It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We were surprised to see Christmas decorations going up a couple of weeks ago.  December 1st, the area where we live, lit up with festivities. The word on the street is that they keep these decorations up through the Chinese New Year which isn't until February.  That's fine with me, the longer we can celebrate Christmas, and be reminded of the Savior's birth, the better.

We decorated our apartment a couple of weeks ago as well.  We could have gotten a big tree from Ikea, but Jeff's likes to keep saying, "Where are we going to store it?".  He's right, BUT, Jack and Grace were very excited to hang their own ornaments on our little table sized tree.  Some of them were too heavy and we didn't have enough room for all of them.  Jeff and I have bought the kids a new ornament each year, and I have bought Jeff a new one each year as well.  We ran out of room.  I told Jeff, next year, even though we may be going back to the U.S. for half of the month, we are going to put up a BIG tree so that we don't miss out on that tradition.  We are still "discussing" it.  :)

We also got our first dusting of snow last week.

Here's a fun picture of traditional Chinese instruments being played on the weekend in the hotel by our apartment.

We are sooooo excited and ready to come home for a vacation.  We know that it will be busy, we will want to see a lot of people, won't be able to spend enough time with everyone, but we are so looking forward to seeing everyone's faces and talking in person!!  We can't wait to share with you what God is doing here and tell you more stories of things I haven't even written about on my blog.  We will be home next Friday for 3 weeks! 

Things we are looking forward to (besides seeing all of you!!!):

• Chipotle
• Panera (A good bagel with cream cheese)
• One-stop grocery shopping!!!!!!!
• Driving!!!!!!!  (Jeff and I are already fighting over who gets to drive.  We are renting a car, but I may be asking to drive yours when we are together-ha!)
• Turning on the T.V. and finding lots of things to watch.  I didn't even watch a lot of t.v. when we lived in the U.S., but bring on GMA, Rachel Ray, Regis and Kelly, TLC, and so on and so on.........
• BBQ
• CLEAR SKIES

Love and Blessings as we celebrate our Redeemer!

Charity Gala

The apartment complex that we live in is in conjunction with a hotel, mall, and office buildings all on the same site.  Recently, they started publishing their own magazine and they wanted to highlight an interview with a family that lives in their apartment buildings.  For some reason, they decided to highlight our family.  So last week, I sat down for an interview with one of their directors and they did a photo shoot of our family in our home.  As a thank you, they gave Jeff and I free tickets to attend the annual Charity Gala that they put on to raise money for some different organizations in Beijing. 

We decided to go and our friends babysat for us.  We dressed up and went, not knowing exactly what to expect.  It was a very formal dinner and there were some very wealthy, popular musicians, VIP's there including high government officials.  Needless to say, we were out of our element, but it was a lot of fun!  We had to watch others at our table to see if they were drinking from the glasses on the right of your plate or the left.  Here are some pictures!  Guess who I saw for the SECOND time in Beijing.....Yao Ming!!  His autographed basketball went for about $600,000!! 

Ballroom

Veal-Not my fav, but really good.  I tried not to think about the baby calf :(

Now this chocolate cranberry dessert was good

Yao Ming

I can't believe how tall he is.....

He is really known for his charity work here in China too.

Pick Pocketed

 So, this is one of the Beijing police stations.  This one happens to be around the corner from our apartment complex.  Last week, Jeff and I had the pleasure of coming here to file a report for my missing phone.  We actually think I was pick-pocketed, which is not uncommon,  while I was out with the kids.  When we realized it, we tried calling the phone and it had been turned off.  Jeff said that they do that, remove the sim card, and re-sell the phone. 

The next day, Jeff decided it would be best to go with me to buy a new phone, I'm so glad he did instead of going to work.  We went to the cell phone company at first and the employee that spoke English explained to us that if we wanted to keep the same cell phone plan agreement and not buy a new two year contract, then we needed to get a police report, then go buy a new phone and bring it back in for a new sim card.  The cell phone company as well as all of Beijing are sold out of the type of phone we wanted, so we had to go to the Apple store. 

First, we went to the police station to file our report.  Here is a copy of the report filed for "Travy Elaine Caton".

