Christmas this year was a little different for us. It seems that most expats in Shanghai decided to take an extended vacation and travel to various locations around the world. But since we had done that fairly recently (see the Japan and Taiwan 2014 series), and since I actually don't get much time off for the winter holidays on my assignment, we decided to stay in town and take several mini trips as the work got a little lighter compared to typical operations.
Although China is officially atheist, the city of Shanghai provides no shortage of Christmas spirit. For starters, our apartment complex kicked off a nice Christmas party a few weekends back:
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| A big buffet with all the meat groups! (Turkey, Beef, Pork, Chicken, Lamb, etc.!) |
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| Balloons for the kiddos |
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| Traditional shadow puppets! |
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| Cotton Candy |
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| And last but not least, Majik! |
After the Christmas party, we thought it would be nice to do a little decorating in our own apartment, even if we weren't going to go with a full size, real tree (apparently, those trees are imported all the way from the West and are quite expensive. Plus, it would have been a huge pain to get the tree into the actual highrise...). So, we headed to the Yuyuan Bazaar to try our luck:
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| Candied fruit |
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| One of the shops selling Christmas decor |
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| Lively as usual |
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| 360 Panorama of the inside of the Yuyuan Bazaar |
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| Tiny Planet-ized |
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| Awesome Japanese toys at a nearby toy store |
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| Famous (but not really that good) Nanxiang Xiaolongbao |
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| Decorations up! |
Fifi's school also had a little party of their own:
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| Baby Lukas got in on some of the fun too! |
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| Foood... |
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| This photo got a bunch of comments on the interwebz... |
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| Two Elsas |
We even attended a wedding - my colleague Jim timed it just right - a few days before Christmas - and decided to take the rest of the year off...
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| It was a good opportunity to meet up wit some old friends |
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| Congratulating the groom |
The next day, we visited the annual German Christmas Market, an overpriced event featuring German cuisine such as sausages and mulled beer. But it did have an awesome obstacle course for the kids!
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| This would probably look pretty cool at night |
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| This is a lot harder than it looks... |
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| ...And this is WAY harder than it looks! |
A few days later, we took a little mini trip to a very unusual destination in Shanghai - the Power Station of Art:
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| I wonder how much the artist made on this piece... |
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| These marionettes were really creepy |
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| The art was a little too "high" for me to interpret, but the panoramic view of the river was quite impressive! |
We also participated in the last Open Class of the semester at Fifi's Little Star Academy:
Finally, on Christmas Day, we visited the Shanghai Wild Animal Park once again! It was a little bit of Deja Vu since we spent last Christmas at a similar park -
Florida's Lion Country Safari, albeit with more family! This time around, we missed going with the family, though we did do a Video Hangout with them earlier in the morning. But it was still a fun day!
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| It was a perfect day to spend at the zoo! |
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| High Flying Monkey |
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| We won a prize this time! |
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| We've finally seen all the shows at the Shanghai Wild Animal Park, including the Sea Lion show! |
When we got back, we had a quiet little dinner and let the kids open their presents - nice, but it's definitely more fun spending Christmas with more family, a real tree, and more presents!
This might well be the last post of 2014 - if so, see you next year!
