It is just after 11 pm on Christmas Eve. As Ming Wai was heading to bed, a few hours ago, she said, "Mom? You aren't going to stay up late are you? And watch scary movies?" She knows that Santa can't come if she is awake, and she was taking no chances. Covering all her bases. She's smart like that.
So, since I'm only keeping half of my promise (I am up late, but I'm not watching scary movies!), let's catch up, shall we?
Last Thursday, I had my annual Christmas Baking Day. By the time I was done, I had a batch of Ginger Cookies cooling on the counter, four logs of slice n' bake peppermint sables in the freezer, a small pan of brownies cooling on the counter, and an enormous fruitcake waiting to be divided up and wrapped.
Ginger cookies, waiting to be baked
Clockwise from top left: brownies, fruitcake, ginger cookies, and peppermint sables. The sables were my underdog - everybody ignored the homely little vanilla cookie, until I told them it was a mint sable. Then they all magically disappeared!
Rich, buttery, sticky fruitcake. Yum!
On Thursday night, we all tucked into bed, ready for Friday - the last day before Winter Break!
At 4 am on Friday morning, it started snowing. I know, because I was up feeding the baby. At 6 am, I got a text that school was delayed 2 hours. At 6:45 am, I got a text that said school was cancelled, and to have a Happy Holiday! No, it was not a lot of snow, but a good portion of our school district is criss-crossed with incredibly steep and winding roads. By 11 am, the road from my house to the bottom of the mountain was littered with vehicles that had slipped off the road and come to rest in obliging lawns along the way. So, even if you are the best driver in the world..it's difficult to keep yourself safe from all of the 2-whee-drive sedans that will also be on the road. It's impossible for busses full of children to safely navigate the roads. Better safe than sorry. The neighborhood children made the most of it! My kids were outside with the horde at 9am, and didn't come back until 12:30. It started with a snowball fight between my two kids, in my driveway, and ended with the older kids from down the street organizing a massive snow-fort-defending snowball fight. My kids came back flushed, starving, and enchanted.
After a fortifying lunch of macaroni and cheese with chocolate milk, I bundled them back up and sent them out to deliver a few holiday plates to our neighbors.
My happy little elves!
Gah. That face. THAT FACE. I can't even.
Saturday was Winter Solstice. The day following Winter Solstice (Sunday, 12/22, this year), is a really popular and important holiday in China (Jou Dung). (Umm, guys? That is pronounced like Joe Doe-ng. Not dung, as in animal poo. Jou and dung have the same vowel sound. Alright? Moving on. Gah.) Jou Dung is a day of thanksgiving, plenty, and family. It is celebrated by having a feast. Just like most other Chinese holidays. (Which is why I love being Chinese, by marriage. I really, really like feasts.)
Anyhow, Sunday was my mother's birthday dinner with all of the family, so we had our festival dinner on Saturday night. Hotpot!
It was pretty epic. Spring onions, lobster balls, marinated chicken thighs, oyster mushrooms, lettuce, enoki mushrooms, fried fish ball cakes, tofu, button mushrooms, mushroom fish balls, baby squid, and yau choi. All cooked table side in a simmering broth, heavy on garlic, ginger, white pepper and Chinese herbs (like goji berries). Yum!
A selfie. Just 'cause. Three generations of Lo ladies. I'm such a lucky girl to have married into this family! (Does anyone else thing Ying Ying looks pretty non-plussed?)
Sunday was church - we had to be there at 8 am to practice with the choir. At 9, we performed with the choir. At 10, I went to the Primary room to help Ming Wai give a little talk and SJ give the prayer. At 11, I met with the class of girls I teach. We talked about how to use our talents to build the Kingdom of God. Not one of my better lessons, but we ended with a short video about the real meaning of Christmas, and everyone got a candy cane, so it wasn't a total bust.
Sunday afternoon, Lo Gung and I got to go and visit some people, and hand out some more holiday plates. Sunday night was my Mom's birthday dinner - Shake n' bake chicken, Aunt Myrnie's biscuits, and vinegar cole slaw. Delicious!
Monday was the first real day of Winter Break. I took all my kids to the gym with me. SJ and Ying Ying played upstairs while Ming Wai and I sweated our way through a Zumba class. After class, we snagged SJ and I took the two big kids into the pool to practice their skills.
The highlight of the morning for them? Realizing they could fit, easily, into the lockers. " But Mom?? Don't shut the door, ok?????!"
At least now I know where to stick them when they get squirrelly!
And then it was Tuesday. Christmas Eve. The kids spent the morning playing Skylanders with their Dad. Around noon, he announced that if he didn't get out of the house...well, it just wouldn't be good. We called up my in-laws and headed downtown to try out a dim sum place that has changed management since we were there last. It was pretty tasty! (If you are local, check out Joi's, in downtown Bellevue. Some of the best cha siu bau and cheong fun I've ever had! The only blemish on the otherwise perfect lunch was the tea. We ordered chrysanthemum tea - a tisane made of chrysanthemum blossoms and nothing else. I poured myself a cup, waited a moment for it to cool, and took a sip. It was delicious! Then I realized why - I was sipping green tea. *sigh* This Mormon girl is bound by a religious promise to not drink tea, at least not the stuff made with actual tea leaves. Unfortunately, through errors like this, I've realized why everyone else drinks it. Oh well. Keeping a promise is much more important than a cup of water and leaves! For whatever reason, they had brought us the wrong pot. We requested a new pot, with just hot water, and all was well.)
(A quick selfie with my cutie pie this morning.)
(Oh, and this. UGH. Baby will be 11 months in about 5 days, but I FINALLY got her 10 month tidbits written up and snapped a picture today. It's been a busy month!)
After lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen. My favorite place to be on a holiday! I was in charge of the ham for tonight's dinner, along with rolls and the dessert.
My sister, the only sibling with kids, ended up spending Christmas Eve with her husband's relations. That left me and the rest of the siblings! There are 5 of us altogether, and we are all in town this year. Hooray for big family holiday dinners! Since I was in charge, I figured I was qualified to disband the Kids Table for this meal. I really didn't want to sit in the kitchen while all my (single) brothers and sisters sat in the dining room with my parents. Where is the fun in that?! I asked Lo Gung to add a leaf to our (insanely huge) dining room table, and from there it was easy to fit 11 of us around the table. (There is one more leaf in the closet. If I use benches, and get creative, I think I can fit 16 people around this table. It's seriously monstrous.) Then, just to get really crazy, since we were all sitting at the same table, I decided we would serve everything family style (instead of from a buffet on the kitchen counter). My kids got a kick out of eating at the dining room table...for the first time in their lives. I loved that they were sandwiched between my parents, who kept them on their best behavior.
Dessert was this apple cranberry bundt cake, adapted from a recipe handed down from my great grandmother.
After dinner, the kids opened their traditional Christmas Eve gift of new PJ's. Once they had changed and brushed their teeth, we added the wise men and sheep to our advent nativity, read from Luke 2, and finished off with a few Christmas books they chose from our stash. Finally, it was time to put out some cookies and milk for santa, top off the cups of water for the kids, say prayers, and jump into bed! All three kids were out by 9:30. Santa arrived shortly after that, and had finished his work by 10:30. It's now nearly midnight, and this mama is ready for bed.
Merry Christmas, everybody!
(I promise I do have 3 kids! We're still in that stage where it feels like I have 2 kids, plus a baby. She was off playing with MaMa, having wandered away after opening her Christmas Eve gift.)
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