The First Sunday in Advent

It was advent wreath making Sunday at church. The girls got a little help from Miss Sally and made 2 very fine wreaths. We brought one home to use for our daily devotions and sent one home to a dear friend. Mary Clare and I made fudge in the afternoon - I think she enjoyed it!

Pizza! Pizza!

Ever since Mary Clare's class went on a fieldtrip to the local pizzaria, she has been eager to make our own at home. The chefs really got into measuring, sifiting, kneading, spreading, sprinkling and finally eating.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so very much to be thankful for and our 2 Huazhou wonders are at the top of our list! After yesterday's festivities we had a quiet day. This morning the girls reenacted the Mayflower voyage using a laundry basket as the ship and a blue towel for the ocean (the ocean came after an admonishment to quit dragging the basket all over the floors). We ate leftovers and spent the afternoon on our local riverwalk. We have decided not to go to Boone for the weekend. Everyone is tired and neither of us wants to take the 2 car trip that would be involved if we cut our Christmas tree. Don't know where the tree will come from but we've got a little while to worry about that.

The Only Turkeys At Our House Are Made Out of Pumpkins

The morning started early and our Margaret Rose greeted it with her usual cheerfulness. She came in about 6:00am to find Lee and I busy sweeping, dusting, etc. She gave us that beautiful smile of hers and a cheery "good morning" and then went and got her own little broom and dust pan and asked so sweetly, "May I clean please?" She is so her Baba's girl! Miss Grumpy pants got up about an hour and a half later her usual a.m. self- need I say more? She and I are soooo much alike - poor thing.

PoPo has to work tomorrow so we invited Aa-Aa and Sylvia to come and share the Thanksgiving meal a day early. The girls were so excited to have everyone together! PoPo got very nervous when we let them loose with the hammer but they worked hard on the decorations and did a great job of putting their Hearthsong turkeys together. Mary Clare donned her chef's apparel and helped cook the sweet potatoes while Margaret Rose made personalized placemats. Aa-Aa brought the cutest paper bag puppet kits that the girls adored! They made one to decorate everyone's chair. We had a wonderful time day!!!

It's Official

The holiday season has begun. This afternoon the city put up the Christmas lights on the electric poles. Our Huazhou Wonders were ecstatic!! And they made some poor guy's day - they rushed outside Mary Clare still in her pjs and Margaret Rose in her can-can girl dress and shouted,

"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Thank you! Thank you!" and then serenaded him with Deck The Halls (this season's favorite). The man just grinned all over himself and wished them a merry Christmas too! At least if he had to work on a Saturday he knows he was appreciated.

Ruby's Wish

It was 1st grade book character dress-up day at Margaret Rose's school and she chose to go as Ruby from Shirin Yim Bridge's Ruby's Wish. She was so excited to wear her beautiful Chinese clothes, her Chinese shoes with roses on them and her hair in 2 knots like the character in the book. We kept getting notes home about how the children really had to know the book and we got very nervous about MR's day. She has a difficult time retelling a story- any story short or long, complicated or simple. She just doesn't have those skills yet and we did not want her embarrassed in front of her peers. We'd been practicing telling the basic point of the story - Ruby wanted to go to college and girls were not sent to school in Ruby's day- for days and Margaret still had a difficult time remembering. I sent an email to her teacher who sent a lovely, reassuring note back stating that she would not allow MR to be embarrassed and that she would help her with the book. Margaret Rose had a fine day dressed as Ruby and we are very grateful for her compassionate teacher who reported that in the end MR actually was able to tell the class that Ruby wanted to go to college and only boys could go. Way to go Ruby and Miss Margaret Rose! The rest of the pictures are of after school at our house - a can-can girl and a dragon doing "homework". Our girls LOVE Halloween but as you can tell other than the trick-or-treating it isn't much different than a regular day at our house.

That's Entertainment

Baba and the girls watching Bugs Bunny on YouTube... in Chinese.

The Things We Do For Love

As I've mentioned before our girls, especially Mary Clare, thinks that men dressed up as women are the funniest thing ever. I've attributed this to all the time they spend with their Baba watching an old British comedy in which the characters are often shown in fancy dress. Recently MC discovered the movie Mrs. Doubtfire and ever since has been determined that her Grumpy was going to dress as Mrs. Doubtfire for Halloween. And,as you can see, he did his best. Mrs Doubtfire even had trick-or-treat goodies in her handbag! I know very few men who would put on women's clothes, undergarments and makeup to make a 4 year old happy. Oh the things we do for love!