Seasons Greetings from the Du

Our 2005 Holiday Card pictures.

I have been wanting to post more and thought I would get the chance because I thought I had left the holiday hussle and bussle back in the states, but I was wrong. It has actually been more hectic than normal. My small little kitchen has no counter space for Gemma and I to create our cookies and candy. Plus I can't get all of the ingredients to make some of my holiday favorites. I would do anything for a bottle of peppermint extract right now to make my Bavarian mints!!! Luckily a fabulous friend from home, Elaine sent me two big bags of pecans for one of my cookies and sweet potato casserole. I ended up making a huge mess of our house as our cooking making was done on the dining room table and ran around Chengdu searching for ingredients for the cookies.

Another thing that made us so busy over the holidays was the lack of good shopping for the holidays. Oh how I wish I could be at home and just sit down in front of the computer and shop to my hearts content. Unfortunately, we were running to one of the 8,000 department stores in Chengdu looking for kids toys, clothes and little things for my husband. There were slim pickins for the kids, but luckily we all seem to have a DVD fetish right now, so they came in quite handy as gifts. (Speaking of which, I just got the second season of Lost on DVD! I was tickled! Now if they would just get Brokeback Mountain on DVD soon...)

And lastly there were so many holiday parties, birthdays celebrations, etc going on here it has been crazy! I feel like I could call the Shamrock my home away from home! I even have been known to help out behind the bar from time to time. I am really looking forward to a rest this week before we head out to Kunming for the week-end.

We celebrated Christmas Day at home. We opened gifts with the kiddos and talked to some friends and family back in the US and UK. It was great talking to everyone and helped us make it though the holiday. We had a big turkey dinner in the afternoon and had a few other expats over for dinner. I want to thank everyone who kept us on their Christmas card list! I really love getting mail and it was so nice to get a few cards in the mail from our family and friends.

We wish everyone the happiest of holidays and I look forward to seeing everyone in the new year!