Greetings to all Wilson fans out there. While most of our friends and family in the US are pretty much recovered from the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year season, Chun Jie (Chinese New Year) is just starting to get under way.
Imagine the crowds of Christmas shoppers in the stores that you frequent and multiply it by at least 3. Bright displays, holiday music, loads of candy and gifts that will be exchanged. And those few eager souls who just HAVE to shoot off a few fireworks now. Oh yeah, fireworks stands on the street corners. Imagine a long Christmas break combined with HOURS of Fireworks on the night of Chinese New Year.
This year is the "year of the Rabbit" saying goodbye to the Tiger of last year. Last year we sent our grandson, Justice, a stuffed Tigger. Maybe Bugs Bunny this year? We'll only have to do 10 more animals and he'll have the complete set.
Something that is happening in our complex, that I assume has something to do with the celebration is that on bushes all around are spread long green leafy vegetables for drying. Sometime I'm going to take Mark and the dictionary and ask someone what they do with that vegetable and if it is for some sort of special holiday food. I'm very curious about it all.
The coolest thing for me (Jamye) this year is that I'm going on a trip up into the mountains with a friend for Chinese New Year. We will be visiting the home town of a good friend, stay with her family and get to share her families celebration. I'm really looking forward to that! I hope to bring back some really good stories and pictures from this. I just hope I can keep up with my running program while there, I've been doing really well and want to keep the momentum moving along.
Well, to all our dear friends and family out there we hope you have a very good Chinese New Year Day whether you celebrate it or not.
Now off to pack!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Happy New Year
We had a great New Year's Day. As far as our city goes it was no big thing. That's coming up with Chinese New Year.
While many people like to go out for New Years, we had a homey, low-key day. We had received a package from home on Christmas Day. Among other things there were chocolate chips, pecans and dried cranberries. So giving ourselves the day off for the holiday we decided it was a good day for baking.
Now, our kitchen is rather small. If people know where things are in there and you coordinate your steps you can get two and if very careful three people in there. But we were game to try. So Mark, Seth and I set about our cookie baking day. We did the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, of course. If Mark ever has to request a "last meal" I have no doubt that chocolate chip cookies will figure in the menu. And because I am a big fan of dried cranberries I found a good recipe online for cookies with cranberries online. If you are interested here is the recipe:
Cranberry Cookies
The house smelled wonderful with batch after batch of cookies coming out. Then we got out some of our games. Seth is very much like Mark, something of a ham, so the game of choice was Guesstures. I am normally a bit self-conscious with that game, but since it was just the 3 of us it was a lot of fun and no pressure. We relaxed, ate cookies, chicken nuggets, watched a movie for most of the afternoon.
After that Mark and I went out on our bi-monthly date. It was Mark's turn to plan so we went to a favorite restaurant not far from here, Wicker Basket, for dinner. After that Mark had arranged for us to got to a friend's hostel to use their private lounge. He had brought his guitar and we just had a good time singing together. Then a movie on their big screen tv. Public Enemies ( Johnny Depp!) if you are interested.
So, I guess party animals we're not, but it was a pleasant way to ease into the New Year.
Cheers!
While many people like to go out for New Years, we had a homey, low-key day. We had received a package from home on Christmas Day. Among other things there were chocolate chips, pecans and dried cranberries. So giving ourselves the day off for the holiday we decided it was a good day for baking.
Now, our kitchen is rather small. If people know where things are in there and you coordinate your steps you can get two and if very careful three people in there. But we were game to try. So Mark, Seth and I set about our cookie baking day. We did the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, of course. If Mark ever has to request a "last meal" I have no doubt that chocolate chip cookies will figure in the menu. And because I am a big fan of dried cranberries I found a good recipe online for cookies with cranberries online. If you are interested here is the recipe:
Cranberry Cookies
The house smelled wonderful with batch after batch of cookies coming out. Then we got out some of our games. Seth is very much like Mark, something of a ham, so the game of choice was Guesstures. I am normally a bit self-conscious with that game, but since it was just the 3 of us it was a lot of fun and no pressure. We relaxed, ate cookies, chicken nuggets, watched a movie for most of the afternoon.
After that Mark and I went out on our bi-monthly date. It was Mark's turn to plan so we went to a favorite restaurant not far from here, Wicker Basket, for dinner. After that Mark had arranged for us to got to a friend's hostel to use their private lounge. He had brought his guitar and we just had a good time singing together. Then a movie on their big screen tv. Public Enemies ( Johnny Depp!) if you are interested.
So, I guess party animals we're not, but it was a pleasant way to ease into the New Year.
Cheers!
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