Laba Festival

Today is laba festival (8th day of the 12th month of the lunar calendar). My colleague from work brought this to my attention and gave me an education. This day in the lunar calendar is considered the coldest, which is why they eat special congee to warm the body. I think they are right, it was very cold yesterday in the teens and has been like this since my return to Beijing.

On this day it is a custom to make congee (porridge) out of 8 ingredients (there is that number 8 'ba', again) and eat with the family. The laba contains glutinous rice, red beans, millet, sorghum, peas, dried lotus seeds, and maybe some other ingredients like dried dates or nuts. Another word used for the congee is babao (eight treasures). This is a Buddhist tradition and they were serving free congee at the Yonghegong Lama Temple in Beijing.

Here is more information on the festival if interested: laba festival

New Milestone

We moved into our new office space in Beijing. We had a nice celebration to commemorate the event on December 10th.

The commute now only takes me 15 minutes in the morning instead of 35-45. Going home is another story after 5:30. Traffic can be very unpredictable in the short distance (at least 30+ minutes). I think it takes just under an hour if I were to walk home so maybe that will be one of my alternatives. There is the subway but takes a number of connections and still a bit of a walk.

Lots of Air Miles

MF left for a school program to Chile and Argentina on January 2nd. He sent an email to say Chile is beautiful and a hot 90 degrees. He will fly back to the US just before school starts.

AF flew to Scotland on Saturday the 5th. She will be getting ready for final exams. For her semester in break she will be coming to China.

TF flew back to Beijing to begin work on Monday. There is a lot to do just prior to the Chinese New Year so time will fly quickly. BF will be joining TF in Beijing after seeing EF and AF off to school. The 3 of us are trying to visit Harbin Ice Festival the third week of January and then to Viet Nam for the Chinese New Year the first week of February.

EF is getting ready for a school program during her winter break for a model UN course in Egypt and Jordan late February.

All Good Things Come to an End

It was nice being back in the fresh air and spending time with family together in the US.

BF and TF arrived in the US a little late and then the first and last bags off the belt were ours. We did not get to bed until late Friday night. We said hi to MF and EF and then in the morning we drove to pick up AF at Newark Airport as she was arriving from Scotland. We got there late due to traffic but all worked out. We then drove to NY to see my family for Christmas. We visited with friends and family, played some games, watched some movies, shared some gifts, definitely ate and drank well, and we even saw the priest who married us 26 years ago (he is retiring in January so was a nice surprise to see him at all).

We then returned back to our home in PA. It was good to have the whole family together plus our house guest family. As usual something at the house needed fixing (par for the course). We had a relaxing time and got some supplies for back to school and for China.

Home for the Holidays

BF and I are back home in the US to spend time with our kids. They are all back from university and it is so nice to be with everyone again. Absence really makes the heart grow fonder. We wish everyone a happy and safe holiday.