Beijing Bloggers

China is soooo awesome because you can design your own furniture any way you want. So I happen to really like Chinese style antiques so I found a place that would make some pieces from my own designs. I just drew a basic picture of what I wanted and the dimensions and they have thousands of different templates from which to choose for the styles and voila two months later you have a beautiful custom ordered bed, or desk ,or cabinet.

About the quality…. we have yet to find out. It might be that some of the wood pieces might crack in the dry weather or a hinge will wear out or something, I don’t know but for now I am quite pleased. So here are some pictures of our new stuff.

Now is the time of year when the children’s school are showcasing all they worked on for the first semester. Conley in her orchestra, Dayne and Anthea have their concerts coming up but I have included pictures of them at school anyways.

Some furniture we purchased and some we had made.

Anthea’s funky red boots which totally fit her personality.

So Thanksgiving can be done expertly well in China. We don’t have the Thursday off but many restaurants are offering mondo buffets for the “foreigner holiday”, which a lot of foreigners not from the U.S. celebrate just for fun. If you are American you might get invited to come to your child’s school and talk about this big holiday and have all the kids do a turkey hand drawing to take home and show their families. What is it all about: food family and friends, being thankful, and AMERICAN football. (They just don’t get it.)
Well, we do our big feast on the weekend when people don’t have to work. In the morning we can either join a turkey bowl with friends or baffle the locals with your own family football game. And it was a perfect fall day…slightly windy to blow leaves off trees, a slight chill where you have to wear sweatshirts and gloves, and a beautiful sunshiny, clear day. YES!!!!!

For the meal you can find everything you want, if a bit pricey but all is available. Turkey’s are rare but you can get them and they are very expensive at $100 for an 18lb. or you can order one from a gourmet meat house. It’s expensive but it’s cool. You just order one with whatever sides you want including the gravy and it comes directly to your door cooked to perfection by an expert chef. Then you invite a bunch of friends (20 in our case and 2 turkeys- you know the kind you eat) to bring any dish they want just like in the States. Then you sit back and enjoy the show and at the end you have your paid maid to wash all the dishes, while you relax with guests playing games and watching football games.
What American football in CHina????!!! Yes we figured out how to download Amercian football games so we could have a real Thanksgiving. Right!?? Dallas Cowboys how exciting!!! Then you pack up all the food and send home containers with all guest, who will continue to feast for the next week.

Another nice thing about living in China… no mad rush to the stores for Christmas sales. Yeah!!! Just chill and have some herbal tea or hot chocolate to welcome in December.

So I need to just add some pictures of things I see and do every now and then. So here’s some pics of my driver and car, places I go every now and then and just hanging out at home. Some are good some are a little hazy cuz I took the pics with out thinking about my audience. So I will throw these in every couple of weeks to just give you a taste of what it all looks like.