The Apple store in Beijing is huge and has long lines every day.  They have lots of security too which seems to be needed because we saw someone get escorted away from the check out registers.  We had to take a number to talk to someone. When our number was called they told us that we could come back around 3:00 and they MIGHT have a cell phone we could buy. So, Jeff waited at that shopping area and did some work from Starbucks so that he could be there right at 3:00.  I think because my phone was stolen, we were able to get a phone that day, it seems that if you want to buy one for the first time, you might have to wait a few days.

So, I picked Jeff back up after he got the cell phone and we returned to the cell phone company.  Everything worked out really well!!  We kept our expectations low the whole day because you never know what the process is going to be in Beijing.  We owe a lot to Mr. Li once again who went in to the police station and cell phone company with us to translate for us.  Until you know Mandarin fluently, there are just some things you could not do on your own.

World Conference

My world view got a little bit bigger this past weekend.  I attended a Global Leadership Summit telecast that was held in the U.S. but broadcast around the world.  I was actually helping to lead music at the two day event where a couple of things were brought to my attention.  First, this was the first leadership conference of it's kind that was broadcast in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and several other places in Asia.  We actually had many different leaders who attended from all over China.  It was so neat to see leaders from these places so excited to meet together to learn so many things they could take back to their homes. 

I was having a conversation with one person from Beijing who does not attend my church.  He was asking me about the music we were singing and wondering how he could get copies of it.  Since we do not see each other, I cannot give him a c.d. and there is no place for him to purchase anything like that here in China.  Also, he does not have access to the same Internet that I do, therefore, he's really out of luck.  I guess I will be e-mailing him one song at a time so that he has some new uplifting music by which the H.S. can minister to him.  How sad it is that he is denied access to some of the music that has ministered to me so many times.  I can't imagine realizing that there is music out there that I love, but cannot reach it.  Please pray that people over here will have the same opportunities that we have for hearing about the Word through many mediums.  Also, during Thanksgiving, give thanks that we have access to music, houses of worship, and the Best-Selling book of all time!

Family Business

Just like in Kung Fu Panda, Miss Holly's father makes and sells noodles along with her brother each and every day.  They get up before the sun rises to prepare the day's work.  They make a couple of different kinds of noodles including noodles made out of bean paste.  I asked her if she could show me how to make spinach noodles which a lot of people reading this might already know how to make.  I like spinach noodles because they actually don't taste any different than regular noodles, but you get the added vegetable benefit.  I told my kids that I had just added green food coloring, (yes, I lied) and Grace asked if next time I could make them purple.

Washing the spinach

Chopping

Squeezing the spinach juices

We just want the juice, no leaves

Add the other ingredients for noodles

After kneading the dough and letting it sit for a while, we roll it out

check out the beautiful green color!

This week, Holly also made cheese ravioli for us, which was just putting mozzarella cheese inside the dumpling pockets instead of the Chinese version.  They were great!

Let the Good Times Roll!

Last Saturday night we had our new friends Steph and Mike over for dinner then we went bowling.  Steph and Mike just moved here from....guess....Kansas City! Mike works for another engineering company there and just got transferred.  They are a great couple, so fun to be around!  When we asked them if they wanted to go bowling, they thought we meant play bowling on the Wii.  No, actual bowling, we said!  The kids and I have been several times but it was a first experience for them and Jeff. 

I asked the employees at the bowling alley if they had bumpers for the lanes for the kids.  They acted like they knew exactly what I meant and they would get it set up for us.  Well......it wasn't exactly bumpers, but it worked for the kids and was really fun for them to try bowling in a new way.  Let's just say they got a lot more pins down doing it this way.  The ball actually rolled fast enough to make it down the lane. 

If you are a bowler, you know that it is common courtesy to wait for the person in the next lane over to bowl first before you start and interrupt their "rhythm".  We did not find that the same rule applies here.  Also, if you go over your time limit (let's say you pay for one hour), they won't tell you your time is up and the computer does not shut down, they just charge you for the next hour without saying anything.  This is the case at a lot of time allotted places.  You really have to keep track on your own how long you have been playing. 

Trusting

Trusting God when you can't see the future....it's harder sometimes more than others.
Trusting God with your children.....it's easier said than done.

