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Look and cook

30/12/2022

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One of JD's Christmas presents was a little cooking set including an electric hotplate, some pans, and various utensils. He got quite excited and declared he would cook for himself in future! He went on YouTube to find some simple recipes and has been cooking his own lunch ever since! No significant stomach upsets as yet. Now we just need to show him some YouTube videos about cleaning up afterwards...
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Cracker!

25/12/2022

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We had a great Christmas Day. JD opened his stocking presents in bed in the morning. Then, we opened our main presents after lunch. JD was delighted to get everything he had hoped for - Lego, drone, earphones, tent, cooking tools, Frazzles etc. We even had a surprise Christmas Spelling Test, where JD won cash prizes for every English spelling he got right! I got a Lego Death Star with 4200 pieces!
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Then Jiajia pulled out all the stops with a traditional Christmas dinner - roast chicken with all the trimmings, plus crackers and mince pies!
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One to tree for ...Christmas!

8/12/2022

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Once my birthday is done and dusted, the pressure is on (from JD) to put up our Christmas decorations. This year he was keen to pitch in with his own ides of what to put where, and how to decorate the "showing its age" tree! We'll gradually add presents underneath it, over the next fortnight, to build up the excitement. Jiajia is already scoring the internet for cheap and cheerful stocking fillers, Christmas crackers, sweets, mince pies and presents! 

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Slip up

30/1/2022

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One of JD's Christmas presents from me was a jar full of 300 slips of paper, each one containing a statement about him. He pulls one out each morning and reads it aloud. 
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About 90% of the slips have something positive and encouraging ("JD, you make friends easily" or "JD, you can ride a bike pretty fast") while the others are less so ("JD, you don't know your 12 times table" or "JD, your feet are stinky"). Something to enjoy throughout the year!!
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All presents and correct

26/12/2021

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We celebrated Christmas a day late as everyone was working and/or studying on the day itself. JD woke to not one, but three full stockings - his (successful) attempt to trick Santa into extra gifts! Then, after dinner, we opened all our presents - those for Ma, Jiajia and myself combined being less than those for JD alone! Lucky boy!
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Close enough!

25/12/2021

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OK, so it was chicken instead of turkey, "ganlan" instead of sprouts, home-made crackers and rice-based stuffing, but it was still pretty Christmassy and very tasty! Merry Christmas, readers!
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Decs-ember

24/12/2021

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Decorations have been up for a month, the advent calendar is nearly empty, presents are piled up beneath the tree ...and someone is very excited!
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Adventrain

6/12/2021

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JD is enjoying his "Advent Calendar train" - he opens one carriage a day, each containing a small toy.
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AT-At last

2/1/2021

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It took me about 5 hours but I've finally completed my main Christmas present - a Star Wars AT-AT Walker. Over 1400 pieces. Fully functional.
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Even reindeer plates!

28/12/2020

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At fairly short notice, Jiajia  decided to try and cook up a western Christmas dinner. Roast chicken, a Chinese vegetable in the brassica family (tastes like sprouts), beans, stuffing, gravy, roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding-ish flat bread. Impressive!

We washed it down with banana milkshake and had cake for dessert. I even made some crackers - no bang as we pulled them but they did have paper hats, awful jokes and tiny toys.
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Me fan

27/12/2020

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A Chinese friend of mine likes to make little Christmas tableaus out of her rice meal! [The title? "rice" is called "mifan" in Chinese!]
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Snacks and socks

26/12/2020

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Seems like Santa visited last night. The snacks left out for him and  Rudolph were nibbled and consumed, and JD's stockings were filled. 
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JD had decided to try and trick Father Christmas this year by leaving two stockings out in the hope that Santa would fill both. Santa duly obliged and at 8am Jiajia and I heard the pattering of not-so-tiny feet as JD came in and opened his presents with us. After his 2-hour home-schooling and lunch, we'll start on the pile of presies under the tree! 
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Online fine time

25/12/2020

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With Jiajia at work and JD at school, it was a low-key Christmas Day for me at home today. So we've arranged for Santa to visit tonight and we'll celebrate our Christmas tomorrow. 
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My UK family did manage a lovely little get-together on Zoom today though, which included catching up on all our news, a fun quiz and some heartfelt words of mutual appreciation - something which can all too often go unsaid. Happy Christmas, everyone! 
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Present tense

22/12/2020

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JD is getting very excited by all the gifts under the tree!
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Countdown...

