December Fun: Mountain Top Farming

 Okay, so David and J may not call this 'fun', but it was an adventure and our whole livelihood here! Here is a glimpse of our mountain top 'farm' land, where our Chinese Medicine just went into the ground.

 J has become quite the expert....

The workers taking a rest..

The terrain where they cleared land but left shade for the plants. Slippery slope!

Lunch:

The cooks preparing the meal. The factory that is helping sponsor this project (for lack of a better word), has their manager work closely with us on many aspects of the project, and he was the cook! It came out that he sometimes helps cook at weddings and he is really good!

Make shift table, David said the food was good!

J telling how far apart to plant the root, they planted around 80,000! No, I did not get the zeroes wrong.

Sunset over the mountains

 And a 'white knuckled' drive home, according to David. Who told me of endless blind curves (one lane). Some days he drove behind the factory manager, who drove like a race car driver. On day three it came out that the workers hated riding with him, and some got car sick. 

The last day, as David drove his crew back through a small town where a market was going on, they had to sit for over fifteen minutes while a big dump truck parked and the driver got out. Think driving a big truck through a Mardi Gras street and parking while others are driving behind you. David was shocked when a one armed man got out of the driver's seat (all cars here are stick shifts). The cars got backed up, the horns honked, and David learned many (but did not use) new Chinese cuss words.

While this was a crazy time for this to take place, we were so thankful that it did happen and that David could be a big part of it. When the roads get better, our whole family will be able to go up and explore the mountainside.

December fun: the village

December 20: David also took our friends (who used to live here, btw), out to the village to visit some old friends of theirs. Sophia and Bella went with them and they were gone all day. David said it was a WONDERFUL time.

Catching up, it had been years!

Bella made some friends by letting them dote all over her...

 And apparently she was spoon-fed too, like a baby. She enjoyed this. 

This family is super sweet and wants our whole family to visit soon!

We had such a good time with our friends, we were greatly encouraged by them, and are very blessed by their friendship. Thanks for coming to visit!

December fun: horses

December 19
Our friends came to visit and their daughter loves horses, so off to the horse farm they went!

Two new ponies had arrived. So cute!

This time Sophia said she would go it alone, and she did.

And Bella braved up! She joined Sophia for a good walk on the horse...

So precious, these sisters. I just noticed Bella isn't wearing a helmet (?!). They must have only one helmet for kids! Tobin, Gabrielle, and I stayed back and held down the fort, baking yummy snacks and trying to prepare for Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Details to come, pics for now...

Days without Daddy...Nativity play

Our business project here hit the ground running this weekend! Preparation and planning, test plotting for the past two years, today the seeds went in the ground! Our friend J has researched for months, found land, managed/organized the workers to build a house on it and done so much more to launch the planting of our Chinese Medicine seeds.

David went up to help the past two days and will continue to do so until it is done. He leaves between 7:30-8:00 a.m. and gets home around 9 p.m.

But let's back up a bit, right before this we had visitors for 4 days, and the two older kids were quite involved in taking them around (pics to come of their adventures), but the days were long and the nights late. The day they left David actually did not see them off, he was already on the mountain clearing the land. 

This is what he said to me: 'we have to go prepare the land', I said it all sounded very biblical, quite Sailhamerish, he laughed. Then he said "I will be driving a car with people who cannot speak Mandarin or minority language"...he told me they may have to go a longer route to avoid paper checks. Hmm....I laughed and told him he was going to be in jail on Christmas. But now it looks like he may still be on the mountain for Christmas...

And yes the kids feel it, Bella said: 'it is like he has gone on an airplane'. And Sophia was disappointed until I told her how important this was and what was invested, and she understood. 

Meanwhile back home this weekend, the kids took part in a nativity play, hosted and put on by Kathleen, whose husband was with David, you go girl, she did an awesome job! The kids have also opened various gifts from Poppy and CC, SO thankful their package arrived in time, perfect for these long days.

Let's look at some pics...

 We usually take turns but this time I said: 1, 2, 3, GO!

 Tobin loves his lego airplane, though I put it together, he flies it around. 

Sophia may have said this was the best gift ever...a cash drawer, just like at the grocery store. She yelled out loud: 'Thank you Poppy and CC' and then really wanted to call them and tell them....thankful for her thankful heart.

The Nativity play. Sophia was Mary, Bella was in the 'host of angels'

Oh my, I almost forgot the gorgeous Christmas dresses that the girls received. They love these too but I have yet to get stellar pics of them, here is a glimpse of them.

And Tobin had to wear his new 'shark shirt'

The play begins...

Mary listens to the angel...

 Mary and Joseph go looking for a place to stay...no room anywhere.

 Finally someone offers up their stable..

 Where baby Jesus is born..(look it is Gabrielle's debut, the youngest of our ex-pat flock)

Both Sophia and Gabrielle did so well...

Tobin was a sheep at the last minute and actually did 'BAAA' hilarious.

shepherds bow down..

wise men give gifts...

precious scene...

the kids minus baby G and maybe a few others, not sure.

It was a blast! Thanks K for putting it all together!

I left Sophia and Bella to enjoy more fun while I took the littles home. I wasn't feeling great and it was time for Gabrielle to nap.

In the afternoon we opened another gift (another good one! pics to come), rested, and then friends came to play. We did our advent activities early and did one more small gift.

The girls pretty much played with their cash drawer all afternoon even with friends.

Brrr...it's in the low-40s.

Don't laugh. This is cold for where we are, and it hangs in your bones in our cement block apartment. Riding the moto is quite chilling.

We were expecting visitors yesterday from Singapore. Singapore is just about on the equator. Warm. Our climate here is quite mild as well, we grow pineapples and mangoes, for crying out loud. Sub-tropics.

Well, it is cold. Our friends' plane wouldn't even make it to our province for two more days! They are stuck in Guangzhou. It was snowing in our provincial capital and flights were cancelled.

It was windy and crazy outside here, the kids and I pretended that it was snowing and went outside to play in the wind. Not kidding. They laughed and squealed every time the wind picked up into a howl. Sophia longs to play in some snow. But her imagination helped her this day and fed the other two as well as we took longer than normal school breaks to "enjoy" the cold front. Finally, on day 2 the sun was strong by late morning and once again they enjoyed the outdoors.  I heard the laughter and giggles and found them rolling around in the grass. I had them reenact it for the camera.

 These days the kids go outside and play really well together, it makes me want to throw in the towel on school altogether for the day. But I press on, albeit not as strictly as I once was.

Sophia does some spelling and grammar in ear muffs and her thickest jacket that is too small. She never wore it when it did fit because it was too thick. Not for today!

Yes, our school room just got new individual desks for Sophia and Bella, they love them!