Gogovivi

From Garden Home to You

We are home for the holidays and it has been the best Christmas season...ever. It beats Christmas in Korea with our electromatronic artificial Christmas tree and the dog that almost died, it beats exotic Vietnam in the pouring rain, beats Christmas on sweltering Hainan Island in the fog. There is simply something to being at home for Christmas that brings me peace and comfort.

From us at home in Garden Home to you, our friends in Oregon, China, and around the world, the merriest of holiday seasons.

Four keys to my perfect Christmas

We have a Christmas tree this year. Its nothing special, really, just a slightly thin fir tree cut from Floyd's tree farm a block from home. We picked out our tree in the rain, chopped it, and walked it home, dragging it in the dead leaves behind us.

But I lied. This tree is something special - it is the tree I have been dreaming of for years. Back when living overseas was a novelty, I embraced the most artificial of trees. As the years passed, and the novelty of holidays spent in tropical locations wore thin, I created the perfect Christmas in my mind, and it had three distinct elements: my family, no travel, a real tree, and a fireplace for Santa.

This year, my perfect Christmas is shaping right up. We are staying home and our home is the perfect place for Christmas. Our tree is real and fragrant and perfectly imperfect. Lastly, we have a fireplace and even a mantel on which to hang stockings. Christmas is coming fast.

 

 

Dear Santa Claus

My girl still believes in Santa. I sneaked up on her writing a letter to him this weekend.

Her expectations are modest. Either that, or she just couldn't be bothered to write very much.

All she asked for is an I-Pegboard for her Perler fusion beads.

I don't know what it is, either. Something that combines craft and creativity with I-Pad technology.

It's a 10 dollar item. I think Santa can oblige her, this time. Now I am off to the Post Office to send her letter on its way to the North Pole.

Onward to Christmas

We finished Birthday Week successfully; Vivian and I both celebrated our birthdays last week. Vivian had a grandparent's sleepover party, and I had a nice dinner out with friends. One more year under the bridge, now Thanksgiving, too, is past, and its on to Christmas.

My blue-eyed family

L-Pep, or "Little Pepper"

Seven candles

My birthday gift, handmade by Vivian

On TV commercials and Halloween

I miss those days in China when we were completely immune to TV advertising. We didn't have TV service, so everything we watched was commercial-free and nothing entered our home that wasn't invited. LOVED THAT about our overseas life, but its behind us now. Vivian is completely tuned in to TV commercials now. I know this because this week, when we were buying dog food, she suggested I buy Iams brand because, according to her, it has "more meat."

I told her that the commercials are doing their job because she remembers the message while making buying decisions. We have talked a lot about commercials, because they are (were) new to her and I didn't know what she made of them. I have read that until a certain age, children don't really understand that there is a difference between programming and commercials, and I thought that we were about to be hit by a advertising double-whammy: not only can she perhaps not tell the difference, she has never seen commercials at all!

But this wasn't supposed to be a post about TV advertising. It was meant to be a post about Halloween that got off track.

Last month Vivian, suddenly and without warning, announced that she wants to dress up as Katniss from The Hunger Games for Halloween. Trying to be cool, I said ok and asked her how she knows about Katniss? Her answer was vague, but I think she probably saw a Hunger Games trailer on TV. Being that she loves all girls tough and pretty, it was a no-brainer.

FILE - In this image released by Lionsgate, Jennifer Lawrence portrays Katniss Everdeen in a scene from "The Hunger Games." (AP Photo/Lionsgate, Murray Close, File)

I promise we did not let her actually watch the Hunger Games.

It was the world's easiest costume. Trousers, jacket, and vest from the thrift store. Her regular boots. Toy bow and arrow. Small backpack from thrift store embellished with the number "12" to show her district. Finally, Katniss' signature side braid and a mockingjay replica pin.

Vivi as Katniss Everdeen

The result: She won first place for first grade girls in front of her entire school and had a fantastic first American Halloween.

Becoming American: Independence Day

For obvious reasons, Independence Day does not exist in China. We have not celebrated the 4th even once since Vivian has been born, unless we managed to blow up a noisy Chinese firecracker or eat a burger in honor of the Red White and Blue. This year, our first year home and at the beginning of Vivian's Becoming American, we also had the obligation to show our visiting Aussie friends what July 4th is all about.

