Dumplings

This post is out of order, but some days just get away from me.
On December 31, Kristen's class at school had a holiday party. It was so fun. The children did a program for the parents...songs and recitations and then some demonstrations of their math and reading skills. (Just had a couple hour detour cleaning up some toys, doing hairdos for three girls not named Marissa, Lindsay or Kristen, making sure the boys had socks on before going out to play in 35 degree weather, and playing with two or three babies.)

One game had the teacher asking random (?) students to read from flashcards. Of course the words are in Chinese characters. After a few of these, a couple of moms got the chance to play the game by choosing children to read the cards. One of the moms chose Kristen, and the teacher had to hurriedly redirect her. Of course, just my presence in the classroom caused lots of questioning looks and more than a few stares. On all my trips to China I have found few people are aware of foreigners adopting Chinese children. Those that are tend to be very positive. Here in Jiaozuo there are very few westerners, in fact I can't recall seeing any other than people that I know. So everyone is very curious and even more so when they realize that the girls are mine.

Anyway, I digress from the dumpling story. After the little demonstrations, we all went into an adjoining classroom to make dumplings. Of course, I had never done this, but our friend, Lou Huan, brought a cutting board, rolling pin and knife, as instructed, and she showed us how. It was SO fun! And really quite easy. Of course the dough and filling were already prepared, so all we had to do was cut and roll and fill and pinch. Kristen and William, one of the little boys in our house who is in the same class, caught on quickly and had a great time. The best part was that the teacher cooked the dumplings right in the classroom, and the children got to eat them. Kristen polished hers off in no time...she is not a big fan of Chinese food but she is a big fan of dumplings, especially ones she made herself.