A Very Merry Jinshitan Christmas

So Christmas was quiet around here (to say the least). We missed being home to celebrate and the things that was missing the most- besides all our family and friends - was... Christmas Music! I have never realized how ubiquitous Christmas music actually is. EVERYWHERE you go at home there are holiday sounds to be heard. Heck, even the hard core rock stations in Vancouver give up once an hour and play a holiday song.

This year a lot of our traditions were not possible (where do you think we can buy GOOD scotch in China... and really candle light fajitas aren’t the same when you don’t have a Christmas tree to decorate after). So because of this we decided to implement a few Jinshitan Christmas traditions of our own.

The first was a relaxation policy. We lounged in our jammies for hours and watched some Christmas movies that one or both of us had never seen before. There are some real gems from the early 60’s claymation era, Including Kristen's new favourite "The Little Drummer Boy". Before we started watching Paul told Kristen that near the beginning the parents get stabbed and burned. Kristen responded by tersely replying, “this is a Christmas film those things can’t happen”.

Paul did a very quiet I told you so dance about ten minutes in!

The second new tradition was a very nice 2 hour walk along the coastline. As usual we took our camera and were not disappointed. We found a trove of statues. For no apparent reason there are a bunch of life sized animal statues next to a minor attraction here in Jinjy!

HI HO Silver, away!

Paul joins Siegfried and Roy

This is yet another one of the beautiful abandoned buildings in our town, and yet they keep building new ones....?

So cold the sea water is frozen

 We also were fortunate enough to have friends who decided to host a Christmas dinner. So on Christmas night, off we went to a very good approximation of Christmas dinner. Will made an EXCELLENT turkey, Trevor sat on his veggies on the way over  and the mulled wine was quickly drained by one and all. Over all it was great!

On Boxing day we got up and went off to work. Kristen had extra TOC blocks because there were others who decided they were going to have a boxing day... thanks guys!

So, our first Christmas abroad was... interesting. Not nearly as "christmassy" as being home with friends and family, but we definitely managed to make it fun and special.

It's Beginning to look a LOT like Christmas

Well, its December which means 2 really good things have happened here lately!

1) PAUL SHAVED HIS HORRIBLE MOUSTACHE OFF!!
2) Kristen was FINALLY given permission to decorate the house!

This is our INCREDIBLE advent caladar from IKEA. I hope you all have one. There are little boxes which you hide goddies in, so it could be lame chocolate or it could be ferrero rochers!!!!!

This is our tiny tree and stockings!

This is how excited Kristen gets when she is allowed to put up Christmas stuff!

Perfect for our Chinese Christmas Tree, Rice Lights, no joke they came with the tree!

There have been some negitive things as well, mostly weather related. We keep being mocked by the chinese staff who think being born and bred Canadians, we should not bock at the DongBei wind that rips through our part of china.As you all know that is SOOOOO not the case!

This is lake Clear water which is the "lake" part of our Lake-View aprtment. It has been there since the category 4 storm last year. It is so cold most of the water has evaporated. But what was left froze and then was smashed by the middle school kids since they are not supervised during PE class. THe little monkeys tore up the brick from the sidewalk to do it.

And this is Kristen's new work attire. You will notice, Hot for this season, thick tights, under a pair of insulated ski socks, all neatly hidden under dress pants. YEA, IT'S COLD!