We had Kjirsten over one last time!  Boo hoo!  Her dad is retiring from the Foreign Service to go back to Utah to work and be with family.  We love this girl and her love for us!  So much kindness and thoughtfulness running through her body, for everyone.  Everyone loves her and appreciates her fun and generous spirit!  

The Curd's worked with the YW to have a surprise party for Kjirsten since she's leaving Beijing.  We're all so sad, but excited for the new chapter of her life going to Dixie (Utah Tech) to study nursing.  She has been living abroad for years, and she misses her siblings and their families.  She's the youngest of six kids, and with the Covid travel restrictions here in China, it's hard to get back to the U.S.

We gathered at the Curd's house and set up right in front of the front door.  We even practiced our timing of saying "Surprise."  Mayah was going to have Kjirsten over for dinner and then come to the Curd's to "pick something up for her mom."  It was the perfect plan, and apparently no one slipped in telling her about the party!

We had a good group from church come as well as other kids from River Garden.  She's been a friend to many, no matter the age.  Everyone loves her enthusiasm and excitement for life and fun, as well as her testimony and love of the gospel.  So much to love and admire about her!And her parents Kim and Paul are amazing.  Kim served as our primary president and Paul was the Elders' Quorum President.  They will be sorely missed!

Mayah put together a Kahoot game that we played after we watched a video that some kids made too.  They were both awesome, and made Kjirsten laugh and cry.

Karen Anderton also bought a notebook that everyone could write in next to their polaroid camera picture.  Great idea coordinated by Karen and Amy Tanner.

The kids sat around and played games after Kahoot and everything.  They had a great time with Karaoke too.  Dad and I slipped out because he was tired from his all night Olympic Task force shifts, and the kids came home when they were done playing.

We'll miss the McOmbers!  Luckily they're headed to Utah so we can stay in touch!

Our Young Women's program was split by location into two pods:  downtown and Shunyi.  I've gotten to serve as the first counselor in the YW presidency, and got to run the weekly activities Our cute little downtown pod of 4 YW (my girls, Avalon, and Lizzie) grew to 6 when Lauren and Edie Wilford moved to Beijing. 

We had a lot of fun activities - painting, visiting the mall, learning Excel, crafting, etc.  We heart attacked some apartments in our building of Kingstone.  Lynne and Brian, and the Ward family.  Funny thing though, we got the wrong door - and instead of doing Lynne and Brian's, we did my friend Crystals' apartment.  It was a good mistake though - she deserved to be loved too, and we let Lynne know that it was meant for her!  ;)

Savannah is having fun with all the felting kits we gave her for her birthday, fabric that we gave her for Christmas, and the sewing machine she bought herself with babysitting money a few months ago.  She wanted to buy the same machine she was using in design class when she sewed a laptop bag for an assignment.  She's sewn pillow cases, a skirt, and a patch quilt with African fabrics I got from my coworker Nick in CLO.

Amazingly, she made this box!

First skirt!  Even decorated with some cute buttons!

And here she is making a dress from scratch with some fabric we got. I just love how she has no fear to try and create!  It's not an easy thing, but she had the vision for what she wanted!  Not wearable, but not bad at all for a beginner's first attempt!  I'm grateful we're in China where I can order sewing and art supplies pretty cheaply to give her access to the materials she needs to craft and art to her heart's content.

We had a RS activity that the YW were invited to.  Leave it to Savvy to actually finish the project, cuz I didn't!

The LTC (Language Training Center) at the embassy and CLO cohosted a trip to Gubei Water Town.  A few hours outside of Downtown Beijing, a developer created this water town to look old.  It's only 7 years old, and it took them 4 years to make.  The city manager came and met with us at the embassy to describe the package deals of activities they had and what a day there could look like.  It sounded fun, so Bri and I decided to sign our family up.  This is the group that ended up signing up.  A few families and a lot of single adults.  The LTC provided the transportation there, so luckily we saved money there since everything else was on the pricey side.

Year of the tiger!

The first thing we did there was paper cutting.  This gave us a whole new appreciation for the art of paper cutting and the artists who do it!  We did simple cut outs of the animal that corresponds to our Chinese zodiak animal.  Each of us in the family are a different animal.  Bri-Bull, Mom-Rabbit, Thomas-monkey, Savvy-dog, Rhea-rat.  This woman showed us how to do it and helped us as needed.

The woman helped us to add another feature on the cutting, and then framed it for us.

There was a little parade going on in the streets when we got out of the paper cutting class.  We caught a little of it.

It's the year of the tiger, so you can buy one of these!

Another parade.

After lunch and parades, we went to do the snow activities we paid for.  First was driving these little tractors.  Surprisingly fun!

Next were these balls on ice.  The kids had a ball, no pun intended, rolling around and even crashing into each other.  Surprisingly no one got hurt!  Thomas enjoyed pushing one of the girl's balls into the other.  ;)

Then we slid around on these things.  We had fun even though it was really slippery!

Ice skating was last but not least.  These kids love ice skating!  We've now ice skated in the U.S., Latvia, Finland, Australia, and China.

Taking a bit of a break.  Thomas decided that he needed to Google how to ice skate so he could get some tips on how to improve, especially going backward. :)

These poor (fake) sled dogs are pulling the sleigh.  That was another option for us but the line was too long.  I think we got just as much watching as experiencing it ourselves. ;)

Dumpling makers

We had a lot of fun getting warm in this dumpling restaurant and eating dumplings.  We were in no rush to get back out into the cold, but we sat and talked and laughed until we were ready.

Savannah had fun photo bombing the picture behind the bathroom "door" curtain.

Eating sugar sticks that apparently didn't have sugar??  The name did not match the flavor. ;)

We love these sugar covered fruits.  You can get them with strawberries too.

To end the day and kick off the evening, they had pretty cool light and water show.

It was freezing all day!!!!!!!!  As soon as we got back to the visitor's center, we bought hot chocolate from Starbucks!

It was great to get out of the house and away from the downtown craziness for the 2nd weekend in a row to see and do new things.  It was also fun to mingle a little with some other embassy folks outside of work.  Two hour drive home and straight to bed.  Long but good day and we were so glad dad could join us and not have to work on the Olympic task force!