Thanksgiving '09

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a fun Thanksgiving celebration in the Huffman home. For the past couple weeks, we've been decorating our Thanksgiving tree.
Each day at dinner we read a portion of scripture and prayed in response-over crying kids, while cutting up bananas, to try and stop the crying-that went well. HeHe.Then we each wrote reasons we are thankful on our leaves, shared them and hung them on our tree. Our hope was that the week leading up to Thanksgiving would prepare our hearts to give thanks, to remind us of all God has done for us and to look forward to what he promises for our future. Here are the things that we wrote this year:

EA is thankful for:

God is faithful. he never gives up on me. He continues to grow me.

Jesus

God created each person in our family-each person is so unique.

A nice warm house

We have enough money to buy the things we need.

My husband who constantly challenges me in my view of God, encourages, serves and loves me unconditionally

Family who love us unconditionally and support us. Thankful that our kiddos have such loving grandparents.

For great, deep, fun friendships here in China.

God's grace is enough to cover all my sins. He loves me and wants the best for me.

Thankful that our kids are healthy.

Andy said:

I'm thankful that God has made each of us to be unique and special. I'm also thankful to eat lots of turkey this week.

I'm thankful that God has given me a precious little girl named Emma Grace!

I'm thankful that Jackie is a part of our family now

I'm thankful for my sweet wife and for how she always takes such good care of EG, Jack and me.

EG said:

I'm thankful that the kids are not sick. She said this EVERY time we asked her what she was thankful for. If you call our house right now and ask her, I guarantee this is what she will say. For some reason, she got that stuck in her head and she's very thankful the kids are not sick. Who's kids? I'm not sure. My kids i.e. she and Jack ? Her kids? Not sure. After some prompting for us, she also came up with some other things she is thankful for:

Mamma Nette

Papa Dan

Poopy (Poo Paw, aka Tim)

Kacki

Daddy

Xiao Li A Yi

Jackie

Mommy

Elephants

Oranges

Apples

Bananas

Milk

spoon (Can you tell she was just looking around the table and naming things?)

Lydia

Julianna

Mr. Matt

Mrs. Laura

Isaac

My cup

Zhang Nai Nai (Xiao Li's mom)

The corn

Mary's coin in heaven (What? I have no idea)

As you can see, we have LOTS to be thankful for! In order to celebrate, we invited some local friends over to share a traditional American Thanksgiving meal. (Minus the sweet potato casserole and the mac n' cheese-we thought they might not like those-too sweet and too much dairy)

I made these really fun name cards for the feast!

On Thursday, we started the day with pumpkin lattes. As you can tell from the name card photo and this photo, Andy is really into our new camera. I'm so glad. I am terrible at taking pictures so I'm thankful our new gadget has Andy interested in taking photos again!

For lunch, we added the mac n' cheese and the sweet potato casserole back onto the menu and had our second Thanksgiving meal with Xiao Li and Matt and Laura and gang!
We celebrated who God is and all that he does for us with a giant feast. On the menu:

Turkey

Stuffing

Gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Sweet Potato casserole

Corn pudding

Deviled Eggs

Mac n Cheese

Green Bean Bundles

Rolls

Cranberry Sauce

Broccoli Salad

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Pecan Pie

We actually bought the Turkey already cooked from a western restaurant in town. We made the sides ourselves. I don't want even want to think about how many sticks of butter I used. Xiao Li chipped in and made a perfect apple pie. Perfect.
She also made the crust for my pumpkin pecan pie. It turned out great.

After lunch, we napped, played outside, had leftovers, and an all adult game of settlers and another round of pumpkin lattes! So fun. A great day! Thank You God-you bless us so abundantly. Your most wonderful gift is your Son. We give you thanks.

COOOOLD

We live in a mild weather city, for the most part. We don't have extreme weather, for the most part. So there isn't really a need for heat or AC, for the most part. Except...when we do have extreme weather...like this past week. It got down to 0 degrees. That's Celsius. For all you Fahrenheit junkies, that means COLD COLD COLD, freezing actually! It snowed on Saturday which is pretty rare for our city.

Like I said, there isn't really a need for heat for the most part. But when it's needed, it's painfully absent! So, we pulled out the space heaters. They helped a little in warming our concrete apartment. But we aren't allotted a ton a power, so three space heaters is the max we can run at one time. I skipped my Thursday laundry day-I'd rather have some heat than clean clothes. I am pretty sure it was in the 40's at some points in our home!! So we decided we should study the local way of handling the cold and apply their techniques. You really need to regulate your core body temperature and since you can't do so by sitting in a toasty apartment, you have to employ other methods. First off, there is Chinese torture quilt for sleeping. (I bought my parents this really great quilt a few years ago-they loved it...until they used it. It was so heavy that it didn't breathe and caused them to sweat profusely and feel like they were in a sauna. Danny started calling it the Chinese torture quilt.) Maybe not so great for sleeping in your warm 70 degree bedroom, but perfect for sleeping in my 40 degree one. Andy and I have a torture quilt ourselves and there is NO NEED for a space heater in our room when we use that thing. It works remarkably well. You won't find these in America, but if you ever need one, most stores here carry them! Along the same lines as the torture quilt, you need to find ways to prevent your body heat from escaping. You could possibly take the quilt with you wherever you go, but it's really too heavy for that. So, you dress in layers. Lots of layers. I had 3 to 4 layers on myself and the kids while playing in our home. Even Jack had on tights under his clothes! He looked like a marshmallow man with all his poofy layers. And finally, HOT WATER. It does wonders. You can put it in a water bag (like old people use for aches and pains) and carry it with you wherever you go. Or you can drink it! This is what we like to do. It's great for raising the core body temperature. We have a water dispenser that puts out really hot water for drinking and it's wonderful. We sip on hot water throughout the day and it really helps to stay warm. Even EG enjoys hot water!

