The girls

Last month Alli, Cori, and Christine came to visit us in Lijiang. They were only able to stay with us for 36 hours, but it was well worth it on our end. We showed them around Old Town and took them to some of our favorite restaurants in town. The next day we hired a van and drove to Tiger Leaping Gorge, arguably the deepest gorge in the world. Though their stay was short, it was so refreshing to have friends from home enter our Chinese life. Thanks girls for coming! And this is the only picture I got of all three of them (I didn't even get a picture of all 5 of us together!). Laura and I are not great picture takers.

the Kingdom of Thailand

We just got back from 2 weeks in Thailand. We spent 5 days down in the islands, 5 days in Bangkok, and the rest of the time in Chiang Mai. We had an absolute blast. We went snorkeling down in the south, watched movies and ate tons of western food in Bangkok, and gallivanted on a motorbike in the North, showing Laura where I used to live. All-in-all it was a trip to remember. We spent lots of time with new friends, and we got to re-live some memories with old friends. Here are some pics:

Ouchie

Yesterday James took a hard fall on the basketball court. He jumped to block a shot, collided with the other player mid-air, and got knocked to the ground. Sort of. He managed to slam his head into the hoop's post, ram his back and ribs into the pole's metal base, jam his elbow against the corner, and sweep the pavement with his left hand all before landing in a heap beneath the basket.

James came back to the house looking like he'd just left the scene of a nasty car accident. After waiting a few hours, we decided that his left wrist was probably broken and made a trip to the local hospital to get it checked out. X-rays show that he has a hairline fracture between his index finger and thumb, but that his wrist is just badly sprained. James refused the hard cast, but took the "herbal aerosol spray" that the doctor prescribed.

His overall take on the accident is that "The game was so awesome! We played great. I was making nearly every shot and had this great three-pointer... And we won!"

Boys.

Ribbon Jell-O

This Christmas we got together with some of our foreign friends in town for a yummy pot-luck. We'd just received a ton of Jell-O packets in a recent care package from our wonderful Aunt Teri, so Laura decided to make Ribbon Jell-O for a dessert. Now, Ribbon Jell-O has been a long-time Thanksgiving tradition in the Chapman household and is excellent for testing how level the refrigerator is. Ours, apparently, sits pretty straight because it turned out awesome! It was a complete hit. Thanks Chapmans!


So yummy.


So striped.


Notice that James coordinated his outfit to match. And little Nate coordinated with James. Haha, so festive.

X-Mas in China