A Merry Little Chinese Christmas 2.0: The Man in the Hat is Back

Expat holidays can at times be downright depressing.    While many of my family members and friends posted photos of holiday celebrations, I (like many other expats) had to carry on business as usual.  As a laowai, I figure I had two ways of handling holiday induced feelings of loneliness and homesickness.  My first option was to bury myself in a bowl of tears and xiaolongbao (Chinese dumplings) while catching up with my Veep DVDs.  Or with the help of Chris “Kringle”, I could bring the party to Daning! I have to say, my school community loves to celebrate holidays!

A plastic Michael Jackson/ John Lennon Santa Claus greeted the kids for about a week before the big day.

We started the day with a round of "Jingle Bells" with my 5th graders. 

Santa gave each of them a personalized ornament.

In return, each of my students personalized an ornament for me.

Then it was time for Santa's dance party and limbo contest.

The kiddos had a pretty good time.

Between classes, Santa got mobbed by students whom were hungry for chocolate! Some of the kids got confused, walked up to him, and cried, "Trick or Treat!"

Santa got swarmed by my second graders and the iPhone paparazzi.  Kids of all ages wanted their pic with Santa. 

My second graders loved their Santa pins.

Some of my third graders questioned the authenticity of Santa's beard.

My third graders take a goofy group shot with Santa.

My fourth graders weren't as excited about Santa as my younger students, but they played along anyway.

One of my first graders announced that Santa wasn't real the Monday before Christmas.  When we introduced him to Santa from the North Pole, he kept saying, "Zhenda?  Zhenda?"  (Really?  Really?)  He was quite surprised.

One of my friends, Grace, helped Santa pass out Jingle Bells to the nice first graders.

These first graders were feeling the Christmas Spirit!

My English Corner kiddos showed Santa their best YMCA!

Then, they decorated ornaments!

Needless to say, Santa was beat after his rounds.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and wish you the happiest of new years!!!

Gingerbread Fun

When I was little, we never built gingerbread houses.  Instead my mom would build a beautiful castle out of sugar cubes, icing, and candy. 

This is the castle my mom would copy each year.  She originally found the idea in a Pillsbury Holiday cookbook.

While the sugar cube castles always turned out to be quite spectacular, I had always wanted to build a gingerbread house.  Thanks to the fine people at The Kitchen At, I was able to do that earlier this month. 

Located on Xiangyan Nan Lu, The Kitchen At... holds all kinds of cooking classes.

During the gingerbread house workshop, we built a gingerbread house from scratch with our new German friends.

Some sweet German kiddos built houses with us.

The adventure started with 150 g of butter at room temperature.  (That is about 1 1/2 sticks)

Then Chis smashed the butter with 500 g of cake flour.

Then we stirred in 1 tbsp ginger powder, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 g of clove, 1 tsp of baking soda, and 225 g of light soft brown sugar.

Then I beat 112g of golden syrup and 80g eggs into the flower/butter mixture.

Chris had a blast getting his hands dirty.

We then split the dough in three balls. 

After we had our dough balls, we started goofing around in the kitchen.  After they were juggled, the dough balls were refrigerated for 30 minutes and we cut out our house template.

We weren't the only ones who decided to monkey around.

After the dough was cool, we rolled it out and we cut out the and baked the frame of the house.
(Bake 8-10 Min at 200C)

While the house was baking and cooling, our friends played with a little leftover raw dough.    They called the raw dough gingerbread poop.  The youngest kiddo decided to eat a little of the poop.  His sister then spent the next 20 minutes singing, "N ate the poop!  N ate the poop!"

After the sides were cooled, we assembled the house with icing.  (450 g icing sugar  and 1-2 egg whites)

The kids brought out our inner goofiness.

After the sides were constructed, it was time to decorate the roof.

We decided to decorate our house with a snowball chic theme.

The almost finished product...

A few days after the workshop, I walked the gingerbread house three blocks back to my apartment.  I am happy to report despite the lack of covering, it arrived in one piece!

I was so relieved to get the house home in one piece.

The great thing about The Kitchen At is they have many different western and Chinese cooking classes.  They also hold summer cooking camps for kids.  I can’t wait to take a dumpling class there in a few weeks.  Bon Apetit!

For more information on The Kitchen At, click here.

Graduating to Green

Chinese students are classified by the color of their uniform scarves.  At the start of the school year, first graders go scarf less, second graders wear green scarves, and third through fifth graders wear red scarves. One of the most exciting rites of passage for first graders is the scarf ceremony.   After learning the ropes of their new school for four months, my first graders finally received their green scarves.  I was so excited to finally attend the scarf ceremony with my kiddos!

My kiddos patiently wait for their scarves.

Some fifth grade leaders helped out with the rite of passage.

These are the ties traditionally worn by first and second graders.

The class supervisor modeled how to hold and put on the tie.

C tries on her tie with a little help.

Y puts on his tie as A looks on.

J had fun goofing off! 

My first graders hammed it up as a class!  They are too much fun!