Holiday smiles

A lot of things have made me smile this Christmas season. This is near the top of the list.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

other holiday festivities

DADDY RICK MOLASSES COOKIES!

There are many reasons to look forward to Christmas.  And molasses cookies at the O'Hare household is one of them.  Aaron's Granddad Jack used to make these cookies, unfortunately I never got to know him. So these cookies bear only Aaron's Dad's name.  Daddy rickies, is also acceptable.

We had friends over tonight for a bonfire in our driveway. I was going to say "courtyard", but really it's the parking lot.  That's okay.  It was still awesome.


We drank wassail and sang carols around the fire.  It was really nice.  I loved the way I smelled when I came back in the house, and how my face stayed warm for a long time after I left the fire.

Megan and Weston

We leave on Thursday night to spend Christmas with the Shelleys and the Jungs!

essentials

at least i'm calling them essentials.

These are the things that have so far made the month of December great:

the milk frother i got from ikea to make coffee
and hot chocolate with frothed milk!

egg nog!  thanks danielle for sharing your recipe

the fireplace in our tv 

the gingko trees turned yellow
fall came at Christmas time this year

homemade pizzas

hanging out with Jackie (Asian Kate's son)

It's winter, y'all!

that was said in my best Oprah/Paula Dean/Maya Rudolph being Oprah.

This is how you know it's winter around these parts:

sausage, and other raw meats get hung out to dry.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

The road less travelled (recently)

I walked on real grass today and it was magical. It was only about 9 steps or so, but it reminded me what it was like. And I loved it.

one year ago today

One year ago today, we arrived in China.  We arrived in China a year ago?!  How did a year already pass by??

We haven't done anything to remember this day - maybe I'll talk to Aaron and we can come up with some tradition.  It just so happens that we moved to China on St. Nicholas Day- so maybe we'll remember both at the same time and eat oranges, chocolate, and nuts, and set our shoes outside of the door.  Although, I suspect they will be gone in the morning, not filled with treats.

To celebrate our one year anniversary of living in China - here is a video of the mess it was to pack and store stuff, and some pictures of our farewells.


The video below is pretty boring and messy.  And I'm not sure if I thought zooming in would make some kind of huge impact or statement.  because it doesn't.  and it looks pretty lame.

an oversized truck for our goods

pizza after our friends helped us move out.  we miss y'all!

goodbyes at the airport.

And a video of Josh - because he's a cutie.

Here's lookin' at you, kid

The 1970's hope you're having a great day.

pilgrim days

Thanksgiving was great.  To kick off thanksgiving, Wednesday night we had a simple meal with some friends in the city. We ate bean soup and cornbread, instead of all of the casseroles that we're used to these days on Thanksgiving.  We all played the part of either a pilgrim or an indian.  Aaron revisited his pilgrim days, and I revisited my childhood of playing in the woods and finding arrowheads.

I'm welcoming them to the harvest

it was funny at the time, but now i'm not really sure what was going on in this picture

 Also, I realize that it is considered politically incorrect to call Native Americans, "Indians" AND where we live actual Indians, from India, more readily come to mind when I hear the word "Indians", but for some reason I could not talk about Thanksgiving without saying Indians.  It just kept slipping out.  It's like I was brainwashed as a child.  The mascot for my elementary school was "Indians."  The Waxhaw Indians.  It was awesome.  But not nearly as awesome as my high school mascot - the Rebels.  I think you see where I'm coming from now, and can understand why I can't seem to let go of Indians in the thanksgiving story.  Maybe if I had grown up going to the school of Native Waxhaw Americans, this would not have happened.


Thursday we got together with some of foreign friends in town for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was kind of like the first thanksgiving in that it involved people from different cultures coming together to thank God for our blessings (4 countries represented at our dinner), but this one involved a lot more butter.

pre-thanksgiving video watching

That's right we had football on the slingbox.  Thanksgiving was complete.

carving the turkey

post meal book reading by Victoria

enjoying the meal

Friday after Thanksgiving friends came to town, and we spent the next few days enjoying the western restaurants in our city, watching our friends play football (aaron's shoulder kept him out of the game), making barbecue, and just loving hanging out with them.  We'll get to see them again for Christmas.  They are literally like our family in China, we see them every couple of months and during the holidays.  This Thanksgiving, I am really thankful for them, knowing that these years of us all living in China are sweet years.

unfortunately I don't have pictures of two of the guys that go with these ladies
so the ladies will just have to represent all of them.  Also, look at that cute little guy.

It was a nice sunny day for football.  That's right.  That's the sun.
I took a picture of it, and I'm not blind.  We debated for a long time about
whether that was the sun or the moon.  Also, it's only that yellow in this picture
because i saturated the color when editing it.

the only guy, besides mine to make the pictures.  sorry guys.

"and I pray that someday, I can find me a redneck boy."
that mustache was my "early christmas present."

Christmas decorations!

barbecue!  smoking hickory chips on the grill.

