Our family traditions have become all the more important when everything else has been so foreign. It feels so good to exercise some competent control even if its only in the little sphere of my family life--it helps things feel more normal. I've missed the taken-for-granted ability to make simple arrangements to achieve desired results. It has been humbling these past 5 months. I think to compensate, I went all out with revving up the family traditions for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
First, we had to make arrangements to get the kids out of school for some "personal days" for Christmas time. Ryley was scheduled to have his English mid-terms during those days so he had to take them in advance. No big deal--he didn't need to study much. At his school, Julien was supposed to be in an English Christmas drama as the star character of "Santa." Luckily I informed his teacher of his upcoming absence early enough that his role was easily changed to "teacher's helper" instead. For the play practices leading up to Christmas time, his job was to help the other kids learn their lines. He loved it :)
For Christmas Eve we had a special dinner that incorporated a few French traditions that I like:
1. I prepared lasagna which is to help us think of baby Jesus' swaddling clothes. Ben had argued that we should do a Chinese version of "swaddling clothes" and eat jiao zi [pot stickers] for dinner. He insisted that the wrapped up veggies and meat filling was even more like swaddling clothes. I was tired of eating jiao zi and rice though and had a craving for lasagna which I hadn't eaten since leaving the States. I won.
2. I also prepared 13 special desserts, another Provencal tradition, that represent Christ and his 12 apostles. I did try and do this one at least partially Taiwanese style. Most of the desserts I got at a traditional Taiwanese dessert shop that is close to our home (right across the street from Mitsukoshi department store).
First, we had to make arrangements to get the kids out of school for some "personal days" for Christmas time. Ryley was scheduled to have his English mid-terms during those days so he had to take them in advance. No big deal--he didn't need to study much. At his school, Julien was supposed to be in an English Christmas drama as the star character of "Santa." Luckily I informed his teacher of his upcoming absence early enough that his role was easily changed to "teacher's helper" instead. For the play practices leading up to Christmas time, his job was to help the other kids learn their lines. He loved it :)
For Christmas Eve we had a special dinner that incorporated a few French traditions that I like:
1. I prepared lasagna which is to help us think of baby Jesus' swaddling clothes. Ben had argued that we should do a Chinese version of "swaddling clothes" and eat jiao zi [pot stickers] for dinner. He insisted that the wrapped up veggies and meat filling was even more like swaddling clothes. I was tired of eating jiao zi and rice though and had a craving for lasagna which I hadn't eaten since leaving the States. I won.
2. I also prepared 13 special desserts, another Provencal tradition, that represent Christ and his 12 apostles. I did try and do this one at least partially Taiwanese style. Most of the desserts I got at a traditional Taiwanese dessert shop that is close to our home (right across the street from Mitsukoshi department store).
The shop specializes in Taiwan's famous pineapple cakes--it even has a cute pineapple fountain out front.
3. Lastly, I really wanted to have a candle-lit dinner. This arrangement was the hardest to make happen because I had troubles tracking down unscented tea-lit candles. After trying a couple different stores with no success, I got a referral from a friend saying that she'd found them before at the store Hola. I found the candle section easily enough but still couldn't find any unscented candles. I finally realized I'd have to suck it up and try to ask a sales clerk--something that is still so intimidating. I got my trusty old iPhone Google translate ready and approached the unfortunate sales lady who would be burdened with my needed assistance. After a few unsuccessful translations, I simply motioned for her to follow me and I showed her a demo model that was using an unscented candle and asked "where?" in Chinese. That seemed to make some headway and the lady started talking at me and pointed to an area on the shelf. All I caught was the expression "I'm sorry." In efforts to end the conversation that I had no comprehension of, I responded "that's ok, don't worry about it." I bought some scented candles and went home.
Christmas morning brought its familiar excitement and magic. Seriously, kids make Christmas the greatest. I love it! The boys' favorite gifts were some binoculars from their grandma and grandpa. Our 9th floor view out the window provides a lot of action to look at...on the ground, not in other apartment windows, thankfully.
Theo's gift from Santa was a big hit (I knew it would be)! Since a huge portion of his life in Taiwan is spent in the constraining 5-point harness of his stroller, the gift of a baby doll and stroller was in fact a gift of empowerment. Theo now can be on the pushing end of things. He's so cute with giving his doll one of his toy cars to hold while she gets pushed around the apartment :) Theo typically insists on at least 3 cars in his fists on any given stroller outing.
For Ben's gift, the boys gave him a chop with his Chinese name. Everyday on the way to Julien's school we pass a shop that makes these seals. With Theo's babysitter's help and 3 separate trips, we successfully chose and ordered the perfect one.
The boys chose a case that means "riches will come."
They chose a round seal because that means riches will flow your way (vs. a square seal which is supposed to help keep you from losing your riches). They also liked the engraved dragon design.
Now Ben can use his chop to sign the boys' daily school communication books. How cool is that?! I used to have to sign side-ways (as you can see on the left hand side in purple pencil).
For my gift, Ben gave me a homemade gift certificate to get monthly massages (Asian style, love them!!) and the boys got me 2 super soft rugs for my bathroom. I'm a lucky girl to have such sweet boys :)
To end our Christmas day, we joined some friends for an evening feast. They had also taken the day off from work and school and it meant a lot to spend that time together.
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