Visitors part 1

Soon after our visitors arrived we went for a cold walk along the boardwalk.

We enjoyed the Qingdao skyline along with some fancy yachts in the harbor.

We fulfilled Auntie Angela's requirement of taking a photo with the candy canes

and the big purple tree.

 

Christmas 2012

We'll be posting all the fun things we did with our visitors soon!  Enjoy your Christmas!

Customize a scrapbooking design

Merry Christmas Everyone!

As our guests arrive tomorrow, I'm not sure how much posting I will get done.  Positive though that there will be lots of fun things to share after Christmas!  Enjoy your time with family!

Candy Cane Hair

Ana got to have her hair done today (as I spend hours on Mitike's hair every Saturday).  This looks complicated, but it's really pretty easy.  She was so proud she didn't wear her hat, just some ear warmers.
Click Here if you want to try this yourself!  There's a really good video on this site.

Still Decorating

 

As I'm stuck at home listening to Ana tell me how sick she is all day, I decided to put some of the nice Christmas scrapbooking paper I found to use.  (Still learning how to get a good shot focusing manually on my camera!)  The stars are pretty easy to do.  The "garland" took a while, but I liked putting it together.  The best part is that it is all paper clipped so that it can be folded flat and kept for next Christmas. 

National Staff Christmas Party Part 1

 Three families hosted this party.  We're guessing that around 40 people besides our families came.   Above is most of the men at the party.  We had made some gingerbread playdough which was a big hit with the children. 

 My main contributions to this party were desserts.  I couldn't believe how quickly everything went.  Nobody was afraid of it being too sweet.  I have to say that the pecan bars I made were easy and AMAZING!! (Thanks for the pecans mom!)

Here's Ana in front of the Hedricks Christmas tree with some new friends! 

It was really a lot of fun to co-host and to get to know some people I have NEVER met although I see their names on e-mails all the time.  Ana, of course, had a ball--esp. since she was up two hours after her normal bed time!  The food must have been pretty good because there was almost NOTHING left--have to make more next year :)

I'll post more on this soon when I get some photos from some other people.

Christmas Around Town

Our Fellowship is at the Intercontential Hotel.  They had a GIANT (fake) Christmas tree in the lobby. 

 They also had a Gingerbread house.  We watched the chef glue on the gingerbread bricks.  That's A LOT of baking to cover this house!

 Here's the purple Christmas tree (as promised)!  It's actually kind of pretty!

Although this is nothing compared to Orchard Road in Singapore, I'm really glad for the chances to see Christmas decorations around town!

I'll try to keep posting, but we've got a busy week ahead!  Thanks for reading!

Our First ISQ Christmas Fair!

This is the PTO's major fundraiser of the year.  We left for school after 8 and arrived around 9:30.  It's a long trip by public bus!  We dropped off all the baked goods and Matt bought a coffee.  Ana was then on a mission to find the candy canes.  I couldn't even look at any of the booths--she was so focused on finding them.  After buying candy canes we bought a nativity, silver charms that say Faith, Hope, and Love in Chinese, a candle that supports those with leprosy, and a beautiful Christmas runner.  We then went upstairs and enjoyed some caramel cinnamon rolls!  Yumm!!

 

For lunch we enjoyed Mexican Fried Rice, Kim Bop, and Indian curry.  The curry almost made me cry it was so good--esp. after not having it in six months!

The third grade performed a song.  We have heard that China is to be Michael Jackson in the Christmas play--how that fits into a Christmas play I have no idea. 

Ana enjoyed making a jingle bell bracelet with some help from high schoolers.

Then she played with gingerbread playdough.  It smelled really good!

The school has a really nice gym.  This is where all the stalls were. 

I did go to the trash and treasure sale.  We found some shoes for Ana for next year and a princess dress.  I then worked in the PTO store for a couple of hours.  By the end of the time they were giving some pretty good deals.  We had a lot of fun at the Fair and best of all the kids were really tired and went right to sleep.

 

Not a (real) candy cane in sight!

So Ana and I were out and about looking for candy canes--no luck.  Even though Christmas decorations are going up there is not a piece of Christmas candy to be seen!  Oh well, at least I still have some peppermint flavoring!  There's a purple Christmas tree with hearts (very shiny) going up across the street from these candy canes.  When it's finished we'll go back and snap a picture. 

Decorating

Ana has named herself chief nativity arranger.  Too bad I don't let her touch all of them.  She instantly started playing with the Playmobil one.  She wanted them all in the stable and in three rows--very orderly!  The Indonesian nativity she says is having a party--even the sheep are licking baby Jesus.  It's so Ana!

We're on day two of decorating.  Three of the five sets of lights I brought won't work here.  Luckily I had picked up another set which I thought was white--wrong!  They're blue.  Since we didn't want to go all the way out to the store, I used them--not my favorite though.  I'll definitely be stocking up for next year!