us girls

Yesterday was wonderful. Actually yesterday and on into today. I spent both days with Lydia and Leah!

Yesterday I hopped on the bus at about 3:00 p.m.--a common start to every trip--and soon found myself at the Wirgau home.

We decided to have dinner at one of their favorite little restaurants, so we bundled up in a million and one different garments and left. I sat on the back of Lydia's bike and she rode me all the way there: through the darkness and the city streets, until we got to the tiny, Chinese restaurant. We all enjoyed the food a lot, and the company and warmth of the place was also lovely. After that the six of us (the three Wirgau boys came too) rode home. 

That night we worked on making a video. It was really fun and hilarious, and I'm pretty sure you'd want to see it, so I'm going to have to put it up sometime :)

We watched a Doctor Who episode (love!) and drank tea and coffee and laughed and talked. 

Today we hung out at their house some more then Lydia, Leah and I headed over to our house. On the way over we stopped at Coco and bought pearl milk teas (you should know by now that we kind of love them) and then got back on the bus to go to my house. We edited our video a bunch, ate dinner, laughed some more and then the girls left, ending the 25 some hours I'd been with the two of them.

I love them and I'm so thankful for them! God has really blessed our family with the Wirgaus.

While waiting for the bus we realized that we all had rolled-up jeans on and converse! Picture taken by Leah Wirgau with her camera. I'm in the white ones, Lydia's in the grey and Leah's in the purple :)

Love, a

quite the month!

Oh my. There has been so much going on. What with the boys here, Christmas, going to Shanghai etc. I haven't had much time to write and take pictures. I didn't want to miss anything while the boys were here and (as you know) writing a full post takes a good deal of time. Here I go though... I have quite a lot to tell you.

First of all "Merry Christmas!"
I hope your Christmas was full of joy and love... I know mine was.

 Having Matt, William and Malachi (the friend) here was the best. The three of them left yesterday and my other brother Ben is staying until the end of January.

We got to do the whole "Suzhou tour" with them and take them to all our favorite spots. Let me just tell you that I'm pretty lonely for them right now and miss them dreadfully. Thank goodness Ben is staying!

Christmas eve, we had the Wirgaus and a couple of our Chinese friends over. We ate, exchanged gifts, took pictures and drank coffee. I love those Wirgaus.

Actually after church ended, Lydia and I got in a taxi and headed to the place where she works... she asked me to sing a couple of songs with her and David, so off we went. We ended up singing The Call by Regina Spektor and "Baby" by Justin Bieber on a stage, with Lydia playing the guitar, in front of a couple hundred Chinese people, just us three. Yep.

After everybody left all nine of us kids went down to the lake (it was about 11:00 pm). We set off a floating lantern (ever heard of one?) and watched it soar into the black, Christmas eve sky. We were all so excited and everybody was shouting and laughing. It was beautiful. Then we lit off a bunch of fireworks and those were amazing as well. This all made for a really fantastic Christmas eve and an oh-so- very memorable night. (Thanks Malachi for thinking of those great ideas!)

Christmas morning my Dad woke me up at about 7:45 am and we headed downstairs. We opened our stockings which were filled (all nine of them) with fun things. For breakfast we had bacon, eggs, cinnamon rolls and more... it was delicious.

Then came the presents. Opening presents with so many people is exciting. I received the following... :)

My Mom had my own cards made, with my name, address, phone number, blog address, and email address on them! They're simply fantastic. She also got me a fun book :)

Among my others presents from all my siblings and Malachi were:

001. adorable, Chinese, glass cups

002. sour patch candy

003. a cozy flannel shirt

004. a pretty frame

005. hot chocolate with more chocolate to go with it (Oh yes).

006. beef jerky

007. a Cd

008. a (really great) wallet!
009. white raybans :)

I'm blessed.

The rest of the day was spent reading, eating, drinking some more coffee, lazying around, scootering to the park, enjoying being with the boys, and celebrating baby Jesus.

For Christmas dinner we had beef brisket, baked potatoes with sour cream and green onions (my favorite), winter salad, and rolls, which were all very delicious.

Two days after Christmas we headed down to Shanghai for the last two days with the boys. On Wednesday night we all went to the Bund! We ate at the "Lost Heaven" place again which was super fun.

We enjoyed the last couple of days with them so much. 

On Thursday the three boys left. Goodbyes were hard but I know I'm going to see them all in a few months.

On Friday we came back to Suzhou with Ben. I'm so glad Ben gets to spend lots more time with us.

My house looked so beautiful and cozy, and 11 people filled it up.

Today is New Years Eve and I have a little secret to tell you friends... I'll be a whole year ahead of you for about 15 hours! Yay.

I'm going to miss you 2011, please know that.

Thank you Lord for keeping us safe here in Suzhou, China throughout this whole year of 2011!

So with all that said let me end this post by saying,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I love you all.

2012 here I come.

Love, a

p.s. It's 11:28 pm... and you know what day it is!

Excitement

Last week we went on a little field trip with the Wirgaus (little might be an understatement.) We went to a place called Shantong Street to go on a boat tour through a canal. Exciting! Especially with the Wirgaus.

First of all we shopped... chicken feet keychains, glass goat bracelets and elaborate masks were such things bought that day.

We got on a small boat that had about 25 seats and back and front platforms, (quote from Beth after we were arguing over sitting next to the Wirgau girls "I'm going in the back, are you guys kidding me!!") Most of the time we were on the back or the front looking around and taking pictures and then we went sort of crazy. Crazy fun that is.

When another boat would pass we would try to get them to pump their fists, so us five girls and two boys were pumping theirs fists and yelling. We got a bunch of people excited.

Then we got to a place where we went under a bridge and there were people lining the whole entire bridge and more people on the side of it and someone on another boat asked us, "where are you from?" and we started yelling "America" and then I said "Long live the King!!!" (Yes I'm weird!) And everybody was kinda waving and we were all laughing and... yeah it was crazy.

Right when we got off the boat, three of the men that were watching us came running over and so then I got pictures with all of them (I was the one who said to all of them "Long live the King" :D.)

After all that hoopla, Lydia, Leah and us three girls were getting a bunch of pictures with random people along the way. :)

Then two girls and a guy started taking pictures with us. They loved my little sister Beth and one of the girls even kissed her. I think they have about a hundred pictures of all of us on theirs phones now. I got (okay I wanted) a picture with the guy and he put his arm around me and kinda squeezed me, so that's why I look the way I look. :D

This happens quite often with Foreigners here in China and I just wanted to try and explain what it is like.

I still don't think I can quite explain it all. Sometimes you just have to be there to understand what I'm talking about. I hope I gave you somewhat of an understanding though.

That night we ate at a dumpling place and continued to enjoy each others company. We found a Coco where we could get Pearl milk teas and shopped a little more. I found this really cute, yellow winter hat but I didn't buy it. :(

We were walking back to meet everybody when this guy with a monkey on a leash walked up. It was kind of a shock to see a monkey walk up (when the only place I've ever seen one is in the Zoo) and then it jumped on Leah. I got some pictures of it on her arm. We laughed a lot about that too.

Cameras everywhere!

Picture by my sister Rebecca @becca-jones.blogspot.com (Becca I'm so sorry I forgot to do that the first time.)

 The day was filled with laughter, friends, Chinese people, boats, pictures, lots of walking and senses being stimulated. Excitement might sum it up.

                                                                  I enjoyed it all throughly.
                                                                              Love, a