Sheng Dan Jie Kuai Le!

Christmas here in Shanghai fully exceeded my expectations! My whole attitude towards the holidays this year had been substantially scrooge-like. I wasn't even looking forward to Christmas these last few days due to our apartment basically falling apart a little more every day. I love where I live, don't get me wrong, but the place really isn't up to par.
To start off, we hadn't had heat in our bathroom for almost 2 weeks (and no lights pretty much either). Talk about a cold shower... yikes. A window fell out in the kitchen and when we tried to put it back in, it wouldn't fit on the tracks. So, a nice frigid breeze flies through our kitchen at all times, and there is no heater in there. And lastly, most importantly, our internet had been out for almost 5 days. We were mad enough about this, but it being the holidays we weren't able to communicate with our families.
To top everything off, on Thursday night, all the power went out. As I was walking out the door at about 8pm to head to Starbucks and use the internet, I am mid-sentence expressing my anger towards the no internet situation when -- "zhhoooommmmm" (that is the sound of all the power shutting down). We are standing there in the pitch black.
We sit down on the steps with our head in our hands and just... well, sit. Once its turned back on, we try and not worry about it until.... 5 am. Christmas Eve morning.... "zhooooooom". No power again.
Make a long story short, and a less drama-filled, boring-for-you, too-long-to-type-out-for-me story line, all our power and internet were fixed by Christmas Day at about noon. (Yuvie to the rescue again. She was our Christmas angel! Oh, and "shuai ge", meaning handsome, Terry :)

Now, to a more exciting and sweet Christmas Eve and Day story --

Christmas Eve
I worked all day with my kids, and kept everything pretty laid back. The kids even had a gift exchange. They were lovin opening the presents :) And I only had 7 kids that day... bonus!

In the eve, Mackenzie and I met up with our friends Amanda, Alice and Kate at Boxing Cat Brewery. We had such a great time with amazing food and wine. We even were able to sit by a beautiful fireplace and sip on our drinks and enjoy some fabulous desserts.

 It totally felt like Christmas Eve. I was so thankful in that moment for where I was and who I was with.



Christmas Day
a.k.a Christmas Eve at home.
I woke up early and Skyped with my mom, my Aunt Connie, Maggie and my sister. We talked for almost an hour. I also was able to call my dad as well and wish him a happy Christmas Eve. I also got to see Sarah and Emily, my 2 best friends from back home!
After the Skype dates, Mac and I needed to run to Tesco (grocery) for eggs, elaborate bacon (thats literally what it's called)

and milk. With Starbucks in hand we braved the Chinese supermarket. It was quite a Christmas morning. Looking back at my life a year ago, who would have thought I would be walking through a Chinese grocery store watching a lady man-handle a raw slab of meat while walking by fresh fish heads.

Wild.
After Tesco, we stopped by a fresh fruit stand and picked up some amazing strawberries, bananas, oranges and an avocado :) We kindly and excitedly used our Chinese skills to say to the fruit guy "Sheng Dan Jie Kuai Le!", and began to leave. He summons us back and hands us 2 free oranges and returns the greeting. It was so sweet :)

We came home and prepared a breakfast FEAST! Included in the menu was: pancakes, bacon, eggs, fresh fruit, toast, banana pudding, orange juice and milk.

It was the BEST breakfast! I was so happy. We  decorated the table, listened to Christmas music and just had a great time talking together. Well, we didn't really talk that much because our mouths were so full!

That afternoon I relaxed in my bed for hours. I caught up on some blogging and uploading pictures. Heavenly.
At night, we dressed up again and went out to a restaurant called Whisk with the same girls.

Amazing food (clam linguine). Amazing wine (Chardonnay).  

      

Amazing desserts (warm chocolate pudding, tiramisu and coffee with Baileys).

Again, such a great night full of so many laughs. We toasted to, 

"Here is to a holiday away from family, but still being with family"

It's crazy how much these people really have become my family.

 Mac and I made our way back on the subway, wishing everyone we ran into a Merry Christmas (in Chinese) and even found a guy selling cotton candy.

How lucky is that?

I skyped with my mom and sister, opened presents via skype, talked to my dad and some more family and friends. I ended my night at about 3 am this morning. I got an extra helping of Christmas this year!

Sadly, there was one item that didn't survive the overseas journey...

I am glad the holidays are over actually. They were spectacular though!
Bring on the Chinese New Year!