online about not celebrating Christmas and don’t give/receive gifts. Because I had previously been informed I couldn’t share anything of religious nature in the classroom (and before I knew about the Christmas ban) I bought neutral Christmas crafts like snowmen and Christmas trees. . . I still taught Christmas terms and songs, but couldn’t mention Jesus’ birth. There is always a local teacher sitting in on my classes, and she didn’t seem too supportive of my fun activities and crafts for my Christmas lessons. Only AFTER my lessons did I realize I probably wasn’t supposed to teach that, but nobody said anything to me. . . before or after . . . so. . .atleast the students enjoyed it!

We did have 3 small gatherings in our home with friends. We made cookies, shared a meal, played games, gave gifts and shared the Christmas Story! Two new friends had never heard that story before.

Winter Solstice happened on December 21 this past year. It marks the longest night and shortest day of the year. Per tradition here we eat dumplings on this certain day of the year. So, you can see in some of the pictures below we were rolling out purple (color from purple sweet potatoes), green (color from spinach), and white dough to wrap the meat/chive filling in. Then it was boiled and eaten with A TON of other foods as displayed on the tables. It was delicious! We also did some paper cutting, ping pong ball blowing, balloon and three person races.

Being outdoors is good for the soul. When you live in a city of a million people, sometimes you just need to find a place where it’s quiet and you aren’t surrounded by people, cars, and city lights and sounds. Back when it was warmer we went camping with some good friends. We brought food and cooked over the fire. We even cook rice inside bamboo and ate with bamboo chopsticks we made. Being able to see the stars at night was also quite exciting!

This is one of my local friends whom I have been really intentional to spend time with. She is married to a French man and they have three small children. Her daughter is in Kylie’s class, and those two little girls together are double trouble

She is searching and really wants to learn about marriage and parenting. They come from two different cultural backgrounds so, naturally, they have a lot of disagreements and different expectations. She has told me, “You guys have something different. I want to learn from you.” So, while I feel inadequate and know I’m still struggling and learning along the way, I’ve been able to share with her what the Father is teaching me and what we have that is “different.” I also got to take her on a great hike up to the top of a mountain in our city. Some fun girl time and some good talks along the way!

One day while driving home from school, the kids and I spotted a baby bird in the middle of the road. Of course, we stopped to “rescue” it before it got ran over, and it was cold! It couldn’t fly (or so we thought), so we put it in a container for the night with the intention of buying a cage and food the next day. Kylie and Caden were observing it in the container when it showed us it actually could fly! And perched itself on top of Kylie’s wardrobe. We managed to catch it again thankfully.

The next day while Kylie was at school, Caden and I went to purchase a bird cage and food. But, when we got home the little bird was dead! Oh dear. Now, I had a birdcage and food but no bird. The most natural solution would be to go back and buy a bird, right? So we did. We bought two birds and two baby turtles all for about $5. The little songs of the birds were lovely but their poop was not. They lasted about two months and we recently decided it was time for them to be released into our neighborhood, the turtles got released too. Consider it a little learning experiment.

In our past 5 year in East Asia, we have had three baby rabbits (two quickly got sick and died, one was released before the same thing happened), two baby ducks (snatched out of our yard by rats when we lived on the first floor), lots of turtles and fish (mostly caught by the kids and all released back to the pond), three snakes (one escaped, but the other two are still around), and we have also kept several of our friends’ dogs (I don’t think I want a dog). It’s been fun!