Celebrate!

(The ColdStone Cake they Got us... You could say 27 for Mike, year of the pig for Chelsey)

Since our birthdays are the 29th and 30th we had a joint birthday celebration. We made one of our favourite meals, spaghetti w/ meatballs and garlic toast and had some of our Chinese friends over. Our friends brought an ice cream cake from cold stone with them. It was cake batter flavored ice cream, pretty interesting because it tasted like cake but felt like ice cream. I liked it, the Chinese got a little sweetened out half way through, which is no surprise. It was very kind of them. We had alot of fun. A lady from the ward that I was talking to the other day suggested that we should start some of our own Christmas family traditions, this being our first Christmas with Jada. This will be Mike's and My third Christmas together. In Previous years we have done a combination of his family traditions and mine. Christmas eve is the biggest deal in my family. my mother has always spent at least a week before hand cooking all our favourite Christmas treats, savory and sweet, and we start out Christmas eve with a table full of tons and tons of different appetizers, little wieners, spinach dip, crackers and cheese, layered taco chip dip, deviled eggs, butter tarts, shortbread... you name it, it is there. Then we make pretty plates of Christmas treats and go pixying (Put a plate of treats on the doorstep, ring the door bell and run for it. Then we come home get dressed up in costumes and my dad reads the Christmas story as we act it out. Then we spend the rest of the evening spending time together as a family playing games and singing Christmas carol around the piano. I heard a really interesting idea that I think would be fun to start as a tradition in our family. For the Christmas eve dinner you have what is called a Bethlehem dinner where you sit on the floor and eat food with you hands, the kind of food that would likely have been on the table in the time of Christ. Flat bread, lamb, hummus, ect. You then have someone, usually the father read the story of Christs birth. I really like this idea for really helping the story of Christ to come alive for our Children. I also like the idea of choosing a family together that we would like to do a service for in the week leading up to Christmas. And of course you have to enjoy all the Christmas time classic treats like butter tarts and peanut brittle through out the Christmas holidays. It would be a great opportunity to spend time with our children in the kitchen and give then something to do during the holidays as well. If you have any Christmas family traditions that you would like to share with us please leave a comment we would love to hear them.

American Thanksgiving Plans

Our branch here in Beijing is doing something that I have never seen done before but totally appropriate for the area. The whole branch is organized into family groups. There is a family assigned (one that has a decent size oven I am assuming since those are a little scarce around here) to hold a thanksgiving dinner at their home. They cook the main meal, turkey, dressing and such and the guests bring everything eles. It is a great idea. Being so far from home the branch becomes a substitute family while your here. We need to pay special attention to taking care of each other because many here are out of their comfort zone in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar language and culture. Jada even has an "adoptive" grandma, Sister Johnson. We spent the first few days with Jada in the Johnsons home and she helped me learn all there is to know about taking care of a baby since I couldn't have my mother here. Mike and I are really excited, even though we already had two Canadian thanksgiving meals while we were in Canada, can you really get tired of the spirit that surrounds thanksgiving and the yummy food. Mike and I are bringing homemade rolls (buns). I am using the recipe that Mikes mom uses. I love this recipe for three reasons. They are delicious at the same time as being very cheap plus easy to make, no fluffing up eggs or kneading of dough for ever and ever. Although if you have a botch none of those are really that much work but for me with just a bowl and a tablespoon and a fork it is a lot of work. Yeah for easy, tasty recipes. To add to the excitement, this weekend is also mike's birthday and then mine on monday. Three days in a row of celebration. Happy thanksgiving to all the Americans out there.

Jada's new toy

Jada is so fun to watch on her new toy the wiggle worm she makes some great faces. This is just

one of them. She found her hands lately. She doesn't have alot of control yet but she does know how to get them in her mouth. Chewing on her hands is one of her new, besides the wiggle worm, favorite past times.