Monday, January 3, 2011

New Years 2011

So, this week was so full of events that I could have done the blog every day and had PLENTY to write about. So, I will do my best to give you a picture of the week. The kids enjoyed playing during the break from school and especially enjoyed trying out their new rollerblades. It has been a great outlet for their energy :)
Katherine spent her time outside collecting sticks. All of the local kids started helping her. As you can see, she ended up with quite the collection. I wish you could see Katherine's entire outfit in this picture. I would not let her wear her sleeveless dress outside and told her she needed to change into something warmer...the end result was the sleeveless dress with a sweater on top and turquois pants underneath and hot pink rollerblades. It was definately a fashion statement.

We also celebrated Jonathan's 30th birthday. Regan decorated the cake all by herself. The kids got him a blender for his birthday (picked it out all by themselves) and then when he opened it they asked if he would make them an icee drink. Hmmmm is this gift really for Daddy? :)

Later that day, we went to a friend's house to celebrate. They had a cake for him also. This is the only kind of cake you can get here. It is not very sweet (but still good) and has fruit on the top and some little pieces cut up in the middle of the cake. OH! and white chocolate triangles on the side...I grabbed one of those.

Our friend taught us how to make traditional dumplings...called jaozi here. It is a lot of hard work, but well worth it. She rolled the dough out by hand, spins it around her arms to make the rind shape, cuts off small pieces, then makes the pieces flat and round using a specific technique.

This is what they should look like just befor they are cooked. Not all of them looked this way because we got to help make them as well. But after some teaching and a few practice rounds, we got pretty good at them also.

We ended up eating so many jaozi that night. I could not believe how many they fixed! They sure were delicious!!

In case you were wondering what they inside looks like just before the folding of the dumpling.

Little Benjamin only made about 2 or 3. The kids had a difficult time with the technique. It's very important not to loose the insides :) The kids had fun trying and then spent the rest of the evening playing with their friends.

We all would like a chair like this.

Meimei was the hit of the party (that is Lauren's name) Everyone has so much fun with her because she understands and speaks the language. Right now, Jonathan and I can still say more than her, but she will pass us up one day soon. She has the culture down. She knows exactly what to do and what to say.
Later in the week, the dog got sick and we took it to the vet. We were told that it would probably die later in the day. So, we said goodbyes and left the dog there. We left soon after that to go to Hong Kong for the New Years. Just so you are not in suspense...the doctor called us while we were in Hong Kong and said that the dog was doing much better. So, when we got back from our trip, we picked it up from the vet. The kids were so happy and Doggy Bones is full of energy :)

One of our favorite parts about visiting Hong Kong is the option of Western foods. We went out to eat and Katherine enjoyed a hot dog.

Lauren just couldn't handle all the excitement and fell sound asleep at the dinner table. It was hilarious. I would show the series of pics, but it would take up too much space :)

We saw another junk (the name of this boat). I just really like the old and new in one picture.

We decided to claim a spot to see the countdown for new years. We decided that a good spot would be where all the fancy cameras were lined up already on tripods. We claimed our spot and then the cameras came off and they started taking pictures of our kids. The kids didn't even seem to notice.

I forgot my good camera, but was pleased with the shot I was able to get with my little one that I carry around with me everywhere. The kids fell alseep on the ground while we waited, but we woke them up just in time for the countdown.

Welcome 2011!! I don't know why I was surprised, but the countdown started at about 20 seconds and I started to say 19, 18...then it hit me that the rest of the city was NOT saying it in English. Silly me. I have it on video. Lot's of fun, but probably won't do it again anytime soon...at least not with 4 little ones :)

I tried my best to capture the sea of humanity that we were right in the middle of. This was the best I could do. I don't believe a picture can actually capture it because the crowd was like this EVERYWHERE! I was very grateful to a guy that was walking behind us...he kept his hand out the entire time we were walking to the subway to make sure that no one ran into Katherine.
So, that was our week in a very large nutshell :)
Hope you all had a Happy New Years also.