Christmas in the Jing

It was a great Christmas Day. We had a the week off before Christmas and with everyone gone, it was very quiet--allowing us all the freedom in the world to panic because we lost Ava's passport and had a frantic few days demolishing our offices at work and the house before spending a day at the embassy getting a new one and then getting a Chinese visa so Ava could get back into the country. That's a Christmas tradition I'm not going to adopt! Then we had a great dinner for 15 or so friends that were getting a later start on their traveling as well--love the chef and crew that shops, preps, cooks, serves, and cleans up!

Christmas Eve at a Catholic service--the space heaters were not turned on until the service started and the building (which is also our church) is unheated. I guess the cold kept us alert so we could hear the message. Or something.

Christmas Day--was wonderful! Every year I get a pang because we aren't with family. I wish we could be together. But then, we've never had a big all-family Christmas ever--even when Mark and I were children--and our Christmas Days have a peace and rhythm that I absolutely love. Everyone was so excited for their gifts--to give and receive! Everyone got something they wanted. Big guns, sock monkeys, helmets, camping stoves...we are also having a cabinet made for our house that will be ready by the end of January. We don't give many presents at Christmas--our big present is the holiday vacation and we usually give a bit of pocket money for each one to spend on the trip. This year I was determined to not put any presents under the tree until the kids were in bed on Christmas Eve, but I was overruled loudly on that point.

A new tradition, I guess, is the teppanyaki restaurant downtown. I posted on it a couple posts ago, and it was just as much fun as last year. Noah would eat there every weekend if he could--but that would be out of our budget. The salmon and sea bass sashimi is like butter. The steak melts in your mouth. The shrimp and scallops--to die for. The kids love watching their food cook and the impressive pyrotechnics that accompany dessert.

When our kids first arrived in Tanzania 4 years ago, they had never eaten chicken on the bone. After an upbringing on Costco chicken breasts, they couldn't believe that they had to eaten chicken with skin on it! When we went to the coast, Noah and Ava ate omelets, french fries, and hot dogs only. In fact, on our first trip to Thailand, Noah and Ava ate only omelet and french fries 3 meals a day for 10 days. That's 30 meals, folks! Now it's about green curry and all sorts of new things including this dish. It's squid. And see how it's on ice? That's because you eat it raw. Which we did. And it was so yummy. A bit chewy, like calamari, but yummy! We ate salmon and sea bass sashimi (Ava cooked hers on the edge of the grill), fried rice and noodles, steak and garlic, shrimp with a butter-mustard sauce, and oysters with a sesame-soy-green onion drizzle. For dessert, bananas coated in coconut, topped with ice cream and set ablaze. Yowza!

Another Christmas tradition--frantically packing around 10:00 at night because we're leaving the next morning. Almost everyone is on a plane the first Saturday after school lets out (and some that evening) and we get some strange looks when we say that we're sticking around to have Christmas at home. We know a couple families that bring a small tree, some presents, and little decorations on their trips! For us, 10 days is a good amount of time to travel--Noah doesn't care for traveling at all anyway, and we really do enjoy spending time at our house with nothing on our agendas. Unless it was a really big event, we have no need to spend 3 weeks traveling. We also like to come back and have a few days to spend quietly around the house before school starts (lots of families roll in Sunday afternoon or evening). All in all, it's a wonderful break!

Cambodia was spectacular and wonderful! Stay tuned for more!