Christmas wrap up

The elves have been working quickly, quickly. Actually I've been really ill for the past week, so when Christmas came up on us, we rested some more. We had our usual saturday morning pancake breakfast, special with eggs AND bacon (wow). We each opened our one present.(We had other presents, but we opened the electric blanket and deodorant early out of necessity) I headed to the market for groceries (mad house) while Timon got his hair cut.

We had a few comrades over for a simple dinner; rotisserie chicken, garlic mash potatoes (土豆泥 literally "potato mud"), Jon's broccoli salad, curry made by his chef roomie, and apple pie for dessert (by the Smiths!) Jon's broccoli salad is amazing. He brings it to every potluck meal so we all look forward to it- crunchy raw broccoli, bacon, grapes, homemade mayo sauce, and sunflower seeds. We had so much we ate it for 3 days after Christmas!

Christmas isn't complete with some caroling- so Jon jumped on the guitar as we nibbled on toffee, peanut brittle, and caramels made and shipped over from his mom. Thanks Mrs. Osterman! Tastes like christmas!

Yeah, our kitchen was trashed after all the cooking. By the end of the night I hadn't even made my christmas presents yet. Happy new year!

thanks santa

Santa (shown in previous post) brought me a gift early- an electric blanket!!!! It is awesome. SO awesome.

We had our first snow this week, on wednesday.

Just one day of snow. That evening all was blanketed in white, minus the slippery roads. It didn't stick for the most part, the roads were just wet.

pre-christmas preparations

Can you hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ding dingaling....? We had a pre-christmas party last night to celebrate with our pals who are on their way to their motherlands. With busy weekends we opted to order in rotisserie chicken, sooo delicious. A friend made mulled wine and the Europeans shared the "st. Nicolas" stories they grew up.(Sinterklaas and Sint Nikolaas, who has an assistant named "Black Pete" The wikipedia pic is.. interesting)

Sometime after dinner Timon snuk into his Santa costume (leftover from his bachelor party-) and came out with a jolly HO HO HO and explained the 50rmb white elephant gift exchange. It was mass confusion. T and I didn't even KNOW about the gift exchange until that day (even though I was the one who sent the invites out) and so some gifts were rather nice (5o RMB gift certificate to marks and spencer) and nicer for others (size 5.5 gold shoes). Timon won the former, and I, the latter.

(Above stockings I made this week) One of the best gifts was the biggest. In a large cloth sack was a fancy moon cake gift box. (BTW moon cakes are sweet bean* pastries given during Oct. moon festival. *There are "pleasant" surprises also) This moon cake box was larger than a x-large pizza box, and when the lid was unhinged open, the interior is lined with faux silk and there's empty "spots" that the cakes usually fit into. In this gift, each "spot" was filled with some odd thing- angel bear night light, pack of displosable undies, bible trivia cards, Montreal steak seasoning, socks, and a framed image of an iris. On the outside of the moon cake box was taped a pg ripped form a magazine of a skiier. ("For christmas! You know, snow- christmas?" said the fellow who made it)

I had put in two gifts, we had one left over, which people answered bible trivia to get the last prize. (two christmas plates)

what a weekend! We ran out of forks and plates and had to recycle-wash mid party to continue the feast. woo!

xoxo