Christmas at the Links!

This entire week has been about children running around the Links after dark, knocking on doors as loud as they can and then running to hide as fast as they can! There are about 20 kids out at the Links and they were all part of a Secret Santa gift exchange. I keep forgetting (sometimes) that Maddie is four as this is all still very new to her. We had participated in Secret Santa last year, but doesn't really remember doing so. Maddie first heard the door on Monday night and was ecstatic as she was opening the present... when she realized it was a book she burst into tears because "Santa" didn't bring her the ballet slippers she wanted! It was then that we had the discussion about the difference between Santa and a Secret Santa. She decided a Secret Santa was like a leprechaun - it worked for her! :)

Tonight we did the final gift exchange, but before we did so we were entertained a bit during a dinner. Sometimes you just have to pinch yourself and ask, "where am I and how did I get here?"

The young boy on the bicycle juggled and threw plates onto his head while riding a unicycle. I loved the look in his eye when he tossed three bowls at once to the top of his head from his foot... even he was proud! Then there was a young woman who did a dance for this kids where her face changed colors. It's difficult to describe so look a the clip and watch the color of her face change in the middle of it. I think it changed seven times in all! The girls then came out in their purple outfits with roller skates on where they spun as fast as they could in a very small space.

Girls twirling plates on the top of long sticks and a magician ended the show! Maddie sat in the front row with her mouth wide open the entire time! The gift exchange is what they all were waiting for though. Maddie gave Cleet his basketball and then received a PINK SAS sweatshirt from Cooper! It was a great night had by all... now it's time to head home for real down home Christmas time! One week and counting!!!!

We live in China!

We live in China. HELLO!!! We live in China. Sometimes I forget that believe it or not! It really hit home a week ago Friday when Andy and I were in a taxi coming home from a lovely night out with Jeff and Daneah. We were crossing the Nanpu Bridge at 11:30 and Andy's phone rang. I thought it was Jeff and Daneah calling, but his words were quick and to the point. "OK. We will be home in 15-20 minutes." Ms. Zhou's exact words to him were this; "Maddie sick." My first thought was that this is the first time in two years that our incredible ayi has called us while we've been out. My second thought was WHY didn't I continue with my Mandarin lessons? We communicate great in person, but on the phone? Not so much!

In the end Maddie was not as bad as I had imagined on the 45 minute taxi ride home. Her fever was high and it held on to her fiercely for three days straight. By then she was coughing so bad that we kept her home from school anyway. She was stir crazy to say the least and was very ready for school on Thursday. She spent all Thursday morning trying to convince me that it really was okay to wear her jammies to school that day (her last day of school on Friday was PJ Day)! It was a good yet rough couple of days for her as she just wasn't quite herself, but she was able to participate in lots of fun stuff over two days! Ms. Preeti wrote the following in the class newsletter:

For several months now, a group of children have been very interested in trucks and are making increasingly more complex road and building structures with wood blocks. I have been monitoring their play and it seems to me that it is inspired by the construction sites they must see from the school bus on their way to school every morning. This interest is apparent in their journal entries as well as stories that they have been dictating to me. This week, we went to look at the construction site of the soon to be made HS building on our own campus. This site is ideally located as we can go to the first or second floor of the HS and see it from the big windows- a perfect viewpoint. We will be making regular “field trips” to this area to watch the buildings come up.

We have been reading and learning about leprechauns and shamrocks to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (March 17). It is rumored that a leprechaun has been seen in the Early Childhood Section of SAS, Pudong. There have been some funny things happening in our classroom - a couple of times, when we came back from somewhere; we found the room messed up...(photo collage of leprechaun activities coming soon!) merely frivolous or fun.

So here's what I've learned this week: Your children get sick everywhere and anywhere in the world, you get to celebrate St. Patty's Day at school without having to worry about the separation of church and state, and I should've continued on with my Mandarin lessons no matter how busy I was at the time. Thank goodness we live in China!