18/12/2020

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JD made his own advent calendar this year! 
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December Decs

2/12/2020

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Decorating a little early this year to brighten up the gloomy 2020...
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Hen pea Carrotmas!

26/12/2019

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Who would have thought my good wife could
get together such a fabulous Christmas meal?
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(h)over and (spr)out

24/12/2019

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We celebrated Christmas last  weekend, since Christmas day itself is a normal school/work day here. JD hung up his stocking on Saturday and left out biscuits & milk for Santa and and a carrot for Rudolph. He then woke at 2.00am, 4.30am and finally 7.00am! Just too excited! 
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His favourite present this year is a "hoverboard" [see above, right] and he spent Christmas morning whizzing around the neighbourhood!

​We also shared a nice meal with our American friends Saturday night which, whilst not quite turkey and brussel sprouts, was still very tasty (Chinese hotpot). We even had Santa photo-bombing our post-meal photo!

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Decs for Decs ember

26/11/2019

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Once my Birthday is over, tradition here states that the Christmas decorations must go up, albeit a month early! So JD and I set to the task last weekend.
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Draw your own conclusions

8/1/2019

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One of JD's ex-teachers gave him a choice of Christmas presents - a dancing robot or a 180 piece coloured pencil set. Pleasingly, he went for the latter. So this last weekend he and I together drew a huge picture of an aircraft carrier (JD's latest obsession) complete with sharks, tanks, octopus and flower pot!
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Christmas Eve-n earlier

24/12/2018

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We celebrated our Christmas this last weekend as we are all working on the actual day. JD woke at 6am to see what Santa had bought him [see above] and then we played with various toys throughout the day, opening all our presents after lunch. JD seemed more interested in making a junk plane from the boxes which the present came in at one point [bottom, left]. Then JiaJia managed a delicious roast dinner [bottom, right] in the evening to round off a very enjoyable day.
Merry Christmas to all my blog readers!!
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Presents but not correct

16/12/2018

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Christmas is fast approaching but it is largely a theoretical celebration here. Christmas Day itself will be  full working day for me - six hours of watching students perform role-plays for their final exam. We may actually trick JD into thinking that Saturday and Sunday beforehand are actually Christmas, so he has more time to enjoy the fun and the presents which are slowly gathering under our tiny tree! We can probably cook some sort of vaguely Christmassy meal then too. Our tiny flat is barely decorated this year since we are about to move back into our old flat which is three times the size. But I fear by the time we get settled in there Christmas will be long forgotten! Oh well!

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Making Christmas decorations/gifts
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Larks, bricks, hawks and crackers

2/8/2018

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We're back at my parents' in Sidcup, Kent for another full and fun week. We visited "Lark in the Park" a community event my parents' church helps to put on. JD got his face painted as Spiderman, and took part in various activities such as painting, pets and puppets. We also visited Hall Place, a Tudor house which was hosting a Lego exhibition.
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Then at Cooling Garden Centre, we watched a Bird of Prey show and JD got to handle an owl. And finally my Mum and Dad put on a "belated" Christmas celebration complete with a tree, roast dinner, crackers, carols and presents. How do we fit it all in?
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Come on, Santa!

25/12/2017

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I am currently enduring chants of "Come one, Santa" from "Crayon Tree Kindergarten" which is overlooked by our flat. It's been going for 40 minutes already! Must be Christmas Day.
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Early bird

24/12/2017

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We celebrated Christmas a day earlier than most, since Monday is a normal working day here and JD will be at school. On Saturday, Jiajia attempted her first Christmas dinner and, despite limited ingredients and a tiny oven, we had a fantastic roast chicken with all the trimmings [see above]. That evening, JD made sure to leave out a stocking, biscuits, milk and a carrot for Santa and his crew [below left] before heading to bed. We were amazed he managed to stay awake until 8.00am this morning at which point the present-opening began. JD and I then enjoyed a day of making Lego models [bottom right], as well as various more festive activities. There's nothing like a kid around to make for a great Christmas atmosphere.
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    paul hider

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    Paul Hider lives and works in Kunming (SW China) and regularly updates this blog about his life there.

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