So Long, Farewell

We had a wonderful week with Nicholas and of course, Sandi and Jeff. Nicholas had such a great time that he told his parents "I want to stay in Connecticut." He arrived before Christmas and played in the snow. As if Mother Nature knew what he wanted, it snowed again before they had to leave for the airport. Nicholas and Matthew were busy shoveling the walkway and parts of the driveway. They had a good time and even made snow balls. We headed into Flushing to meet with Jeff's parents for some quick dim sum before they had to head to the airport. We'll do this again sometime soon. I may head down to Boca Raton soon. I am getting tired of this weather.

Christmas

Sandi and her family arrived on Tuesday to spend the Christmas holidays with us. Nicholas, my little nephew has been very very excited that he was going to spend Christmas with his cousin, Matthew. Since their arrival, Nicholas' booming voice can be heard all over the house, the State of Connecticut and in New Jersey as well. They arrived and we just experienced snow which we've received over 10 inches of accumulation. He got to see snow and play in it. On Wednesday, they went into New York to spend the day and Nicholas was upset because he thought he was going to miss Christmas. Needless to say, he cried, no, more like wailed because he wanted to get home to Connecticut to spend Christmas with Matthew. Sandi was able to calm him down and I picked them up at the train station. Matthew and Nicholas tried to con their way into staying up as long as possible.

We woke up to two very excited kids who ripped open all the gifts in about 15 minutes. We packed the kids up and headed down to Jersey to spend the day with May and her family. It was great. The conveyer belt of appetitzers, food and dessert too. We ate, drank, spent time together and then once we got our fill, we all rolled out of the house with doggie bags to boot.

Sandi and her family will be with us until New Years Eve and we'll be eating left overs until we ring in the New Year. That's what the holidays are all about.

The Great Fire Wall of China

For several months, the Chinese population has enjoyed access to Voice of America, BBC and other websites normally restricted by the Chinese government. Well, no longer. The Chinese government has now reinstated the firewall that blocks access to this information. The same firewall that would hinder my efforts while I was in China to post to my blog. However, being a persistent person, I would always find ways around it. I wouldn't be able to see my entry when I posted it, but I managed to get it out there. Mind you, I wasn't writing about anything political. It would be the normal day to day stuff that we experienced. I would know my entries were posted when my sister would call and tell me she couldn't believe I wrote it. Yeah, yeah.

Fast forward, just when one thinks progress is being made, the population is reeled back another ten years. Typical of the government. Earlier this year, there were riots that erupted in Tibet. While watching the news, we would experience news forecasts that were blacked out. You'd surf the channels and find that the other channels were just fine and miraculously, the news would come back on at the end of the forecast on Tibet. The news in China was routinely edited but I would get snippets of the information sent to me by my sister. There were some disparity between the Chinese version and the U.S. version. The numbers would always be alarmingly low while the U.S. and other media would broadcast higher numbers of the casualties. Which version did you think I believed?

Holiday Gatherings

Today was the official start of the seasonal marathon of eating. We headed up to Duracell this morning for the annual holiday party. Matthew was really excited to attend since he missed the last two when we were living in Shanghai. We arrived, we ate, we socialized, we left. Mind you, we didn't go home. OH NO. We headed straight down to Margaret and Rick's house for a holiday gathering. They were gracious enough to host 22 of us. Yup. 22 that's the total number between kids and adults. The boys were pasted in front of the WII, the girls were making arts and crafts and the adults, well, we were parked in the kitchen island grazing non stop. Tidbits, crudite, wine, beer, you name it. We grazed and then we ate dinner on top of that. More like inhaled the meal. Shameful but true. We finished the night with dessert and coffee and waddled out of Margaret's place with full bellies. The kids were sugared up but we were all very very happy. Now we just have to figure out where the next gathering will be.

Projects

Matthew has been working on a project for school for almost a month now. This assignment is for a nativity creche. Nothing could be bought. Everything has to be made from scratch. We took a trip to Michaels and purchased all the supplies we needed. Total damage- $100.00. That's right- you read that right. I wished I were kidding. Armed with all the supplies, Matthew painstakingly started to craft the nativity scene with wooden sticks. He molded all the people in the manger with clay- Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, Three Shepards, a cow, a horse, a goat and Gabriel on top of the manger.

I must say, I am quite impressed with his skills. I can't draw stick figures without anyone asking me what it is. He came home from school and prepared a sketch of what he wanted the manger to look like and he was off. In the final days, the office was transformed into an art studio. He would use the lazy Susan to paint his figurines and then mount them onto the board. I delivered him to school this morning with the project and I think his looked the best. Perhaps I am being a bit biased but I may have the next up and coming artist in my house.