Christmas Tree

Earlier this month, we decided to buy a Christmas tree for the first time in Alvin and my life.

 So here is our family's first Christmas tree:

Meliya didn't seem to care about the tree. The first day, she was curious, but after that, she wasn't interested in going near the tree. Sometimes I wondered if she was a little scared of it. She never even tried to touch any of the ornaments.

Playing in Taiwan

While we were in Taiwan, we also went to the Da' An Park.
 

 It was Meliya's first time on a swing. She loved it:

















Here we are enjoying our last day in Taiwan:

Taipei Zoo

This is Bethany.  It has been a while since I have blogged, but I blame our internet connection.  Due to internet blocking issues in the country we're in, I'mm unable to sign in to edit the blog at home. Alvin, on the other hand, is able to connect through his work computer. If you have questions about that, just ask Alvin.

Last week, we took a trip to Taipei to visit friends and family. Our first day, we went to the zoo.  This is Meliya's second trip to a zoo.   We went with our friend Shirley who also came to visit Taipei at the same time.

Here is Shirley feeding Meliya to the lions.  I like that the animals felt so close.

This is the second time Meliya has gone to see pandas.

Also, the most interesting part  was seeing the gorilla.  Shirley's parents, kept telling us to go see King Kong, but when we went to visit, the gorilla was eating.  Then after closer inspection, we found out what he was eating.  (Viewer discretion advised, this is not for people with weak stomachs.)

Yummy Double Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving twice.  Once last Thursday, and once last Saturday.  On Thursday, we had the three intern trainees from our company come over to celebrate with us over a Thanksgiving dinner.  It was fun to see them try and enjoy new foods that they had never had before.  We didn't have turkey for Thursday's dinner, as we were only able to get our hands on one turkey this year, and we needed it for Saturday.  Thursday was also a bit of a dry run for us for the dishes we would need to prepare (again) for Saturday.  For Bethany, that meant brining a chicken.  And for me, that meant making fresh baked rolls.

We got through our entire Thursday evening, and I realized that I only took a picture of the spread on the table, but completely forgot to take pictures of us with the interns.  Oops.

Thursday night's hits included the chicken, the cranberry sauce, the sticky rice, and the rolls.  Our guests thought the mashed potatoes were a little bit strange.  Oh well, more leftovers for us!

Having mastered the art of brining a bird and cooking it in a small toaster over (that barely fits a 9x13), Bethany took on the much more complicated task of doing an overnight apple cider brine for a 15-pound turkey and then cooking it in a larger toaster oven.  This would be for a Thanksgiving potluck dinner gathering we would be attending on Saturday evening.  My task was to improve on the rolls which I had made on Thursday.

We borrowed the larger toaster oven on Friday, and had the turkey all ready in the evening for an overnight brine.  But we still weren't sure where we would find a pot large enough to brine the turkey.  Fortunately, a friend here recommended that we use the vegetable drawer from our refrigerator - that's  what they had just done the day before after reading the suggestion online.  What a great idea!  So that is what we did.

And then came Saturday - what was going to be a long day.  Oh yes, we also woke up once on Friday about 1:00 AM in order to turn the turkey over once in the brine.  Then, on Saturday... we woke up at about 6:30 AM to prep the turkey for the oven.  That was because we also signed up to run a 5K at 8:30 AM.  So the turkey went in the oven for about 45 minutes.  And then we turned the oven off, got Meliya dressed for a cold morning outside, and participated in a 5K with other foreigners here.

When we got back at 10:00 AM, the next 5 hours was spent roasting the turkey while taking it out to baste every 30 minutes.  Bethany and I started to get pretty efficient at cooperative basting - the bird was out of the oven for maybe 3 minutes, and then back in it went.

In the meantime, I re-made the rolls from Thursday, but this time made them smaller, since they were for a potluck that would have a lot of food.  I used the Cloverleaf Roll recipe from the Joy of Cooking.  they turned out well.

The turkey was a success.  Cooked just right.  Flavorful.  Moist.  Tender.  This was Bethany's second turkey ever, and she did a great job.

And today, we used the leftover bones to make a yummy pot of rice porridge, as do most Chinese (American) households post-Thanksgiving.

Some friends have mentioned that all they ever see for pictures here on our blog are pictures of Meliya or pictures of food.  What do Alvin and Bethany look like these days?  Here's a picture shot of us on the cold morning of the 5K...

Meliya's One Year Old Pictures

We took Meliya to a photo place near our house. It is very cheap to take pictures there, esp. if you bring your own clothes. It only took 30 minutes. We only have to pay $2.50 for each picture, and no fee for the photo shoot. You only have to pay for the pictures you choose. The only issue is that the photographer takes very few shots and doesn't really wait for the best picture before they say, "you are done, next outfit please."

Also, they did some photoshopping to the pictures. One of the pictures, you can see that they cut out a little bit of Meliya's head. 

Shapotou Theme Park

I am still taking one class this semester to improve my Chinese. This last Friday, instead of class, the school took all the students to the most popular tourist site in our province: Shapotou Theme Park. It is basically sand dunes next to the Yellow River. They have some fun activities at this park including sand board sliding, camel riding, ATV riding on the sand, zip-lining across the river, and riding across the river on sheep skin boats. I took the family, and we did the free things including walking down the sand dunes, walking across the bridge, and walking along the river. (I guess we just did a lot of walking.) The school paid for our entrance fee, but all the other activities we had to pay on our own. They did stress that they didn't want us to ride the sheep skin boats because it is "very, very dangerous."

 The day was quite beautiful. The trip consisted of a 2 and a half hour bus ride each way and Meliya did very well on the way there. The last 45 minutes of the trip home was pretty hard on Meliya. I think she just wanted to be in her own bed. Still, we are glad to have gotten the opportunity to hang out with the other students and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

All dressed and ready for the day:

   Does this look dangerous?

Beijing Zoo

While the grandparents were here, we went to the Beijing Zoo. It was Meliya's first time at a zoo, and her parents first time at the Beijing Zoo. We started off at the panda exhibit.
The first picture is Meliya fully unaware that a national treasure is behind her: (Can you see him?)

Here she is, now more aware that we might not be in our living room:








 Here's Meliya in front of fake elephants:











The zoo also has an aquarium in it. Here she is fascinated by the lights and the things moving inside:






















 This fish came up to examine Meliya, while Meliya cross-examined him: