Christmas Morning

Unfortunately I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures on Christmas morning. I think I just wanted to "live it" instead of watch it from behind the camera. This was the very first year EVER that it was just us at home! We usually have company here or we have been at my mom's house. It was weird. Not in a bad way, just different. Here are some favorite gifts!

Josh got the nerf game for the Wii.

Will has been coveting Jake's Spiderman 4-wheeler for 6 months now. Santa brought him one!

Justin is very into dress-up. He's a big spiderman fan right now.

The biggest boy got a big mountain bike "with gears." Gotta have gears.

After we opened presents & clean up the GIANT mess, we headed to Kingwood for a big Christmas feast with my family. I didn't take my camera out of the camera bag. :-(

We stayed a few days & had a great visit!

Meeting Santa!

At church on Christmas eve, they had some special events planned! Santa was there! The kids were so excited to see him.

Then of course we had to ride the carousel.

They served hot chocolate and had carolers in the lobby. Once inside the service, they had a string quartet playing with the regular band. Then at the end of the service, they had about 10 Christmas trees with lights that were synced to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra type song. It was so cool.

BTW- I swear my kids don't always wear the same thing. I figure my years are numbered with the whole matchy-coordinating thing with them. It's just a Christmas thing. Oh & some times Easter.

Uncle Pebo & Aunt Sally's Christmas Party!

Every year Boyd's aunt & uncle have a Lunsford Family Christmas party at their home near Fort Worth. It's always a great time.

Boyd & Aunt Sally

Boyd's dad made it in from China for Christmas!

Boyd, Steve, Uncle Pebo & Al

Sally always arranges for the kids to do some sort of project. This year it was bird houses! Justin's was green of course.

My cutie boy.

My other cutie boy. Oh yeah, I have 4!

Here are Steve & Jake. A little daddy love... so sweet.

This is the only shot of Josh on this day. He was very busy running around with his cousins. From the left...Kaitlyn, Megan, Josh & Dane.

We stayed with Steve, Cathy, Loryn & Jake in Grapevine. Loryn had her dance recital that night! She is a Christmas tree. (Soooo cute!) They needed a little help with a card picture... so I volunteered. Here are some favs.

And the winner is...this one!

Thanks for the fun times ya'll!

World's Ugliest Gingerbread House!

These two had fun decorating it, but oh my...the final product was a masterpiece!

Oh well. They may not be artist, but I still love them.

Chinese Acrobatic Show

These pictures speak for themselves. They were really talented.

Nice Show! Highly recommended!

A Traditional Duck House

We ate at a traditional duck house for lunch one day. They didn't have a fork in the place! We all got to practice using chopsticks- an art I have yet to master. I finally resorted to stabbing the food with one chopstick- a girl's got to eat! The duck was pretty good! The duck soup...tasted a little like the pond it once swam in.

Most of the big downtown hotels have malls in them. This is one of them. The Chinese are smart about the way the design the malls. They group the stores together according to what they sell. For example, all the kids' stores are on one level.

The had a Lego store!

A Lego Chinese Palace!

They still have a lot of Olympic stuff hanging around. This is the Olympic character for fire- I think?

Fabulous View

Here is the view from the apartment. Every morning down by the horse sculpture a group of mom's with their babies would gather to play!

Josh & I just horsing around!

The Beijing Zoo

OH MY! What to say about the Beijing zoo?! I had read online some negative things about the zoo... Unfortunately a lot of it is true. The facility is fine, but the conditions the animals live in are substandard. Most of them are in cells with bars & cement floors. The pandas, being the main attraction, have a great habitat though.

The bears..... oh the bears... we'll get to that.

It was feeding time for the pandas! They were chowing down on those bamboo trees!

Boyd, Jr. & Boyd, Sr.

OKAY... the BEARS.

It was UNBELIEVABLE! The signs say DO NOT FEED THE BEARS.

We got there & those people on the left were doing just that! Feeding the Bears!!!!They were dropping juice down into their mouths... then they would tell the bears to turn around by waving their hands in a circle. The bears were dancing for the food!

The bears would turn around in a circle to get more juice. CRAZY! No one from the zoo was doing anything about it either!

We couldn't believe it!

This says big cats or something like that.

Amazing rock sculpture outside of the big cat exhibit.

We were able to get amazingly close to the animals. These big guys were in really small, nasty cells. The paint was peeling and rusty. They didn't seem too happy.

This guy had a cold. He kept hacking. :-(

We got to pet the zebras. Here is Birdie petting one. They come right up to the fence. Some tourist were feeding them a little too. I love zebras. They have to be my favorite animal. I know you care. Just putting that out there.

PSA: (Public Service Announcement) : The following piece of info about China is unrelated to the zoo.

Children of potty-training age, do not wear training pants or diapers or pull ups... They wear pants with slits in all the right places- or wrong if you ask me. They simply sit down or squat down where ever they are and GO! We had the privilege of witnessing this on several occasions on our trip. So watch out for small piles on the sidewalk if you ever get to go to China. And any wet spots, might be something unexpected too!!! This little guy was on his dad's shoulders looking at the monkeys. He accidentally got in my picture. Okay, not really, but I couldn't resist. I edited out his...crack though. All I have to say ...

THIS IS ONE BRAVE DAD!