Snow Day!

Despite Shanghai not having had a significant snowfall in ages, the Naks managed to bring the pain to Shanghai.  It snowed for nearly 3 days, which accumulated to about 3-4 inches and while we toughed out school on Thursday, on Friday they decided enough was enough.  We joined most of Shanghai in wandering around and appreciating the snow; many people here making their first snowmen.  The girls thought it was hilarious and fun, Kara wasn't as pleased, but we were all happy to get a three day weekend.  

 

Same day!

Century Park was beautiful covered in a thin blanket of snow.  We had to hurry to check out different parts of the park as it all melted quickly.  From the beginning of our Friday to the end, the snow disappeared as if we went from December to March April May in Minnesota.  After all the snow fun we trekked out to CinnaSwirl to enjoy a sweet treat that we've missed.

Saturday brought more snow and more business as we had two parties to attend.  The first was an Australia Day party which featured interesting food like Fairy Bread, Vegemite, tim-tams, sausage rolls, and other Aussie delicacies.  The hosts, Erin & Ryan, are accustomed to summer barbecues for Australia Day, so the snow was a new backdrop for them.  The girls were happy to play with their two baby kittens (named Jaozi and Baozi -- for potsticker and dumpling in Chinese); Pip was very concerned that they weren't drinking enough water.  After that party we made our way northeast for Nina to go to a birthday party.  The party was at a trampoline park and full of fun.  Vivian and Ben also went in for a bit and Vivian liked pretending she was a ninja warrior.  Mount Midoriyama better watch out!

Sunday brought some typical wanderings.  We still are dumbfounded by the sheer size of some of these buildings.

January Wanderings

Sports officially ended here twice today as the Vikings did what the Vikings do and Ben's basketball team finished its season.  He was happy to have such caring and coachable players and they got much better as the season went on.  They were 6 points from winning the final tournament of the year.  

We've been happy to wander on weekends in warm weather & we've visited the zoo, the Children's Library, some great restaurants, and a temple.  

Happy Zoo Year Tradition upheld

Red Panda        ----        Giant Pandas

Eating ice cream outside    ----   We live on JinXiu

Temple Time

 

Half-birthday celebrations with classmates

West meets East

HD Link to video

2017 was quite the ride and as we hit half-birthday week we like to reflect.  The year included selling our house, Kara ending her time at Century, moving across the world, and beginning to learn a new culture.  Despite these big changes, life is still similar in many regards:  kid entertainment, our love of eating, kid meltdowns, wandering city events, music, and playing random games around the house using toys, boxes, and garbage.

We've found that we all have random things that we appreciate about China and things we miss about our life in the states.  Here is a list of each of our thoughts: