Elaine's 6th Birthday Party

Today Elaine turned 6. Birthdays have always been a big deal in our house typically being a week-long celebration culminating in typically two parties…one for family and one for the girls’ friends. Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to have a family party, we decided to allow Elaine to have a rather large party with her friends. Finding a venue which would be appropriate for both boys and girls; however, was a daunting task.

First; however, we took her to the restaurant of her choice...I am VERY proud to announce that FINALLY the girls have graduated beyond McDonald's as the restaurant of choice...Elaine chose 'Kampai', a Japanese BBQ place which is SUPER happening!  Their 'schtick' is that if two people kiss for 10 seconds, they are awarded with a free plate.  So, Elaine and Terry took up the challenge...you can see that the effect was super cute.  It was a GREAT time for us and a chance to get some food that reminds us of home!  This definitely started the birthday celebration out right!

Back to our daunting task of finding a venue....Lucky for us, we found a franchise where the kids can paint a piece of pottery. After grabbing the brochure, I discovered that there was a branch not too far from the girls’ school. Thinking we were looking for a small craft shop perhaps in a mall or small area, we instead found ourselves in the Zishan Cultural and Ecological Garden. Apparently, the ‘DIY painting’ is party of the Zishan Garden’s way of helping students connect with their surroundings. WE DEFINITELY hit the jackpot, if you ask me.

So, today, Elaine and 16 of her classmates were treated to lunch, and a guided tour of the cultural center, where we saw 6,000 year old oyster shells which are about 5 times the size of today’s oyster shell! After, we went outside and discovered different species of birds, frogs, plants….then hiked up to a temple at the top of the mountain which was once Taiwan’s very first school (which was a Japanese school as Japan had occupied Taiwan at that time). It is now a temple which sits high up in the Zhi Shan mountain. It’s a great way to see the city, and I was AMAZED that all 18 of the kids made it to the top and entered in to the temple as respectfully as they did. A number of them decided to ‘Bai Bai’, which is offer a prayer to the God of that Temple….while I suggested that they give thanks for many of the things that they have, our guide suggested that they each offer a prayer, asking this God to fulfill whatever wish they decided to offer…heaven only knows how many Nintendo DS I’s will be in their future, but the effect was fun .

You can imagine the chaos involved in corralling 18 children while hiking up to this temple. Lucky for me, 3 fellow moms and my faithful husband worked the crowd control and kept everything down to a dull roar. One of the moms is Chinese (I believe she is local Taiwanese; however, I’m not certain) and was VERY helpful in explaining a bit more about the temple…for example…one enters on the right and not the left as the left entrance is for the ghosts. She also cautioned us not to step on the red raised step in each door frame, as this is also to prevent ghosts from wandering where they should not. She also saw an ancient large gold coin in the back of the temple…apparently if one rubs this coin, wealth and prosperity is supposed to come along. So, needless to say that we all rubbed the coin!!!! :)

One can imagine that, an hour later, the kids were all tired and getting restless at the temple, as beautiful as it was….so we asked our trusty guide (who was English speaking) to please quicken the pace of the tour to prevent any major meltdowns. With very few incidents, our now tired and restless crew arrived back at our party room. Waiting for them were 3 different coin banks aligned by very large palm leaves with 6 different swabs of paint, paint brushes, and water. With new found enthusiasm, they dove into their new craft.

Knowing that we had informed the parents to pick up their little ones at 3:30, I realized that, as is typical for me, we were running late. The kids were still painting at 3:25, and we had yet to cut the cake!!! So, trying to respect others’ schedules, we opted to cut the cake first….let the kids finish and clean their hands, then we frantically sang ‘Happy Birthday’ so as to let everyone go home :).

At 4pm…COMPLETELY exhausted, we grabbed our loot and hailed a taxi to go home. We then promptly spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up, opening presents, and relaxing. Elaine went to bed at 7pm, completely exhausted. All in all….a great birthday!

First Christmas in Taipei

Since Halloween, I’ve been dreading Christmas.  It seems odd, as this is typically my FAVORITE time of the year, but honestly, I’ve not been looking forward to it.  My experience of Taipei thus far has been a positive one, and I’ve felt more or less ‘at home’.  Knowing that I’ve never experienced a Christmas away from my family, AND my family makes Christmas a BIG deal, I was really fearful that homesickness would set in, ruining my positive experience.

Terry has been awesome at doing whatever he can to ensure that we are comfortable and settling in.  To help get us in the holiday spirit, he ensured that we were well stocked with Christmas music, which he faithfully played every morning and evening…in fact, I am now glad that Christmas is over so that I don’t have to listen to it any longerJ. 

At the very last minute prior to our departure, I grabbed a small box of decorations and a small box of ornaments from our Christmas stash and added them to our few precious things which we shipped over to Taipei.  I’m very glad I did as the few decorations we put up really livened up the place and had me feeling a bit more optimistic about this holiday.  To round things out, we took a trip down ‘holiday alley’, which is an area of Taipei where many wholesalers sell their wares to the Taiwanese public (read…cheap ‘Made in Taiwan’ goods).  We were able to purchase our X-mas tree, lights, about 4 strands of garland, and various Xmas wreaths and other decorations for a whopping $60 in total.  One of the benefits of having a small apartment is that it is quite easy to decorate, and a little goes a long way, and the few purchases we made truly made the place simply magical and beautiful!  With all the decorations up, it started to look and feel a lot more like Christmas.

