Christmas Week Happenings 2011

Our Christmas Vacation was 10 days in Troy's original hometown of Pella, IA.  It was an important year as Troy and his father Mike had not spent a Christmas together since the 80's.  There's much to mention, so it is hard to keep this post to an acceptable reading length, so I may have to break it up into three posts;  Christmas Week Happenings, The Recipe Box Make Over Project, and notes from The Unthinkable.

However, if you are just looking for a summary of our Christmas; a sample of photos are below

• We went birdwatching (Bald Eagles, Cardinals, Pelicans, Hairy Woodpeckers, Barren Owl, BlueJay to name a few)
• Watched Hallmark Christmas movies
• Tried new recipes (such as Sandy's Calico Beans and Baked French Toast)
• Learned tips and tricks on how to be frugal from Cindy
• Everyone submitted their Bowl picks and the guys watched every game, while Mike tracked all the results, (Mike is currently ahead)
• Cindy and Scheris walked ~6-7 miles each morning
• Alyssa did puzzles beyond galore, sheesh, who knew
• Visited antique stores
• Attended the local LDS branch
• Went to Christmas Eve Service at the Third Reformed Church
• Had a large meal with the Schuring relatives and the home where Troy's dad was raised and played a White Elephant game with a Sports theme and we came home with great gifts (Iowa Camelbak waterbottle, this Kelty picnic pack, and an UnderArmour beanie.
• Did family history, copied family photos and artwork
• Visited the oldest home in Pella, also where Troy's Grandfather lived for a few years
• Saw Santa
• Took the yearly photo of Alyssa in front of the Pella Town sign
• Learned a bit more about family member Gideon Rietveld's Patent #1778608, filed February 4, 1929 for his Match Box Holder design
• Did a few craft projects: felt poinsetta napkin ring holders, Antique Recipe box make overs, Photo Block Puzzle
• Relaxed in the hot tub
• Read books
• Visited and lunched with Alyssa's Great Grandparents and received tons of intricately hand crocheted doilies
• Alyssa and I dusted, photographed, and documented Cindy's 80 something Precious Moments and that was fun to read the names and touch each piece
• Drove by the Kansas City Temple, nearing completion of construction
• But most importantly this year - we gathered each night to dessert and discuss different aspects to the Original Christmas Story

All in all, it was a valuable family investment, but I do think we overstayed our welcome by about 6 days.  No matter how sweet they smile and won't admit it, I think our poor hosts had to have been sick of us.  I realized it isn't really possible to relax at the home of Family or feel good about relaxing when you know the hostess of the house is slaving over the details while the boys sit around watching football.     

wear out (one's) welcome

To visit so often or stay so long as to become a nuisance.

 

Needless to say, Grandpa's eyes appeared glossy when he drove away, so he was either super tired after hosting us for 10 days, or the air quality was bothersome, or he already was missing his son and grand daughter!  I think we overstayed our welcome.    

Summary of Christmas Discussions
Day 1
Read story in the 'Especially For Mormons' volume 3, when Mary tells Joseph of the pregnancy.  You can find it printed here.
DAY 2 - Saturday
We watched all 6 LDS Bible Videos
DAY 3 - Sunday
Listen to Charles Osgood – Luke 2
DAY 4 – Monday

Discussion: As we celebrate the birth of our Lord, we should remember to really focus on what Jesus did at the end of His mortal life and ministry.  The wondrous and true story of Christmas can be organized like so; 

• Preface - His birth in Bethlehem of Judea
• Prologue - His three-year ministry
• Substance -  His sacrifice
• Finally - the totally selfless act of dying in pain on the cross of Calvary to atone for the sins of all of us

There would be no Christmas, if there had not been Easter. The babe of Bethlehem would have occurred but he would have been just another baby.

We went on to detail the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. 

The significance of this mortal birth was more critical than we often realize.  It was not an experimental thing, nor an event that was optional in the plan of salvation. The coming of a part-divine part-mortal Jesus into the world, Son of Mary and Only Begotten of the Father, was an absolute necessity. The human family could be saved in no other way. Only the Lord himself, by coming into mortality, partaking of the nature of man, living a sinless life, atoning with his blood for the sins of men, dying, and rising from the dead with his physical body could bring about redemption. Eternal justice would admit no other way.

