'Trick-or-Treating'

We brought a Western Autumn Tradition here to our neighborhood!! Trick-or-Treating!

It was in some ways exactly the same as 'there'..... But in some ways much different.....

Halloween is somewhat known here, not by everyone but some have heard of it. I decided I wanted my kids to have a Trick-or-Treating experience this year so I set a plan in motion. First I went to the store with my friend Lany and I bought several different kinds of treats. Some familiar to us (very few) such as M & M's, some recognizable such as lollipops and gum. When Lany asked why I was purchasing so much candy I told her for Trick-or-Treating. I said, "Would your kids like to join us?" Of course they would! So Lany got into the spirit of things and purchased a couple of treats to add to the pile. When we got to the check-out stand I noticed one of her choices for the children was small individual packages of seaweed....ok....I guess some kids will like that...not mine.

I went home and invited five families to join us for the event.

I took all the treats and divided them up into individual bags with the number of treats equalling the number of children invited. Gum in one bag.... lollipops in another....M & M's in another...seaweed in another...etc. I explained to Lany that I needed to go door to door asking for 'volunteers' (who would be home at the appointed time on Oct. 31st) to hand out one candy per child when we came to their door. I needed her to translate. She agreed to assist me.

A couple of days before Halloween we went to the top of my 12 story apartment building and with two doors per floor we began knocking. The first day we found homes for about half the bags of candy. Our 'volunteers' were excited to participate.

The next day Lany and I continued our search in one of the neighboring apartment buildings. After ascertaining the security entry code for that building's door we found homes for about four more of the bags of candy. We still needed a couple more 'homes'.... so, we went to the Security Guard at the front gate. Success! He was willing. Then we went to the Living Quarters management office. Bingo! All the bags were distributed! We were ready!

We decided to Trick-or-Treat in the afternoon because inside an apartment building you can't tell if it's dark anyway. In the afternoon all the families arrived and with costumes donned we set out....in the elevator. This presented my first unforeseen obstacle... we didn't all fit in the elevator! No problem, children went in the elevator with me (along with the itinerary of apartment numbers we were to visit and entry codes) and the children's parents took the stairs (down only... I'm kind).

OK...we hit the first door. (I am praying all the while that all my volunteers will be home) Unfortunately I had not taken into account one thing, these kids were not familiar with how to do this Trick-or-Treating thing. All I had told them was Knock, say Trick-or-Treat!, Say thank you, and get back into the elevator. So... they knocked, said Trick-or-Treat!, took off their shoes and entered this 'volunteers' apartment! They sat on their living room floor and began playing with the toys in sight. Meanwhile I am stuck in the hallway with so many children between me and the door that I can't immediately get there to usher them out, plus some of them have limited English so I can't tell them to get out. Eventually I push my way to the front, apologize to the 'volunteer' (my neighbor), and remove the shoeless children. We got back in the elevator to head to the next floor. Before the door closed I yell out to the parents in the stairwell the floor number of our next stop. In between floors I did a little training through the assistance of one of our children's translation, "We do not go into the homes, okay?"

OK...we arrive at stop number two. This home happened to have the lollipops, of which there were two different types in the bag. A detail that any adult would have never notice, but believe me the kids noticed! So, my neighbor begins to do as trained and gives one candy to each child. I see the first two children reach the door. Upon noticing the two choices of lollipops available they reject the particular lollipop given to them, retrieve it from their bag, give it back and start digging their little hands into the bag to choose the one they prefer. Back in the elevator!! More Training! "Take the candy that is handed to you, say Thank you, and get back into the elevator." "And don't any of you take off your shoes!"

OK... stop number three...my greatest fear...NO ONE is home! Back in the elevator, next floor.

Moving on... apartment building number two. The children run on ahead but I knew they wouldn't get too far ahead because I hold "the list" and more importantly I have the security code to the building door. I love power! We successfully navigate all the floors and lucky for the parents the third floor was the highest we had to go.

Then our last two stops, the front gate Guard and the LQ Office.

Finished!

And such was our Trick-or-Treating experience with our friends and neighbors!

Autumn Fun!

