Holidays Recap

We can't get too far in to January without recapping what a wonderful time we had with our first Christmas in China and our first Christmas away from home - we made it!

Our Christmas started on the 23rd with a night here at home to finish preparations and start some new traditions! Our wrapping was super-classy and we thought the home-made snowflakes were a nice touch. One tradition we decided to try is to make Chinese food during the holidays. I think we'll always remember our Christmas(es) in China and will want to celebrate that for years to come. I haven't really tried any Chinese cooking up until this point, so I was really excited to try our first home-made dish - gong bao ji ding! Combined with a you zi and some dumplings it was an awesome Chinese meal and I was really proud of the way it turned out. Alex and I enjoyed getting to spend some quiet time together before all of the activities we had with friends over the next couple days!

On Christmas Eve we got up early and went to Grandma's Kitchen to meet some of our friends for a glorious American breakfast. This restaurant has awesome food (which of course is expensive) but we decided to splurge in honor of the holidays! It's a tradition in the Hales family to get together with family friends on Christmas Eve morning for breakfast so we decided to continue that. We met Bouk and Hailey Goble, Jen, Gavin, and Sam Ryan, and Nick and Dana Wester. Breakfast was lovely, the company was awesome, and Alex loved having a burger, fries, and milkshake for breakfast! After breakfast we went to a bowling alley close by (another Hales family holiday tradition) and had such a blast! It was another one of those times that we forgot we were on the other side of the world for a minute because it felt so much like home. We don't try to create those times, but when they happen they are more than welcome. :)






After bowling and breakfast we jumped on the subway and headed across town to the Hoskin's home for a Christmas Eve party. I've got to add this darling picture of Joe and Katie Hoskin not only because it's adorable, but also because when they're famous I want tangible, internet proof that we are friends of theirs. Cause trust me, it's gonna happen. And when it does, I'll say "Oh yeah, Joe and Katie, we're friends with them - look at our blog, there's proof."



In all seriousness, we absolutely adore the Hoskin family and were so grateful for the invitation to a party with friends that felt like a party with family. It was so cute because between the other three families there, we had 10 kids who all matched up in ages really well. As soon as all the kids got there they paired off with their little buddies and were just giggling all night long. And get this, we got to sit at the big kid table with the adults! We're so old here! We enjoyed the evening with the Hoskin, Quan, and Morris family as well as the cheese ball, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, meat balls, homemade rolls, salsa, cider, ham...oh no, I'm drooling again just thinking about it. Highlight of the evening (even more so than the food and company) was the Christmas play the Hoskins organized. It is a beautiful tradition that we decided will make an appearance at future Putnam Christmases as well. The spirit of Christ and Christmas was so strong and we're grateful to the Hoskins for creating that - even with a goofy Mary and Joseph. (First Nursery Leaders, now this? I think Katie Hoskin (Primary President) is trying to tell us something...)

On Christmas day we had great plans to wake up early and enjoy our first Christmas morning together. Wait. Did I just use "us" and "wake up early" in the same sentence? Well, if you know us well, you know that's never going to happen. So technically our first Christmas morning on our own was an epic fail, but there's nothing wrong with opening presents at 7 pm, right? Right. We enjoyed a short church meeting and then headed to Nick and Dana Wester's for a gorgeous Christmas dinner and gift exchange with the Westers and Gobles. Dinner was delicious, Dana out-did herself as usual, and the gift exchange was so fun. We are so grateful that we have such good friends here that we can spend these times with - don't know what we would do without all of them.

Speaking of presents, Santa was seriously on our side this year in helping our packages from home arrive! We only had one casualty...Jenn... :( But the rest made it safe and sound and for that we are grateful. We appreciate our friends and family thinking of us so much. There is just something about holding a box/envelope/package that your loved ones held and sent across the ocean that makes home feel so close.

On Monday morning, the 26th, we got up and were on Skype for almost 5 hours...such is life...And it was wonderful! We loved getting to talk to our families and are grateful that they're willing to talk to us while we're so far away. It was wonderful getting to chat and share a little bit of their Christmas with them.

While we were in transit to and from our Christmas Eve activities we had our camera handy and snapped a few photos of what Christmas looked like on the streets of Beijing. Nice weather, pretty decorations, people selling Christmas Apples everywhere, and a trip up the Xitucheng escalator - longest ever.



For us it just goes without saying that we missed our families over the holidays - cause that's a given. It wasn't fun to be away from our loved ones, but it was a great experience to feel more established, have a unique Christmas, and make great memories with our friends here. God bless us, every one!