DAY 5 – Tuesday
Family Discussion:  We do not worship Mary, but we do revere her!   She is among the most worthy and noble of women—the most privileged of all mothers. And while Mary is not typical, she is an example to all mothers.
 We can conclude that as the Father chose the most noble and righteous of all his spirit sons to come into mortality as his Only Begotten in the flesh, we can also know he selected in the pre-existence, the most worthy and spiritually talented of all his spirit daughters to be the mortal mother of his Eternal Son.  Her life was one of faithful, obedient receptivity. She did not ignore counsel, but “kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Luke 2:19

Day 6 - Wednesday
This night we pulled out Jesus' stocking.  We read our prior year committments and re-wrote 2012 gifts to our Savior and sealed them in envelopes and placed them back in Jesus' white stocking!

DAY 7 – Thursday - The Day we celebrated Christmas with gift exchanging
Read the children's classic story of Tootle.  About a month ago, this was introduced in Relief Society by Linda, a mother of four boys.   

The story tells of a young locomotive who is in training to become a big locomotive.   The locomotive will learn all the skills that  will be needed to become a successful locomotive. 

The most important skill that each train must learn is to STAY ON THE TRACKS NO MATTER WHAT.  

Tootle came to the school and was seen as a potentially successful flyer, running important routes, such as Chicago to New York.  He did very well in mastering most of the skills he would need to become such a wonderful locomotive. 

One day he was tempted to race a black horse that was in the meadow beside the tracks.  In order to win, he decided to leave the tracks and cut across the meadow.  He found that he really enjoyed the meadow and began visiting it more often.  He was failing at his original goal and the reality of reaching it was getting further away.  The people of the village came up with a plan to get Tootle back on track and out of the Meadows, as they had noticed grass and buttercups on the small train's wheels.  The community was critical to supporting this up and coming Leader, they had to help him remember the important lesson of "staying on the rails no matter what."  So they all worked together to help Tootle be the best train he could possibly be.  Eventually Tootle raced to get back on track. “This is the place for me” said Tootle. “There is nothing but red flags for locomotives that get off their tracks.”
Tootle became the famous ‘Two Mile a Minute Flyer!’

What a profound message this story holds for our lives.... what is our mission here on earth, where are those 'fun meadows' that distract us from returning home to live with our Savior? What is preventing you from becoming the BEST YOU?   How can we avoid the red flags and assist our fellow 'brother and sisters' in the doing the same? Distractions are everywhere and idleness is easy to justify, all of which don't really help us stay on track.  Pretty soon the fun goes away, bad habits linger, and we are frustrating our divine purposes, even longing for a way out.  BUT there is always a way to get back on the tracks, so we should not delay that action.  We each will face different kinds of distractions, but Heavenly Father has given us a designated path to come home, through the Lord Jesus Christ.  I love this book that reminds me to be weary of the 'meadows' and lean on my Faith to get me through the hard times. 

Here are some photos from the trip. 

  

One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty Seven

That number is how many days it took me to get the courage to prepare for a 13th birthday party with eleven girls.  I believe I have subconsciously been preparing for this day since July 19, 2007, because it is too ironic that on the morning of Alyssa's 13th birthday, I awoke to the sighting of a grey hair.  My second one ever, it had been 512 days since I spotted the first one.    

Anyway, this post isn't about me, so here is how the day came to be.  Back in September, I began thinking about a party for Alyssa since I have never hosted one for her.  I tried to make the nasty thought go away, but it wouldn't, so I began entertaining the idea. 

I really didn't want a pizza and ice cream and rowdy scene, instead we had an Evening of Elegance for the young ladies.  Because Lys likes teal right now, here are the invitations I sent out to 13 girls in the Beehive age group (12/13).

Before I can continue, I must say, I am thoroughly IMPRESSED that these girls were able to keep this secret from Alyssa.  I asked the mom's to keep it a secret from their daughters for as long as possible, but even this last week, I know there were at least two occasions when they could have slipped up.  I get teary eyed when I think of well they honored me by keeping my special event a surprise!

I began reaching out to all my friends and family and ended up borrowing all these items and receiving help from so many wonderful people, THANK YOU MY LOVELY FRIENDS!!!!

The Malm Family - silver serving dishes and napkin rings

Auntie - cake frosting instructions, real bakery coloring paste, frosting tips, frosting turn table, sprinkles

Sister Kathy - gave me some key party details

Sister Lisa - organza chair bows

Sister Chris - chair covers

Sister Barbara - utensils for 11 and table cloth

Sister Cami - table cloth

Sister Camille - toasting flutes

Sister Cathy - sheer curtains

Sister Laura - china

Sister Jana - water goblets and a chair

Sam - powdered sugar and a chair and 2 hours of help setting up

Sister Mary - serving dishes, invaluable resource on connecting me to so many others

Brother Phil - served the girls as a 'waiter' for over 2 hours

Sister Stephanie - cut and styled Alyssa's hair and entertained her, was able to get her dressed for her own party, without her even realizing it!

Here is Alyssa getting scared out of her mind, she looks like she is about to cry.

 She wouldn't make eye contact with anyone for about a minute, it was odd indeed.

It took her awhile to understand that she wasn't going to dinner with dad, that it had all been a 'story'.  This was her party and dinner was going to be here!

Here is the place setting.  The tree is an ornament and party favor and also the place card holder.  All the girls were addressed as Lady.  The suckers in the napkins were supposed to be party favors, but when I wasn't paying attention, they somehow became one of the appetizers.

The girls were greeted at the door with sparkling cider flutes and quiche appetizers.  They all seemed to love it and we overheard, "this is the fanciest thing I have ever been to."  That was a sweet compliment from Lady H.

Lovely Ladies

the handsome waiters

Talk about a happy birthday girl

 The ladies did amazing when they considered shopping for Alyssa.  It was so fun to see how the personalities came out in those choices.  The outdoorsy friend gave her a backpacking towel and wool socks.  The artsy friend gave her a sketch book.  The girly girl gave her perfume.  She really received the most beautiful collection of genuine gifts and so many took care to remember her favorite color!

Later the girls danced, yep, my house was a bumpin'... I couldn't believe how far I had come in 1,237 days.  I loved having the girls in my home. 

BUT my biggest accomplishment may just be the personalized banner that I made.  I stayed up till 2:30 am one night enjoying the deep love that I was experiencing for Alyssa, while making it. 

like mother, like daughter

Timeline

2:45 - Troy dropped her off to have her nails done

3:30 - Stef texted her with an 'emergency' babysitting need, Alyssa replied no that had swim practice

4:00 - When Alyssa got to Stef's, Stef had to pretend that she never got the message that Alyssa was still coming and instead got another babysitter, but since she had cancelled her client, she had room for Alyssa to get her hair cut right then!  How convenient! (Apparently, Alyssa was not amused) 

5:00 - Stef pretended she had received some 'used' clothes from the neighbor girl, that Alyssa may like since her daughter would take years to grow into them. 

5:10 - We told Stef to tell Lys to stay dressed up so that she could go to dinner with her father.

5:45 - Stef dropped off Lys at our house

It did go perfect and I am so grateful to our friends for helping us.  We couldn't have done it without them. Words can't express how much this experience meant to our family in so many ways.

Happy Birthday My Lovely Lady Daughter!

Beijing

I am on the plane, re-living November 19^th, all over again.  We always say we need more time in a day, right? Turning back the clock, so I guess that means I should get double done today.  I wrote down some of my experiences from my week in Beijing.  After you read this.. you will really see what a great Ambassador I was this week… SHAMEFUL really…

 The fancy digs we got to enjoy and the interior lobby of the hotel.

I was invited to rush off to China to join the Global Summit that my new team would be attending.  It was important that I go and meet them as they only gather as a group 1x a year.  I felt very prepared to go to China again, since I was in Beijing nine years ago with a group from my MBA program, and spent three weeks there.  I had good memories and was looking forward to going back, seeing the changes, and having new experiences.  I was so glad that I remembered that one key takeaway was that they serve a terribly useless fine grain white pepper that I despised – because this time I packed my own.  However, I am recording more thoughts, so that if I have need to return, I might help myself in the future. 

Here is a photo of me flying into tomorrow on 11.11.11. 

I wonder if Sarah Palin considered that not only could she see Russia from her home, she could see into the future too!  Well, here is a photo when we crossed and a little later there were some beautiful mountains.

Good bye 11.11.11 & Hello Tomorrow 11.12.2011

1)      It began the minute we started boarding the Chinese Airline in Seattle on November 11^th.  Literally, I was 2 inches off the ramp, when the crowding began and I lost my personal space.  REALLY?  No.. NO PEOPLE, we are still in my country where we respect a certain number of inches between people.  There is NO sense in stepping on top of me, I can only walk up the aisle so fast and that is according to the 25 other people in front of me.  DUH.  I literally had to turn around and tell the person (pretty sure they didn’t know what I said though) that they MUST give me some space or I was going to go crazy and the darn trip hadn’t even started yet. 

2)      I am not exaggerating, but every hour of every day, there are loud, rude, quite obnoxious actually, sounds of people clearing their noses and throats.  Apparently it is not rude to them because it didn’t matter where I was, I heard it.  As I sit here on the plane typing, I am SO wanting to stand up and throw my hands in the air, and scream, “WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP, IT IS SO DISGUSTING WHAT YOU ARE ALL DOING.”  What I came to discover is that when a Chinese man threw up as we were landing in Beijing apparently is an epidemic.  On the return flight, three of our five economy class restrooms have been closed due to puke in the sink.  The Chinese flight attendants said to me, when I was in utter awe over this,  in a ‘typical’ sort of tone, “it’s the Chinese.”  WHAT THE EFF?  Really people?  How disgusting.  So, when I was in one of the remaining two bathrooms and the announcement for landing into Seattle came on, saying the restrooms were about to be closed for landing, I used all five minutes and didn’t feel at all guilty as I ‘was going to show them.’

3)   I was reminded that they generally say YES to everything; sometimes this is because they don’t really know what you said and they want you to be happy and they want to ‘save face’, but also they say YES even when they do understand you and they have every intention NOT to do what they just said YES to.  It is super annoying and I really wanted to explain that in the end I don’t think they are accomplishing their goal. 

4)      I really wish I could seriously get inside their heads and ask them, WHY IN THE H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS do you stand over me no matter where I am?  By Thursday morning, I had HAD IT… I opened the bathroom stall door to find two bathroom attendants pining to get into my stall after I finished.  Now, let me set the scene for you though…. It was 7:30am.  This part of the hotel was EMPTY and perfectly clean and there were 8 other clean stalls.  There wasn’t a drop in the sinks, not a crumble of paper in any waste baskets, this bathroom had been cleaned nine time over already.  I was preparing to present at 8:30am and needed to get into the conference room, however when I opened the stall door, I was so thoroughly annoyed, I slammed the door in their faces and spoke some not very nice words to them and I am assuming they felt the tone of my body language because after about 5 minutes, they finally left the damn bathroom.   When I would go into a store to look at something, it was as-if they thought I was going to steal from them so they were all up in my business.  I wanted to tell them, DO YOU realize that NOW I am NOT going to buy anything from you, just out of principle, you done gone and annoyed the flip out of me.  No matter what country or what hotel I am staying at, I never have my room cleaned each day, and I never give access to the hotel staff to come and go as they please.  So, starting on morning two, I must have been asked 5 times between the hours of 12pm-8pm, if I was ready to have my room cleaned?  It was as if they just couldn’t make sense of it.  BUT REALLY?  THAT CAN’T BE TRUE… please tell me that it is not that hard of a concept to grasp and I can’t be the first person to have ever stayed there that didn’t require a daily room clean.  SOOOOO, why is it that when I did something that didn’t align to their routine, that they just couldn’t adapt and understand? 

5)    It was super cool to go onto the massive site where the city of Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics that began at 8:08 PM on 08/08/08.  You know I am a sucker for numbers and so I was excited to see the official Omega Time Keeper in the Urban Planning Museum.  For 50RMB, I went inside the 91,000 seat stadium and felt the massiveness of this place that just three years ago was the highlight of the globe.  The sad part is that this area in general is so vast that it is not being kept up and is looking run down.  One would think that the millions of people and laborers that the government would employ many people for super cheap to manicure the area often.  I hope it doesn’t continue in this trend. 

6)      Facebook, now… let’s talk Facebook, it is literally known as the “Great fireWALL of China” because the government doesn’t allow access to it.  Here’s what doesn’t make sense though, many 5-star hotels have it and Chinese citizens can stay there and access it there.  Also, consider the flight attendants that I met who layover at the Comfort Inn in Tukwila 2 days a week, frequenting Southcenter Mall and Tukwila Costco and other American activities and locations… these gals are seeing the world, there is nothing they don’t have access to, so what exactly is the government trying to achieve?  I guess the way I see it is that all it takes is enough flight attendants and other traveling citizens to tell friends and family about things like Facebook and the public will ‘do something’ about it.  The reason I say that is because on the front page of the paper this week was an article about the public putting up stiffer demands to the government calling for rhythmic reports on air quality and putting into action better standards.  I was happy to see that the citizens felt empowered to make those kinds of statements. 

7)      Now, getting to the Exhibition Planning Museum was another story.  Actually, a very typical story that I faced time and time again, starting with my first morning when I tried to find the local Mormon gathering location.  No matter if I had the address written in Chinese and if I was literally two blocks away, NO ONE acted like they knew how to give directions, until I was literally ON TOP OF the darn address.  Also, when I ask for directions, they always just say, keep going the way you are going.  NO JOKE.. it must have happened over 25 times this week.  NOW, on the day I was headed to this fabulous museum which contains an amazing city mock-up; 1:750 scale of the entire urban setting, NO ONE could tell me where it was.  In fact, I was sorely disappointed that the darn hotel concierge staff had never heard of it.  You’d think that museums would encourage local citizens/tour guides to know this kind of stuff to promote it.  Even when I got off the subway stop and asked the “TOURIST INFORMATION” about it, the girl sent me on my way to ask another ‘tourist house’.  When I ended up finding it, I had only been 100 yards away from the information center.  REALLY PEOPLE?  I had a notion to go back and drag that ‘helpful’ worker over to the front door to show her what she needed to know to do her job better.  Anyhow, I raced in the door by 3:29pm, to watch the 3D IMAX film showing the Beijing Urban Plans for 2020.  Would you believe it, I was the only one in the entire theater?!  It was hilarious and odd.  I tried to invite the ticket girl to come sit with me about 8 rows up, but she declined and sat on the first row, watching the entire film.  When it was over, I nearly had tears in my eyes and I wanted to leap from my chair and hug her and be super excited with her because her city is about to become a real SUPER DUPER FABULOUS PLACE.  But, she and I couldn’t really communicate and so the moment passed and I left wondering, ‘is this for real, do you believe this can happen, are you just so darn excited for the future?’   You see, when Beijing won the Olympic Bid, the planning committee people threw this urban area into high gear speeding along development, all in all putting them ahead 10 years than would have been otherwise.  The local citizens got to experience new perspective of life and living and it is benefitting this next generation.  Spending a day talking to Robin, our driver to the Great Wall, he gave us lots of insight to all this.  During this planning time, the government formed quite the plans for how they were going to deal with growth, health, and better living.  In summary, they are planning of building 11 new cities on the outskirts of Beijing with eco-living, capped population, defined green space per person, and so much more I can’t even begin to re-iterate the wonderful promises.  Now…. I am just not sure how they can achieve this by 2020, but I have hope, especially since all this ‘evidence’ of planning sits in the public museum next to Tiananmen Square for any and all citizens to go and see.  If I was one of these locals, I would be counting down to expect the MAJOR and POSITIVE changes that their government is publically and globally promising. 

8)      Robin and the flight attendants also enlightened me to more understanding on the effects of the One-Child-Policy. When it was put into effect in the late seventies or early eighties, the young couples about to have kids were angry or at least concerned about the ‘control’ the government was putting on this subject.  However, they were experiencing new found freedoms, so life went on.  Now, there are 24 million MORE young men in the marriage-age range and it is a BIG problem that the government is not sure what to do about it.  Robin said he was worried for his 23 yr old son who just graduated from University.

Here is where church is held, on the 4th floor in conference rooms. Here is the actual entrance, funny!

 
The most amazing scaled down version of a city I have ever seen!  SO COOL!

9)      I was glad I brought my ZIPP FIZZ, but darn, I missed my Kombucha.  I hope by the year 2020, they have started stocking it up because I am not sure I can ever go 5000 miles away from my drink of choice again.  My body is bloated and feels disgusting.  My fingers and toes feel like little Good Year Blimps and I can’t wait to flush this body clean of the excess salt and who knows what else is hanging out in here.  I am glad I brought my own low sugar instant oatmeal for the plane ride and other emergency situations where I didn’t want to eat the food served. 

