Christmas!

Obviously Christmas in Beijing is a little more subdued than we are traditionally used to. That said the local shopping mall did have some festive displays but there was a distinct lack of the normal bombardment of Christmas music - a good or bad thing, you decide. So it was that the big day kinda crept up on us a little bit. I had only taken the one day off work and left all my present buying to the sunday beforehand. Not such a problem as there was little sign of any rush on the shops. Mind you it first required negotiating some shopping time by myself since weekends have become very much family time together. But with presents in the bag we were set and ready to go.
After a relatively good nights sleep we also had our first present, Alex slept in a bit in the morning. Something to be thankful for and we grabbed the Z's while they were on offer. Once we were up and moving he withdrew his favour and launched a missle of a poo into his nappy. Soon we were splashing around in the bath giving him a good clean. Son - cause and effect, simply the learning curve of life. We can't complain, I had a text from Duncan whose young one is only a little older than Alex and in his own words 'Hannah's pressie to us this year is a sleepless night' so it could have been worse.
With all that out the way we got on with opening our presents trying to keep Alex as excited as we clearly were. Despite the last minute nature we had a few things wrapped up and so the traditional pile of paper on the floor grew. Fueled by non-stop Christmas carols I think even Alex got in the mood and after some family snaps we let him open his present with a lot of help from us.
Presents of course being the focal point of the day the rest started to flash by. We had a roast chicken - I've never been bothered with Turkey - for lunch, a sleepy lazy afternoon with some board games while Alex slept. Then Alex gave us our own present, he went to bed at 6pm and slept soundly so we could relax for a while.
All in all it was hard to remember we were in Beijing as this would have read much the same in the UK. On the other hand we are looking forward to the Chinese New Year to get a bit more involved in the local celebrations. 

　

Pollution, xmas and general catch up

As predicted signing up for the training crash course of being parents has slowed down our entry rate onto the blog. On the other hand we have resisted the temptation to detail every wakeful night or every inconsolable bout of crying - we are reliably informed that it is part of the process that these minor details fade in the memory which explains how anyone fools themselves enough to come back for a second try. Sometimes even after the unimaginable challenge of twins.

Now that winter has arrived in all it's minus 10 glory a couple of things become obvious. It is much less fun waiting for my bus to work outside in the morning and the pollution levels have got noticeably worse. I'm told that all the heating plants within the 5th ring road are now powered by natural gas or 'clean' imported coal and the emissions then scrubbed but even so we have had some very poor days. Most ex-pats keep an eye on the air quality index as published by the US embassy via IPhone apps. Anything over 150 on the air quality index is considered bad, we were treated to a 500 day a couple of weeks ago and it was hard to see the buildings opposite so we decided it was best to hunker down indoors with our air filters going full blast. While wind brings with it icy fingers to make a mockery of any warm clothing it does take with it the pollution so we look forward to the bright, frosty and clear days. To be fair this is more often than not but the pea soupers stick in the mind a little more. On the up side we are told it was much worse prior to the 2008 which saw the start of a concentrated effort to clean up the air - let's hope they keep it up.

We didn't expect much from the Christmas celebrations here but are being pleasently surprised. The lcoal shopping mall is getting in the swing with decorations and a festive display for kiddies. Moreover the ex-pat community obviously support the festivities full tilt with many of the schools laying on Christmas markets. Our first attempt at picking up some yule tide nic naks fell a bit short when we decided on arrival to take advantage of a sleeping baby and a Mexican resturant. By the time we finished the market had packed up and left - half an hour early. The second attempt went much better and was a lot bigger. A short taxi ride away saw us to a very posh school with lots of stalls and a food hall at the back which we headed straight for choosing to indulge in hot dogs - not so festive but a novelty none the less. One aspect we hadn't counted on was all the locals being fascinated by the baby Eleanor had in her sling and we were stopped for quite a few photos. It seems taking babies out and about is very rare in China where the first few months are expected to be at home so we represented something of an oddity. Still not sure if the photos were to show friends or what passes for social services we smiled blandly all the same. We managed to pick up some little presents and a small stocking for the little noisy bugger chubby cheeked baby and considered it a job well done. On the way out there were some masseurs offering a free trial to entice you to head over to their clinic. Figuring this was a nice treat for a mother who has back ache from carrying a baby in a sling we signed up. Everything was heading in the right direction until they demonstrated their skills at massaging the tips of the elbow with vice like pinches. Two days later Eleanor had just about recovered.