Thankfully it's warmed up quite a bit! Today I think we were up in the 50's! These pictures were taken on the first toboggan wearing day of the season (not on the super cold days) But I thought you might enjoy the toboggan pics!

Well, it's getting chilly in our apartment so I'm off to get a glass of hot water!

She's Silly!

Andy told me I should write down some of the funny things EG's been saying lately. For the sake of our blog book and for interested family, here goes:

"Jack is destroying it!" (talking about Jack shoveling food into his mouth. Guess she heard that from Andy?)

EG: What are those cars doing?
Me: Well, they are driving on the road.
EG: That's ridiculous!

While riding in the car and saying silly things to make me laugh
Andy: What are you doing back there?
EG: I'm cracking mommy up back here

EG: Jesus is going to come back and take me to heaven to see the disciples!
Me: Well, which one do you want to see?
EG: Peter!

Currently I can hear her telling our helper, (in Chinese) "I don't want cabbage" (we're not eating right now) ...I have no idea what she is talking about. Silliness.

Little Helper

Emma Grace loves helping me in the kitchen! She's actually becoming quite a big help! Her favorite tasks include washing dishes, clearing the table and snapping green beans!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!

This picture was taken almost exactly one year ago today!

Happy Birthday Katie! We miss you and we're praying you have a fun day! We love that you love good Mac and Cheese, Asia and Hello Kitty. EG wears her Hello Kitty socks often. You are dear to us and we miss you so much. God has given you a tender heart to the needs of others, a tenacious, hard working spirit, and you love our kids so much. Don't tell your mom, but Asia's door is ALWAYS open for you to move back over! We love you! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY from the Huffmans in Asia!

Tender Warrior

Jack is 11 months old! This is the best picture we could get of him. He's on the go all the time so getting him to sit still and smile is almost impossible! Last month was a big month for our little man. While trying to take some video of his newest accomplishment-standing- he also decided to just go ahead and take 2 steps! (so we got his first steps on video along with his nose dive into the carpet-but I need to edit it before putting it on the blog) That's just the way it is with him-he learns new skills in no time! Within a week he was zooming all over the house. He loves walking! He still has little interest in talking- though that's not stopping him from making his presence known. This guy is L O U D!

One of the best things about this past month has been Jack's new love for snuggling. He is just precious and Andy and I argue over who gets to put him down for the night. He loves to lay his head on our shoulder and snuggle. He leans in for kisses and will even walk across the room and lay his head down on my lap for some snuggling-then he's off to conquer again. I'm praying this little guy will be a Tender Warrior, like Jesus. Jack we love you!

My Grandma's Feet

"Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day...For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling." 2 Corinthians 4:16, 5:1-2

This has been my mantra for the last few months. Over the last few years, something has started to happen to my body. Ive intellectually assented to the fact that I would get old but as it's started to happen, it's been quite unsettling. I am built just like my mom, who is built just like my grandma. My hands now look just like my mom's hands did when I was a little girl. Sometimes when I look at my feet from the side, I almost think I am looking at my grandma's feet. Though hers look older and more wrinkly than mine, we have the same exact foot structure, we both have lost a few toenails, and I know my feet will look just like hers one day, Lord willing.

Carrying, birthing, nursing, and caring for two children is the primary force that's gotten this aging thing rolling full speed. But even if I hadn't done all that, I know my body would be slowly wasting away. To be honest, this has been a real struggle for me. I never realized how much I cared about my outward appearance until it started to deteriorate. Over the last few years God has been revealing this idol to me and is slowly setting me free. Andy and I have talked about this quite often as I have struggled with this. He has helped me to see that wanting a body that won't fall apart is good-that death, and sickness and decay are part of the fallen world we live in-a world that Jesus died to redeem. He reminds me that I will be given a new body upon his return, and that now I can joyfully pour out my time and energy, my body, in service to the Lord. It's OK if I am falling apart, outwardly wasting away. I have an eternal body that will be given to me and therefore I can "spend" this body on things that really matter.

And God is at work renewing me inwardly. I am more alive to the things of eternity than ever before. I am more filled with the knowledge of my heavenly Father than I was as a teenager. I am more aware of my sin and the awesomeness of my Savior than I was 10 years ago. And by his grace, I am more like him. And one day, the sickness in my heart and the sickness in my body will be no more. I will be healed. Whole. Perfect.

I'm not free from the idolatry of outward appearance yet. God is working on me. I love my Mom's hands-every hard working fiber of them. How many hours have those hands toiled for me and my siblings? I love my grandma's feet-every missing toenail and all the other cute painted ones. How many miles of life have those feet walked? How much wisdom and love is stored in the soul of the one to whom those feet belong? These women are precious to me, and not because of what they look like on the outside. I want my toenails to fall off, if it means I'm being spent for the things that really matter in this life. Eternal things. Lord, help me to live with my heavenly dwelling in sight.