Snuggies!

So I had the idea to have Snuggies made for these 2 lovely girls for Christmas, so I took (yet another) trip to the fabric market to get super soft fluffy fabric, and then I took it to a local tailor to have them make them. 

{Side note.... Using tailors here is so fantastic. Go buy whatever fabric you want, take a picture or article of clothing of your liking .... think: "Oh i love that anthro dress! I'll just go take a picture of it to the tailor and have them make one for me!" and pay not too terribly much to have them make it... what's not to love?}

ANYWAY, with an East Asian friend for help with translation, fluffy fabric, and a few printed pictures of Snuggies in tow, off to the tailor we went. Let me tell you, you would have thought I had lost my mind- these people could not fathom why in the world I would want this made or why I didn't want it to connect in the back.... I kept saying, "IT'S A BLANKET WITH SLEEVES!" and the man there kept saying (not in English of course), "I think it will look bad!"

The tailor was perplexed; She asked how you would attach the sleeves- um.... the same way you would to a coat- cut a hole in the fabric and sew the sleeves on. After a good 20 minutes of trying to explain this, we left with our fingers crossed that it would work. 

And........

TA DA!!!!!

Super Cute Snuggies! Oh yeah, I had one made for myself as well. 

Aren't they fun!? 

They turned out pretty well- the sleeves are twice as far apart as they were supposed to be, and she used the wrong side of the fabric for mine, but it works! They are so super soft and fluffy! 

So what fun thing would you have made at the  tailor if you lived here? 

We are planning to have cute clothes made for vacation next week! Can't wait to share! 

Joyfully Snuggied,

Ornaments!

I always love decorating for Christmas, but this year I didn't have any of my decorations from home so  I had to get a little bit creative.

Here is the tree in the process of being decorated- the only picture I have with it still having colored lights. Typical quality- I bought them 2 days before they stopped working. 

One Saturday, Hannah and I decided to get crafty.... 

with whatever we could find!

Like old candy containers and cookie cutters. 

Hannah made the cute little creatures out of cookie cutters I bought at Ikea. I attempted to make a Christmas tree out of the m&m tube and foam- but I think it looks more like a Christmas asparagus with rhinestones on it. I also bought the cute patterned moose at Ikea, and gave him an eye. 

These are just a few that we made

Here are some of my favorite ornaments that I created....

A Christmas tree out of foam and rhinestones. The star came with a pack of strips of paper I bought to teach you to make origami stars. 

To make this silver ball, I took 8 strips of this silver paper, glued them on top of each other, folded them up to come together at the top and glued them together there. I hot glued a bead to the top and used thread to make the hanger. 

These red & grey felt circles were Ikea finds. They came with the yarn on them, but I wanted to spruce them up so I added rhinestones and fancy buttons. 

I also got these paper stars at Ikea, but they were really plain as they were so I added sequins and rhinestones to them as well. 

I can't take credit for this little guy, as my friend Lori who lives in another city with her family of 5 made it. She made 100 of these birds to sell to raise money for the adoption of their little girl from Ethiopia who they will hopefully bring home in a couple of months! 

Joyfully decorated, 

How to celebrate Christmas a long way from home

.... or at least how we made it happen! 

As I said before, we really did have a wonderful Christmas here. We are so blessed to have such fun, wonderful friends to celebrate with which made the weekend wonderful. While none of us had the privilege of being with our families this year, we made the most of it together. 

Here's a recap of the weekend....

Christmas Eve....

I spent most of the day running all over town (literally on foot) to the vegetable market, the meat market, the tailor to pick up a certain fun present for the girls, little stores to get last minute gifts & stocking stuffers (first time in my life I've shopped on Christmas Eve); Then at home getting dinner & everything else ready. 

Then our friends came over and we had a great dinner together...

Lazy Lasagna (So incredibly wonderful... seriously one of my new favorite meals)

Garlic Bread.... all from scratch thank you very much! 

Ready to eat!

Hannah's mama sent her fun napkins and plates to celebrate with

And as soon as the blessing was finished, the power went out! 

I was mad at first- as I had thought earlier that day, "What if the water or power goes off sometime in the next 24 hours? That would be so ridiculous- surely it wont happen on Christmas..." wrong! 

{This is a frequent occurrence.... the water went out later that night and didn't come back on until about 6:30 Christmas night}

But then it was kind of nice to have a candle lit dinner together 

Then we had a little mini-Chrsitmas Eve Service in the living room

With singing....

and reading the Christmas story by candle light

And then at the end the power came back on. And we all got out our new East Asian quilted PJs we bought to wear on Christmas. I'll share more about them later. 

Someone decided we needed to go to the roof and... well I'm not really sure why.... but everyone just ran around acting crazy.

And then we went back inside, called our friends Graham, Ashlei, & Grady in America, and then got comfy to watch....

A Muppet Christmas Carol!

It is Hannah's Family's Christmas Eve tradition. I forgot how cute it is. 

Adam dozed off for a while

And then everyone spent the night at our house.

Christmas morning we woke up and had breakfast together.....

I made this sausage, egg, & cheese scramble...

and Ryan made these delicious Cinnamon Rolls

It was a tasty breakfast!

Then we sang a few songs....

and the gift opening commenced {more to come on giving gifts here soon}

The aftermath....

Then we all watched A Christmas Story together and later in the afternoon, Adam and Joseph cooked us an AMAZING dinner! 

Beef Tenderloin

Mashed potatoes, honey glazed carrots, Waldorf salad, Ryans amazing dinner rolls, AND

Green beans slow cooked all day in pork fat. Yummy. 

Adam got fireworks (he LOVES them) from Joseph, so after dinner we went to the roof to shoot them off.

It was a fun way to end the wonderful day together and tell all of EA "Sheng Dan Jie Kuai Le!"

I hope that all of you had a very wonderful day celebrating as well! 

I have more to share about the uniqueness of what it looked like to celebrate here for us in the next few days! 

Joyfully surrounded by love,

Shang Dan Jie Kuai Le!

圣诞节快乐!!!

Merry Christmas from the other side of the world!

We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas! We have had a wonderful few days celebrating in new ways here.... 
More to come soon! 

Joyfully rejoicing in His birth,