We got a 5 kg pork shoulder for this barbecue.  We realized, a little to late, how important it is to let the butcher know you want the butt end of the shoulder - hence the term boston butt.  Our butcher didn't know american cuts, and I didn't tell him the butt end, so we ended up with the whole shoulder (the curve of the shoulder), taking away some of the meat I was expecting.  Last time we fed like 10 people with 5kgs of meat.  This time 5 kg didn't even satisfactorily feed 6 people.  Fail.  You live, you learn.  And apparently in China, I am learning a lot about butchery.

the beginning of year four (and the celebrating of the first three)

So we have a lot of catching up to do.  As in, I wrote a post about our anniversary, but then didn't add pictures or post it, so I'll post that now.  And then I have a thanksgiving post.  So looks like you'll see what our thanksgiving was like when it is about Christmas time.  Hopefully, I'll post that tomorrow.  But no promises.  I can be quite the slacker when it comes to digital communication.  Anyway - here's the belated anniversary post:

What a sweet guy, that Aaron is.

For our anniversary - Aaron took me out to two dinners.  One a couple of weekends ago when instead of going outside of the city for a day hike (aaron's knee was inflamed from a run) we went to the Tony Roma's in the city.  Nice treat - especially for Aaron to get to have both steak AND ribs.  I'm not sure he's had either one of those things for a year.

Then last night (November 22nd - I wrote this blog a while ago, don't forget) on our actual anniversary, Aaron surprised me by taking me to a recently opened Italian restaurant in our city.  Apparently it's a chain from Hong Kong - with restaurants in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the Philippines.  The restaurant was AMAZING.  I had a salad with pears, goat cheese, and candied walnuts on mixed greens.  What??  When did those things come to China?  I also had a margherita pizza, and Aaron had a chicken cooked in a mushroom sauce served over polenta, with asparagus.  To those of you living in the US this restaurant may not be that impressive, though I actually think it would be a nice restaurant in America, as well.  But I realize that you would probably not get as excited as I did when after we finished the basket of bread they gave us, they REFILLED it.  Amazing.  And then they refilled it a second time.  We finally told her we didn't need any more bread, though I think we could have sat there all night and just ate that bread.  Needless to say, a lot of bread was consumed.

Aaron surprised me with a Christmas tree for our anniversary.  Since the beginning of October I have been talking nonstop about wanting to get a fake Christmas tree (since they don't sell the real ones here) and wondering where I could get them.  I would text Aaron every time I found one.  Unbeknownst to me, he had been planning on buying me one this whole time.

Man, what a great husband.  I'm so thankful for him.   

Rick Prefontaine

A new era has been birthed, one that I am super proud of. 

Last weekend, my father, on the eve of his 5x birthday (where x is = or greater than 6 but no more than 8) finished a half marathon.

Finishing 13.1 is a big deal - most people haven't done it. I've never done it. But my dad, a self-professed "non-runner" got it done. And he did it just because he knew he should.

Growing up, dad and I ran together. And when I say ran, I mean that the two of us suffered through a 1.5 mile loop together, one time around. And we would usually quit before the loop was done. For years, the two of us helped each other run just enough to foster a serious dislike for running.

See the smiles of two non-runners through the years:

Before my high school prom, 2001

One-week visit back in America, 2011

Not only that, he and I ghost ran a Thanksgiving Day "Turkey Trot 5K" two years ago and dad had a hard time finishing. I think that experience motivated him to make running more of a priority, and now, two years later, he's done more than make it a priority: he has set goals, pushed himself, trained consistently, and achieved. I am so proud of my dad. Well done dad!

Pounding pavement.

Dad and Eliza in the race.

He's a runner now.

三周年

I don't really blog about serious stuff. But today, me and Stace's third anniversary, I'm feeling like a little photo-celebration of the past three years is in order. I am way into this little cutie I married.

The fun begins...

Traveling.

Mountain lakes. Delightful.

Delicious. In every sense of the word.

Snacks, my favorite.

I married a True Blue angel.

Who did I marry again?

Yeah, she's a model.

The fun just keeps coming.

week in review

Really it's the last week+.


Asian Kate took me to Haagen Dazs.  It was unbelievable.  It was my first time actually ever eating Haagen Dazs, and I think it is just as good here as it is in America.  Maybe even better, because it's been quite a while since I had ice cream.

I got some curtains in the mail from my mom & stepdad for aaron and my anniversary!  I have been wanting these curtains for so long (or at least it feels like so long).   and i love them.

Cute babies actually posing for a picture.  That's right, she put her arm around him just for the picture.

We hung out with some friends who are moving out of town soon.  Waah.

We went out for hot pot (cook your own meats and vegetables in boiling water at your table), where Aaron and I ate the intestines of the pig, the cow, and the chicken.  It surprisingly wasn't as disgusting as I thought it was going to be, since intestines are not the kinda things I choose to make at home.

2 different broths to cook the food in - 2 non spicy, two super spicy

one of my teaching assistants and her husband

me & phyllis

And to end the week, tip off weekend started on ESPN with Carolina playing Michigan State in the Carrier Classic.  My husband was literally jumping up and down saying, "it's Carolina and it's America!  This is AMAZING!"

He puts on as much Carolina stuff as he can find