Some fun Chinese Traditions at this time of year... Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day were celebrated very recently. National Day is the equivalent of our Fourth of July. The children had a few days off for National Day, Daddy didn't get as many days off. But the funny thing is how they "give" "holiday days" off for school.......they "give" Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off but then the children must come to school on Saturday AND Sunday to make up for it!! (Don't even try to figure this one out!) I tried to get the school mom's to explain it to me but we all just ended up smiling politely at each other in the end...(they don't get it either). This 'going to school on the weekend' thing happens several times each school year. It's very difficult to get used to. Mid-Autumn Festival is based on the Lunar Calendar and this year it was September 22nd (which happens to be our Anniversary... we felt very honored that the entire country took that day off from work and school. And the fireworks for us were spectacular and unexpected!! ;) There must be something to that Lunar Calendar because it is SO accurate! September 21st was HOT...September 22nd was 30 degrees cooler! And it has been cooler ever since...it is as if summer was told, 'your time is up and don't come back!' Amazing! How do they know? I really wish sometimes they were not so accurate. I heard the other day that we are in for the coldest winter ever in 1000 years!! GREAT! Why can't the forecasting here be like there? Then at least I have a 50/50 shot at it being right! (I suddenly feel like we need more sweaters). At this time of year EVERYONE gives Moon Cakes. Moon Cakes are a VERY big deal. We get Moon Cakes from so many folks. Now let me explain Moon Cakes...they are the equivalent of Fruit Cake in the States. (Don't give me a hard time if you happen to be one of the few out there that like fruit cake... No one likes fruit cake.) Typically someone gives you a fruit cake and you smile, thank them politely, and immediately think, "Who can I give this to?" Be honest, we all do it. Well, that is my response with Moon Cakes.

But I will say this, they package them BEAUTIFULLY!!

They are Beautiful... The cakes are pretty and so are the little boxes they come in, and so are the big boxes full of little boxes of Moon Cakes, and so are the matching bags for the big boxes to go in. (Seems like they are 'selling' it a little bit too hard wouldn't you say?)

So they are beautiful and the packaging is beautiful, BUT THE TASTE!

They vary in flavors, not sure exactly what the flavors are, but I can tell you how we have categorized them. There is the one with and egg yolk baked in the center.... there is the one that smells 'fishy' (personally I can't get past that smell to taste it)... there is the one that kinda smells peanutty, but, not quite.... there is the one that I know is made of red beans..... and the only one I can stand a bite of, tastes sort of like cookie dough (sort of, if you really stretch your imagination) but t h e n another taste emerges soon after you put it into your mouth that is very unfamiliar and I can't describe.

We really keep trying to like them but we just can't... Daddy and I that is. The girls like them! Spice is the biggest fan! But even she has her limits on which ones she will eat. She handed me several the other day and said, "We can throw these away, I won't eat them." I hate to waste anything so I tried to resist throwing them out. I offered them to many of our friends but the response was always the same, no thank you we have plenty of those at our house too. I'm just thankful that our tradition of giving fruitcake is limited to only one not boxes and boxes and boxes of the little gems.

Our Silk Worm Experience....

A common Spring activity here for elementary age children is to raise Silk Worms. For weeks we have seen the various cardboard "homes" be carried to school each morning by the majority of the students. After several weeks of course, the request was made by our girls..."Can we get Silk Worms toooooo ?" Knowing NOTHING about Silk Worms I hesitated. Sugar and Spice assured me "it's easy... Tiffany (a school chum) knows exactly where to get them"....you BUY them at the store! What?! Buy them? I had envisioned children finding them on trees or bushes like we always found fuzzy caterpillars as children. We certainly did not BUY them.

As any good mother would do I began to inquire with the other mothers. I soon found out yes, it is true, they are purchased at the little local stores....one yuan for 20 worms (that is roughly .15 cents for 20 worms). As soon as I inquired about the worms I had offers abounding from the other moms! "I'll give you some!" (I should have taken this as a hint.) I agreed to their generosity... (hey, I'm all about saving .15 cents when I can).

The next morning the other Mom handed over the little box of worms (quite eagerly I might add.) Mind you, I had agreed with Sugar and Spice to allow 6 worms in the house, bargained down from 8 (I tried 7 but 7 is not evenly divisble between two little girls.) To my utter surprise there were 23 worms!! 23!! (Again, should have been a warning sign to me, but I took them home.)

I found two little cardboard homes and placed everything on the coffee table for my girls to discover once they returned from school. They were delighted! They didn't even mind that 23 is not evenly divisble by 2! They diveyed them up. Sugar got 12 and Spice got 11.

Some of the information about silk worms I had gathered from the other Moms was that there is no worry of the worms getting out of the box, they, in my estimation are quite lazy worms. They will not go looking for their food, you must put it directly in front of them! And once they become moths they will not fly from the box either. See what I mean? Lazy worms. But I was glad to hear it. My only concern was infestation of my home by worms or cloth eating moths. I was assured neither would happen.

Next issue...what do they eat? Mulberry leaves. Okay, what's a Mulberry tree look like? Where do I find one? No problem, one Mom volunteered to bring some leaves from her neighborhood. Little did we know how much these lazy worms can eat!! I felt it was too much of an inconvenience to keep asking my friend to bring bags of Mulberry leaves to school to sustain these ravenous creatures! So we spent 3 hours going around our neighboring village one Saturday afternoon asking, through interpretation, "Where can we find a Mulberry tree?" We asked everyone....we asked young and old. We asked school age children, surely they would know because they were probably raising Silk Worms too! No luck! No leaves. I went back to requesting leaves from my friend every couple of days. We kept the leaves in the refrigerator to keep them fresh.

Once the worms began to spin a cocoon we made individual compartments in their boxes. They like to connect their cocoon to a corner. One morning the girls brought up the subject of what happens after the moths emerge from their cocoons. Apparently the moths come out, look around their box for a mate, and then lay eggs. The girls had grand plans for this; they intended to hatch the eggs and sell baby silk worms! 20 for 1 yuan!! Clearly I had not thought this through enough when I agreed to let them in the house! A slight panic set in. I quickly responded, "Girls it's been a great experience but I did not do this to embark on a Silk Worm business!"

After the entire experience and the moths had layed all their eggs I made the necessary arrangements to "end the life cycle" of the silk worm business. (I took the boxes to the trash can outside.)

All in all it was a great experience, one we would never have had if we were not "here".

The girls each wrote a report for you on what they learned about Silk Worms. Here they are for your enjoyment.....

"SPICE'S REPORT" age 9

'SILK WORMS'

I will be telling you about silk worms. Silk worms are very like worms but they turn into moths! First you have to put them in a box that has no top. But I want to tell you something else, silk worms only eat mulberry leaves. The mulberry leaves are shaped like spades and clubs. Some of them have little bugs but you don't have to take the bugs off, it wont hurt them anyways! When you give them the mulberry leaves make sure there are no drops of water on the leaves because it is not good for them they might get sick and die because of the water.

The silk worm is an inch and half long and thin as a pencil. When they are ready to turn into moths they build a cocoon and they are in the cocoon for at least four days. But before they do that they might die for some reason. I never knew why they died.

Lets get back to them turning to moths. When they turn to moths they have to get their

wings spread out before they can flap there wings. But I will tell you they cannot fly

when they turn into moths.

When the moths are out they can lay their eggs all by themselves or they can lay their eggs with a boy. But be careful when you get some... you are going to have 1.000,000 of them when they get together! So before you see the eggs, sell as much as you can! Or if you want you can buy just a boy or a girl and then you wont have so much silk worms.

"SUGAR'S REPORT" age 10

"SILK WORMS'

Hello, I got some silkworms. What are silkworms? Well, I will tell you.

One day my little sister and I came home from school. It was a normal day, but not when

we walked in the door... We looked at the coffee table and there were our

silkworms! We were so excited.

At first they looked like plain caterpillars but they are not furry. They are white and some have black stripes. Silkworms eat Mulberry leaves. Mulberry leaves are green and some are shaped like a small Maple leaf. (But green of coures.) They were cute eating their leaves. A lot of kids at my school had silkworms at this time of year. So Mulberry leaves were getting scarse but our friends brought us leaves until they started building their cocoons. Our friends saved the day!

This is how Silkworms start a cocoon: first they find a spot to start connecting their threads. Once you notice them start to do that you have to put them in a small card board box.

They each need their own room.

A cool fact about Silkworms: Silkworm cocoons come in different colors white, yellow, orange, and pink. (My mom really wanted to have a pink one but we only had 2 white ones and the rest were orange and yellow)

Once the Silkworm is done forming in its cocoon it comes out as a beautiful white moth. Their wings are small and shriveled up when they first come out. Then their wings smooth out and become normal. Then they mate and the girl moth lays her eggs. When she first lays her eggs the eggs are yellow, then after about a half hour they turn brown, then another half hour later they turn black.

Silkworms are one of God's creatures. And I'm glad that I got to experience them!

If you look closely you can see a few eggs just above the moth on the cardboard.

Christmas Service

The Children's Nativity

The Message with interpretation

Silent Night Magpie & Sugar singing Christmas carols.

Christmas Cookie Baking & Decorating

We had about 50 people show up for our Cookie Party! It was great fun. Everyone participated and enjoyed themselves.

Some got "into" it a little more than others.....

CHRISTMAS TREE?

From my apartment window I noticed a couple hanging things on a little tree in the distance.

It was a few days before Christmas and I thought, "I know it is not the custom here to decorate a tree but what are they doing?" I just had to know...... I took a little walk and.....

Upon closer examination..... I saw it was meat they were hanging.....pork....fish....

not at all what I was expecting. Apparently it is a tradition at this time of year to dry meat by hanging it in various locations. I watched the following few days as they faithfully took it down each evening and hung it back up each morning. I can't imagine the smell in their apartment through the night! I also wondered how they keep the neighborhood cats away from the tree. (Close up view) yum, yum....

Helping in the Cafeteria....

Chicken Pot Pie and Apple Crisp was on the menu for the

school 's first ever Western lunch.

Apple Peeler Corer action....

Notice how bundled up I am.... it was freezing cold in the kitchen! Everything came out perfect!