This week I find myself in my apartment without either child running around during the day, during the week.  It will be this way from now on after 3 years of being a "stay-at-home" mom.  Grace's new school (we just switched)  is a five day a week program, something I was not expecting untill next year. 

Preschool here fits a little different mold than in the U.S. and I have had to release my expectations, my plans, and surrender to what Jeff and I believe would be best for Grace. 

God has opened doors, providing explaination for the newfound change in our day.  I can see a tiny glimpse of what His plan might be, but I have to fight instincts to run and fill my time with things that are not of Him.  I have to reject lies from the enemy that would like to give me confusion, guilt, and fear. 

No, I must surrender fear, control, guilt, and just TRUST.

2 Tim 3:14a

Halloween

Similarities in celebrating Halloween as compared to a "normal" Halloween...

• The kids dressed up
• Big orange pumpkins are a little harder to find.  At the grocery stores they sell smaller ones in all kinds of colors
• We decorated a pumpkin
• We ate chilli
• We got good candy from the U.S.
• Our kids did "trick-or-treat"
• Lots of fun!

Differences compared to a "normal" Halloween....

• We had to bring our pumpkin inside our apartment after trying to explain to personnel the American tradition.  They thought we had accidently left it outside our door.  I didn't want to have to keep explaining, so I just brought it in. 
• Instead of going house to house for trick-or-treating, our kids with some friends went door to door in the dark apartment.  An adult was behind each door with candy.
• School Halloween picnic
• We ate chilli, but not with our extended family :(
• We did not have to avoid any "too scary" houses
• We missed seeing a lot of cute kids in costumes
• No trip to the pumpkin patch :(
• Our candy was the best because it was from the U.S.  :)

Jack and Grace wanted to paint the pumpkin instead of carve it.

After brother was done, Grace wanted to paint every last inch.

Grace-Cinderella; Jack-Ninja warrior; Noah-soilder; Nate-astronaut

School Halloween picnic
Notice Grace- somedays you feel like a Cinderella, somedays you feel like a Rapunzel.....

East Meets West-A little Piece of Heaven

Lately, many things have caused me to be looking around at the vast variety of people here in Beijing.  I have never been in a city with such diversity of people living here from all kinds of countries and cultures.  I think of NYC being this way, but I have never lived there, so I can't testify from personal experience.  I am amazed at all of the different places represented here in one place.  For those that don't know, Beijing is the capitol of China and is obviously a business epicenter, so there are people from all continents and countries for diplomatic, business, teaching, and missions/volunteering purposes. 

The first place that causes me to notice and be thankful for this is the church we attend.  I like to say that it is a little piece of what heaven will be like.  It is a non-denominational church where people from all over the world gather together to worship the One True God and to study His Truth.  People stand side by side in a huge auditorium (this is just the English service; there are many services in other languages that happen during the week as well) and sing songs they know and some songs they don't know in humble adoration of the Source of Life.  To me, it is the closest I will witness this side of Heaven of what it will be like to sing together from all nations.  What a blessing!

Another place that made me ponder this realization was this last week at Jackson's school.  They had International Day where families were asked to bring a dish of their country's heritage to share.  The gymnasium was filled with tables and each country was represented.  Families took great pride in their "home" by cooking traditional dishes and dressing in native attire.  It was beautiful.  The women of Bangladesh and Pakistan stood out to me as being very excited to share about their countries.  Their tables had so much information about their customs, etc, and I loved their beautiful dresses.

Pakistan

Bangladesh

Colombia

Russia

China

Korea

Australia

Taiwan

Japan

Brazil

U.S.A.

Grace made me notice the blend of cultures this week too with the outfit she chose.  A nice traditional Chinese dress with a very American winter puff jacket.  :)

Friday night we went out for my birthday dinner.  I chose Japanese because sushi and sashimi have really become a favorite of mine.  We went to a teppanyaki place where they grill in front of you, also.  Notice after our Japanese dinner came a little American token for me to notice.  They served Wrigley's Doublemint gum.

I really think this is God's desire.  To see His people love each other as neighbors and value each other, look for the best in one another.  It's hard sometimes, but this week I was definitely reminded that I am called to do so.  Now for some all-American fun!  Congrats Cardinals fans (Aunt Mel)!