Chinese Clothes

I definitely think that we've been watching too much "America's next top model" when I look at these pictures.

Chinatown in Winepeg

Our family Christmas present this year was a trip up to Chinatown in Winepeg. It's the first opportunity we've had to go since Eva has joined the family. We were waiting to get her passport...we didn't want to deal with the foreign birth issue crossing the border.

We enjoyed ourselves, and we will definitely go again. The cultural center was closed when we went, which was a disappointment... presumably because of Boxer week. The next time we go, we will plan around an event at the center so that we know it is open. Also, a lot of the shops in the area were closed down and borded up which was kind of sad. However, there were some cool places to go, in spite of all of that.

This is a bakery in Chinatown. We took a sample home of every Chinese pastry he had. David was able to eat the red bean paste with duck egg (It's a whole duck egg yolk in the middle of the pastry) but couldn't handle the green bean past with duck egg... the chickens ended up with that one. We loved the baked Char Sui bao and they had this coconut pastry which was incredible.

These pictures were taken at the Kum Koon Restaurant in Chinatown. It is actually the largest restaurant in Winepeg and can seat 600 p eople. They serve a dim sum lunch every day where they roll carts of different dim sum around and you pick out what you want. Eva particularly enjoyed the sticy rice with meat wrapped in the Lotus leaf. All of it was good... by the way, they did give Eva a fork but all of the adults had to eat with chopsticks. Eva who got the fork didn't want it after she saw us with the chopsticks, though. It was, hands down, one of the best lunches of my life. It was also great in that no one stared at Eva the entire time we were there.

We stayed at the Radison down town in Winepeg. The parking structure was adventurous, but the hotel was great. We took Eva swimming in the pool, the water was warm. She had fun.

David and Eva watched Thomas the Train DVD's on the portable player. I love the feet sticking out the other end of the pillow.


We went to the Chinese import store at The Forks Market and bought a Chinese vase and some ethnic clothes for Eva. Pant suits this time, since she hates wearing dresses. All of the clothes I got in China are dresses. The lady at the store gave us a 10% discount on the clothes since we are members of Families with Children from China and she gave Eva the fuzzy pink pen that you can see in the picture. Eva preceeded to use it to write all over herself, her clothes and the back seat on the way home. Ba Ba took it away.

Family Pictures

Christmas Day

Eva didn't get as many presents this year as last, but she very much enjoyed the ones she got. David and I gave her a Thomas the train set and table, Granny gave her a crib and stroller for her baby dolls. Three weeks later she is still playing with them.

Sunday Before Christmas

Eva looked both beautiful and festive in her traditional Chinese Gown.

Sunday School Christmas Program

Eva was a shepard in the Nativity Scene at the Christmas Program this year. I made the Shepard Staffs for them, and Eva was insistant that she got to hold a "staff meeting" not a staff. She's been listening to her daycare provider talk about the staff meetings and has come to the conclusion that all staffs are staff meetings.

Eva very much enjoyed the big kids program also. Here she is being a teenager and cheering them on.

Pre-Christmas

So, the end of the semestery is CRAZY busy for me, followed by time at home stuck with the dial up internet access. As a result I have lots of pictures of Eva to catch up on.

Eva loved helping set up the Christmas decorations. At her pre-school in daycare they have stations for each of the kids to work at. She seemed to think each of the areas in the house where the decorations were, were stations and got very upset if I blocked her access or hindered her progress on working with each station. "You're in my station mommy."

Eva put a group of ornaments together and declared that she made a molecule. She's been playing with the molecule building kits in my lab. She's going to be so upset when she eventually realizes that a cluster of balls is not an "actual" molecule.
This is the branch that Eva decorated. Can you tell?

Tinsel girl:

Eva's favorite station is the train running one. She is her daddy's girl.This was Eva's individual tree that we got for her this year. She couldn't take her eyes off of it.