It was the greatest July 4th. Ever.

We started with the Molalla parade, where Vivian learned how to scramble for the candy thrown from monster trucks and wave an American flag.

The parade was followed by the Molalla Buckeroo rodeo.

Finally, we followed the rodeo with an evening BBQ at the home of Patty and Dave, the parents of our friends Ruth and Nathan who live in Qingdao. Patty and Dave live outside of Molalla in an unbelievably beautiful spot full of trees, plants, horses, friends, and love.

May Day Ring-n-Run

I remember May Day when I was a kid, we would steal flowers from wherever they might be blooming, put them in little baskets or paper cones, then drop them on neighbor's front steps, ring the doorbell, and run. Kind of a sweet tradition if you're the one getting the flowers, kind of like garden vandalism if your flowers are being stolen.

The great thing about doing the May Day Ring-n-Run where we live is that there are no private gardens, so nobody's flowers are being stolen ("everybody's" flowers are!). The other great thing is that our apartment complex, despite its run-down look the rest of the year, is in May resplendent with flowering trees.Vivi, our friend Lola, and I picked an over-abundance of blossoms for our flower cones.

The not-so-great thing about doing the Ring-n-Run here is that the doors to most apartments do not have exterior door knobs (nothing to hang the cones on!) and that most apartments are in security buildings, so unless you get lucky and dash into the building as someone else is coming out, you risk revealing yourself just trying to get to the door.

One of the things I love best about my Qingdao community is how we are all from different parts of the world and we all have different cultural backgrounds to share. The Ring-n-Run was new to nearly everyone we left flowers for; Brits, Aussies, Romanians, Germans, Chinese...the only ones who knew what we were up to were the few Americans in the neighborhood.

Happy May Day, everyone!

 

 

 

 

Spring Break, Day 4

Today: Vivi and Vivian

Vivi: Age 6

Vivian: Age 28.

Vivi and I have a new friend, named Vivian. She is my fitness teacher and let me tell you, she is one tough chick. She has taught me the almost unthinkable: how not to punch like a girl. Every time I see her, she totally makes my day because she is fun and outgoing and funny. I just adore her.

Today Vivian made another friend when she came over early in the morning to give little Vivi some private dance lessons. She starts a kids dance class this Sunday, and knowing that my kid is a perfectionist, she offered to give her a head start learning the moves.

 

Spring Break, Day 2

Today: Secret Clubhouse

Thank heavens that Nature decided to go easy on us. Just last week we were freezing and still wearing winter coats, but the sun has come and out Qingdao is getting warmer and green. It's the wind that keeps things frigid around here, but for some unknown reason our back garden is in a place where the wind rarely blows.

A perfect spot for a secret clubhouse.

With a elbow greast from me, and a lot of creative input on her part, Vivian directed the construction of her backyard clubhouse. The neighborhood kids soon descended, the play became all-consuming, and I have not seen her since.

 

Spring Break, Day 3

Today: Ballet.

Like mother, like daughter: my poor child is a perfectionist. Vivian does not like to do what she cannot do well. Which is why I am delighted that she likes ballet. She has been in an after-school ballet class once a week in which, as far as I can tell, the main exercise has been to look cute and run around the room in circles.

This week we enrolled her in a "proper" class (though I am a poor judge of what is or is not a "proper" class). She is with 15 other children and spends time at the barre practicing positions and doing exercises, and the teacher carries a long bamboo rod around with which she beats the children if they slouch.

Just kidding. Corporal punishment is not part of the curriculum. The teacher is tough, though. On the first night, four girls got a lecture for misbehaving. To make matters worse, they didn't get a sticker after class, which for a 6-year old is the biggest possible incentive.

The teacher is also pretty, which means that Vivi loves her. She is tough and pretty and that's a pretty high recommendation.

As long as Vivian learns a little discipline, learns that practice and working hard are the only way to perfection, and perhaps develops better posture than I ever had, the lessons will pay off.