Team Work!

I received an email from Katelyn's teacher this past week that I want to share with you. It brought a smile to my face. Katelyn has made some wonderful friends like she always does and has been fortunate to be in such caring school environments.

"We had an interesting one today. The lift broke and Katelyn was in an activity on the 5th floor. As I went up to get her I found six of her friends helping her down the stairs and carrying her chair for her. Love it that they all helped each other, worked together and took initiative to solve the problem themselves. Was a moment !"

Yum, Yum - Chicken Soup!

Last weekend, Jason received a text from a co-worker who has a farm near Suzhou. Her family is going away for the Chinese New Year Holiday and she had tons of food to give away! Everything always tates delicious from her place. We are always well stocked with eggs and vegetables.

We had a surprise this time. She asked Jason if we wanted some chickens - dead or alive? Jason and I got a kick out of that because we could just imagine the scenario if she arrived with "live" chickens!

Fortunately for us and the chickens, they arrived dead. I'm sure they had a much quicker death than if we were to do it:)

Let me add a head shot.
Needless to say, I had no idea what to do with them. So I called Jin Di (ayi) to come to the rescue:) I'm sure she and her family are getting some good laughs from the Marchiondo's! She told me that I didn't have the right knife and all my knives were too good to use for cutting up the chickens. So she took them home to her husband and she brought back the breasts and thighs in Ziploc bags:) We definitely were not going to have pickled feet! I can definitely say that Jin Di has made our lives in China so much easier - we will definitely miss her when the time comes for us to move on.
Homemade Chicken Soup was the first recipe.

It tasted pretty good for that rainy day but I was missing a spice. I'm not exactly sure which one that should be. I had fresh celery, carrots and onion in there but I think I should have added some parsley maybe? I need to do some research. It sure was a fun experience.

New Year Walk thru town

Happy New Year - 2012!

It's funny, we have lived here for over a year and have never walked thru this little town that isn't much more than a mile away from where we live. If you look real close, in the haze in the center you can see the buildings that are being built right beside us. It was a holiday and very busy but it was fun to finally walk the area. The only thing we bought were some good strawberries!

Christmas 2011

It's hard to believe that we have been in China for a year. Time is going by fast!

Jason had the week before Christmas off. We were taking it easy - shopping, baking and tennis. Our little Lily woke up on the Wednesday before with a little cough. That night she had a high fever and did not feel well at all. The next day, we decided to take her to the clinic here at the club. She definitely wasn't feeling well by the time we left the clinic. They sent us to the hospital and she had a chest xray. Pneumonia. Poor thing - she felt awful. She spent 2 nights in the hospital. We were all thrilled when she was discharged on Christmas Eve. She was doing so much better and the fever was gone. She was back to being the happy, playful little girl that we all love so much!

We arrived home by 2:00 in the afternoon. I had everyone helping me in the kitchen. We made Chicken enchiladas for dinner, the stuffing for Christmas day, sugar cookies and Ravioli filling all by 5:00. It was a bit crazy but lots of fun. After dinner I made the dough for the raviolis and Jason started rolling it out. At the same time, Katelyn and Devin were working on decorating the sugar cookies.


They were delicious and did not last long. I should say that Devin made the dough for the cookies.

I was really running on fumes. I don't think I had more than 12 hours of sleep total in the previous 3 nights.

I am so glad the Raviolis turned out delicous!!!! It was worth staying up late and working.

Jason had decided to only shave some of his face over the holiday:) We all just kept looking at him and shaking our heads. I finally figured whom he reminded me of and is was Mario from the game station. He put on my Swiss red hat and sure enough that was it. His mustache didn't get real thick but you can see it. He looked too old!

We had our friends Carlos, Bethe and their 2 daughters for Christmas dinner. It was a fun day. I was able to fit the turkey in the oven but it was a bummer not having more than 1 shelf for heating up the stuffing. It still tasted delicous and everyone loved the raviolis.

Cheers! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

P.S. Jason shaved the mustache off before the dinner:)

A Night of Ballet in Suzhou

Jason and I decided to attend the ballet in Suzhou for a fun, quick getaway before Christmas. We stayed at the Intercontinental which is a very nice hotel. It has a beautiful view of the lake. That is what I was trying to capture in this picture (not Jason during work while on a fun day off!)

I took advantage of that sun coming thru the window for a while. We just don't get that very much.

The lights that night on the lake and the surrounding buildings were beautiful. I was surprised to see that I was "dressed" up more than the majority of people at the ballet.

The ballet took place at this mega-structure that houses quite a few shows. It has an IMax and maybe 3 other movie theaters. It was a hopping place and on the chilly side. It was a good 15 minute walk from the hotel on a nice cold night:)
Our playdate ended and we had to get back home to reality. It was a fun evening. The hotel gave Jason a nice parting gift - fruit and wine basket.

Quick trip to Beijing

Jason made a quick business trip to Beijing at the beginning of November. I just wanted to share some pictures that he took. They had some snow and fog. The airport was actually shut down for a couple of days because of the fog. Jason was lucky enough to get out before then.

Olympic Stadiums - The Cube

The Bird's Nest

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

We actually started decorating a bit early this year for Christmas. Since we were going to have the party for Phil, I decided to have the house decorated for the party. It was a bit early but Kate and I were excited to get the decorations out.

I was excited to be able to order a stocking for Lily that matched the others. I was afraid that it wouldn't make it but I was wrong. It arrived within 2 weeks! It was so fun for all of us to see her stocking with all the others.
Kate trimming the tree.

Kate had to do a presentation on symbols and traditions for Christmas. We made some pizzelles for her to take to her class. Our place smelled like Grandma Millie's.