The Holidays!!: Dance Tournament Edition

We started the holiday with a quick hop over to Biloxi to visit my grandparents ! They're adorable.  Feel free to "oooh" and "aaah" at will.  We hung out at their house during the day: gumbo, birthday cake and of course B&E's wedding video. CHECK! 

Then we dined at the Beau Rivage... twas beautiful!

Then all of a sudden we were back at the lake.   We spent the next few days getting ready for Christmas... meaning B&E did a lot of cooking while I made sure there was plenty of lounging happening.

The 23rd was Dad's real birthday (we threw him a big surprise party on the 18th) so we resurrected what was left of his cake and did it again!

Our makeshift 6 since the first was devoured!

 Then all of a sudden it was Christmas eve...




And the stockings were hung on the antlers
with care...

My gift tower from B&E!

Bennett rocking some chinese slippers!

Dad SHOCKED at the cutting board he picked out for himself!

 
 Then I made these...

 

With this...

Then the family started arriving for the festivities of Christmas day!  I made Grand Bet a cape... because she's our family super hero.  It was a hit ! I was so pumped. She wore it all day, and is obligated to wear it every time she comes out to the lake house.

She was very hesitant to open ...

but she got there!!

SUPER GRAND BET!!!

Then it was time for the first ever family dance tournament on the Kinect complete with a bracket.  Let's just say this was definitely a highlight of the day...   it was open to all ages....and all ages participated.  We started out of battle mode for the first two rounds.  The final round was regular dance mode to a song of your chooosing...

My victory bracket :o)

And to all... a GOOD NIGHT !

China Travels: Blonde Royalty Edition

So the train began to take us away.  There we sat on the two top bunks with slightly stained sheets...chugging towards Hangzhou. The train ride was about 4 hours and pretty uneventful for the most part, except for the angry train man who came into our room and kept speaking to me in Chinese, even when I cleary did not know what he was saying.  THANK GOODNESS the man in the bunk below Bettie was able to attempt to say some form of "passport" and use his fingers to draw one in the air so I knew that the angry yelling man wanted to see our passports.  I thought he was going to hurt us.

oh and here's the sweet bathroom on the train...

 

delightful. 

so then our train arrived in Hangzhou.  We got off and were greeted by THOUSANDS of people walking every direction, it kind of look like the Aggie Band on thanksgiving day... if they hadn't practiced....ever.  We were meeting a guy who Bettie had never met before so we didn't know what he looked like.  I just began praying to St. Anthony that we would find Chinny Chin Chen and be safe.  Within a few seconds, we did! St. Anthony with the win.

We hopped in his car and were off.  It was night time and the city was BEAUTIFUL. It was clean and modern.  It was the first city that resembled anything that I associated with "city." It made sense to me, unlike everywhere else in china.

At this point Bettie and I hadn't eaten in about 14 hours and were STARVING. Enter KFC.  Fried chicken has never tasted so good! mmm...

then Chinny Chin Chen took us to our hotel.  It was called "Lotus Glade" and its kind of in the middle of the woods.  Its on the park grounds of Westlake which is a GIANT, beautiful park in the middle of the city.  SO there were no signs on the road of where it was, the driver just kind of had to know.  So we pulled up and wheeled our bag across the sidewalks through the forest.  The hotel was made of 13 individual bungalow rooms.  Also no one spoke english. Like none.

We went to bed that night and the next morning I was on my own to walk around for a few hours while Bettie went to a meeting.  May the pictures tell the story...

SCHOOL CHILDREN!! everytime i walked by they would speak to me in english!

ah, welcome to Legends of the Hidden Temple: China

Our hotel in the woods!!

a restaurant right by our hotel in the park.  it was a really old brewery!

So I had the whole day alone.  Walking around Hangzhou was so beautiful and relaxing.  Its also a tourist city for the Chinese so there were tourists EVERYWHERE!! And they aren't so shy about hiding the fact that they're taking pictures of the blonde chick walking around.  I would stare at them while they took my picture... or took a VIDEO and they would just keep on clicking and filming. Ha ha.... so the closest I'll ever get to feeling like royalty is being a blond girl, alone, in China. 

Lost in Translation :