Christmas and New Year came and left China without much fanfare.
Well, you can say the major hotels and expat groups celebrated them. But these two “occasions” are not celebrated by the locals as they’re not are part of the traditional festivals. We lived at The Garden Hotel until December 27 (left on December 28) and so we were still able to attend the residents’ party which you will see in the photos below. The twins immediately became magnets to picture-taking locals, who were surprised to know that Nick and Toni are twins.
That was our first Christmas together as a family. I was still pregnant Christmas of 2012. For Christmas 2013: Jeff was in China while the twins and I were in the Philippines. You can imagine how excited we are in making sure that our first Christmas is a memorable one. Between the two of us, Jeff was the upbeat one. He brought Christmas decorations the first week of November. We decorated the house on the third week of November.
And then we attended two Christmas parties as a family and one party as a couple (with the Guangzhou International Book Club). The photo below is from The Garden Hotel residents’ party.
The twins also attended the Christmas party of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in which their Dad is a member. It was a fun party with the children receiving gifts from Sta. Claus. Nicholas got his gift first and so Antoinette was already restless, giving me that look as if asking why she has not received her gift yet.
School was really difficult for me. I am just blessed that Jeff is helping out in taking care of them, including (STILL) waking up in the morning to prepare their food, change their diapers, and play with them. By 10:00 a.m., it’s usually my turn to look after them. Most of the time, we did these:
We moved to our current apartment on December 28. It was a looooong day of moving boxes and arranging stuffs. By the end of the day, we were not yet done. The Daddy thought it will be best that we take some time off as a our pre-New Year celebration. We did! And headed off to China Hotel – A Marriot Hotel, where Nicholas spent the entire time eating…as usual.
The current apartment is still a work in progress but we will get it organized somehow. How do you organize a home with kids anyway? As the year ended, we paused and thanked Heavenly Father for all the blessings and challenges He has bestowed on our family. We prayed for peace and prosperity for everyone in the planet and that the new year (2015) will bring more joy and happiness to the hearts of many.
Have a great 2015 everyone!