Brianna in particular had a few moments of touch and go as she was missing many of the holiday festivities we participate in back in the USA.  To help battle it, I allowed the girls to invite 3 friends each and we had a mini-Christmas party, complete with cookie decorating, candy-making and a gift exchange.  The girls had a great time and Brianna seemed much happier after that J.

Elaine and Brianna both had class Christmas programs as the European school celebrates Christmas.  For Elaine, her program consisted of a few group songs sang amongst the pre-school, kindergarden, and 1^st grades; as well as each class singing 2 songs separately.  Elaine was even playing the tambourine in one of them…quite the sight.  Brianna’s program was put on by the 2-6 grade classes.  It was also 1 hour and 45 minutes!!!  Some of you were able to catch it live as it was broadcast on the web.  Some of the skits were quite entertaining and funny and some were…well, let’s just say that it was a VERY LONG show!  The super odd thing about it is that it ended with a Nativity scene complete with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.  Mary even explains how difficult it was travelling while she was pregnant.  I think this was the first time I’ve ever experienced a nativity scene outside of church.  It was a rather odd sight to see; however, it seemed that none of the folks there seemed to mind, and like much here in Taipei, I simply ‘went with the flow’.

The week before Christmas was probably my favorite time here.  I was surprised by how much Taipei gets into Christmas.  There are lights, trees, Christmas carols and other decorations everywhere.  Even the bus drivers were wearing Santa hats and red suits.  Brianna’s excitement about Christmas approaching was contagious.  Each day the week of Christmas I had to go to Chinese class and Terry stayed home with the girls (he had a one-week mandatory shut-down).  When I came home, I was treated to home-made ornaments Brianna had made for Santa Claus as a gift, pictures of wreaths and other Christmas items which Elaine used to decorate her room, a sign which said ‘Landing Strip for Santa Here’, and other fun surprises.  We took a few days to complete our shopping, which consisted of taking the girls to the Taipei Main Station underground mall to shop for each other.  They really loved picking out gifts for each other then coming home and wrapping their gifts.  I was very happy to see them bonding in a more meaningful way.  It seems that the holiday season was in full swing!

As if we didn’t have enough to look forward to, it seemed almost every day we were greeted by a package lovingly sent by our family in the USA.  The girls were beside themselves with excitement as they brought the packages upstairs and began to guess what was in each one.

Christmas morning was LOTS of fun for us.  Terry and I were prepared to be very tired as we had gone to bed very late Christmas Eve; however, to our surprise, the girls slept in until 7:45!  We were delighted!  The girls were patient enough to wait until Terry and I grabbed some coffee and put the Christmas music on.  They then dug into their presents with fervor.  Just watching their excitement and sincere appreciation for the beautiful gifts they received REALLY helped me get over my fears of homesickness.  I really felt at home with them and was relieved to see how thankful they were for their gifts.

The toughest part about Christmas was the afternoon.  I cannot remember a Christmas which was not crazy busy.  My personal experience of Christmas Day is one where we are frantically running from one family’s home to another, trying to rest along the way and ensure that everyone is happy.  This Christmas, we had no where to go and no family to see…in fact, Terry and I let the girls stay home by themselves, and he and I escaped to the gym for a few hours.  We then went to the traditional market and picked up a few things…it seemed like any other day.  That was tough for me as I was really missing the hustle and bustle.  It seemed….well…ordinary.  Thankfully, we had planned a very special evening which made up for whatever I had been feeling.

In the evening, we all dressed up in our fanciest Christmas clothes and hopped on a bus to downtown Taipei to the Grand Hyatt, where we had dinner reservations.  The Grand Hyatt, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Taipei, is one of Taipei’s nicest hotels and is quite formal.  We were NOT disappointed.  Not only was the décor very traditional and beautiful, but the food was fabulous!  We dined at the Café, which had a buffet serving American food as well as Chinese food.  The girls were just as excited as Terry and I were.  While we ate, we were treated to a quartet singing Christmas Carols (which I must say did get me very misty…I am REALLY missing singing, especially this time of year) as well as Santa Claus, who came with gifts for the kids.  We even received a photo of the kids with Santa…granted, this Santa looked VERY different from the ones back at home, but hey…at least we did not break the tradition of the kids’ picture with Santa!  After dinner, we went into the lobby, where a full choir was singing Christmas Carols.  It was quite a lovely sound and yes, as much as I tried to hide it, I did get very misty-eyed as I really did miss my family, the music, singing, and well…let’s just say that music moves me in a way that nothing else can.  I had been fighting the many ups and downs of the holiday season and given that it is such an emotional time of year, I found that music really brought out many emotions in me…and not all of them sad J.

We rounded the night off with a walk around Taipei 101 area, which was just lovely (sorry, I can't get the picture to rotate!).  There were lights and trees and people everywhere.  It was very magical and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I will tell you that there were moments (mostly when I heard people singing Christmas carols) when I was homesick and emotional; however, given how much I had feared the holiday season, my expectations were exceeded.  I have been grateful that Taipei does get into Christmas and VERY grateful for modern technology which allowed us to see most of our relatives and talk with them for quite a while on Christmas.

I will also confess that given the choice, I would prefer to spend Christmas in the USA with our families.  That being said; however, practically speaking that will not always be possible.  Our family created some fun new traditions which made our first intimate Christmas very memorable.  We were able to spend some quiet time together simply appreciating one another and the many blessings we bring into each other’s lives in a very deep way.  While I do look forward to the day when we will celebrate this special holiday with our extended family, I at least know now that spending Christmas in Taipei is not something I need to fear any longer.  For that, I am very grateful.

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday filled with many memories and spirit.