10)   The first time I went into the Silk / Pearl Markets at the beginning of the week, I just walked, talked, and wasn’t serious at all in buying.  I took note of all the first ‘offers’ thrown out there by the vendors and the lowest price they would throw out as I would slightly hesitate in my step.  Then I went back to my hotel and searched other travelers stories for their good deals, so I could get ready for later bargaining.  I had to be reminded not to feel guilty by using the bartering system and that in the end, this is about what my emotional price was for something and they had to own their own financial situation as to what they would sell an item to me for.  By the end of the week, I think I got pretty good with having low emotional value and demonstrating my ease of walking away from the item they were selling.  It was fun to help my friend Jan get a few deals, while we played good cop/bad cop… you can guess who was bad cop, RIGHT?!  So, to give perspective on the money:  $20 USD would convert to *125RMB, we could get 4 cashmere scarves for *100RMB, a full day reserved driver with 4 passengers driven to the Great Wall for *600RMB, 60 minute full body massage was *200RMB, and riding the subway anywhere in the city was only *2RMB.  I had brought back over the ocean my black pearls that I purchased nine years ago, as I had broke one set of strings and the clasps were old and gold and I wanted them re-strung and wanted to add something to partner with them.  It worked out great as Emily (self-assigned, made up name for the Chinese girl pearl vendor) achieved all that I wanted for under $20 in about 30 minutes.  About two months ago, I had ordered Alyssa a traditional wind up Alarm clock with the loud bells to ding and wake this sleepy head each day. However, $30 later and after only a few days of use, the darn thing kept sticking and we requested a refund.  In China, I found a more classy clock, that I stood and tested and re-tested and purchased for only $6.  COOL.  I hope she loves it.  

11) As I think of other funny or interesting things to mention, I will add them here. , or whatever things to mention: I was told that the reason they all crowd onto and off the subway is 'because everyone wants to be first,' it is a natural competition in a city of 14 million.  I loved watching the older folks doing exercises in the park and then having a cigarette, the current generation of 20-somethings seem to be very attached to electronics, American music, American food, American clothing and it makes me sad to consider that there would be a point when they will lose traction on their culture and it will never be the same again. Our driver Robin confirmed the same.  I got tired of people taking photos of me doing nothing... so I took photos back at them.

Squeeze in there buddy, and don't forget to

Loved this little boy on the subway.  When I showed him his picture, he smiled huge!

 Loved this little girl just squatting by the subway door and reading away happily.

I know I must appear as a pessimist, I am trying to be a little funny and really, I will retain the good memories I made there, so I hope you won’t think that I am a negative person.  The GOOD, you might be asking…Hmmm… ok.  My first day there Sunday, was GORGEOUS and clear.  A cold front had arrived in and the air was clean, bright, and not a cloud or particle of smog existed. It was a wonderful welcome indeed.  My last two days were the same.  It was a treat to have my trip start and stop with perfect weather.  My hotel was simply divine with luxury.  The pool, the amenities, the cleanliness, the soft bedding, PERFECT.  My last day, in fact in my final few hours, I went over to Tao Ran Ting Park to take photos and walk around the lake and enjoy a very beautiful area and WOW, was it ever a blessing.  I was in ‘awe’ of this place, a wonderful setting full of happy people dancing, doing Tai Chi, biking, taking wedding photos, walking hand in hand, sitting on benches eating fruit, and playing hand in hand as families.  It was so refreshing to see this kind of living.  I wish more of my co-workers had been able to get away from the tourist sites and see this park.   After three traditional dinners of Shanghai Cuisine, Peking Duck, and Hot Pot – I had enough and went to Hard Rock Café for three nights to enjoy something a little more in line with my taste buds.  The band was great and it was odd to hear Rod Stewart, Queen, Guns and Roses, Skid Row, Air Supply, Pink Floyd, AC-DC, Led Zeplin, Metallica, and other English speaking sounds come out of these Asian band members mouths.  I enjoyed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrIFmry9c3M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrEDrrxrzQA&feature=related 

Of course, we lucked out with FABULOUS weather at the Great Wall.  This time I saw the Mutianyu section, last time I had seen the Simatai location.

I don't think my co-workers believed me when I told them that I was HUGE back in 2002 when I visited the Great Wall, so here is the one and only photo of me back then.  Clearly, one of these photos shows warm weather and the other was a bit cooler. 

  

 

All in all, it was really a great trip and I am so grateful for these experiences.  I have joined a wonderful global team that has welcomed me with open arms.  

I am thankful to my Savior who allowed my family to return to each other safe and sound.

Other photos that were fun to take

 The don't wrap the meat... but

not to worry, they wrap their corn 

Photo of the subway system

 Average people out for an evening stroll

I will post the rest of the album on Facebook very soon.