22

I am officially one year older now. On the 23rd I turned 22! We started birthday celebrations on Sunday by having birthday cake with our little piece of the ward here in Wuhan. They were all over at our apartment for church and then lunch anyway, so we decided to have birthday cake then. It was fun to be able to share my birthday with them.


On my actual birthday I had to teach classes but when I came home from classes McKay had a very sweet birthday card and my first present waiting for me next to a lit candle. He told me it was my birthday candle and had me blow it out, and that was the start of the birthday festivities. We talked to a number of our family members online through skype and with each new conversation we had he would whip out another present and have me open it over video chat so that my family and his family could share in the birthday celebration. It was kind of fun to have them a little involved, even if it was only over the internet. He ended up getting me some beautiful chinese hair pins, a beautiful pair of earrings, a fun pen that is leaving a trail of glitter behind it, and UNO!

That evening, after McKay was done teaching his classes we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. I never thought I would see the day when Pizza Hut was a high class, swanky, expensive restaurant. Well, It is. At least here in China it is. We love going to Pizza Hut because there is noting more familiar than pizza. We both thought it was kind of funny that Pizza Hut has decided that it is Christmas time. Because they don't do thanksgiving here they switched right over from Halloween to Christmas. All of the waiters and waitresses were wearing Santa hats and they had Christmas trees in the corners and Christmas music playing in the background. It was awesome, but it felt a little early for all of that. However, we would have enjoyed our ham and pinapple stuffed crust pizza just as much, with our without the Christmas decorations.

Enjoying our yummy stuffed crust pizza.

After dinner we walked around the shopping mall that the Pizza Hut is attached to and McKay took me to all the places that he found my presents. At one of the stores we found the most beautiful beaded shirts, dresses and skirts. I really wanted to get one, but for some reason I am not built like a 5 foot nothing tiny Chinese girl, so the items that could actually get on, fit horribly. One of the dresses looked like I was wearing a apron! After the shopping we stopped at one of our new favorite places, Beard Papa's. Isn't that a silly name? I think it is, especially since they sell cream puffs and eclairs. Beard Papa's is a mini cream puff bakery located underneath and escalator. What makes them so good is that unlike most of the chinese desserts, they are actually sweet, and they fill them with the cream filling right in front of you, so they are super fresh. We each got a chocolate covered cream puff for desert and thoroughly enjoyed them.

Our rather large chocolate eclairs from Beard Papa's

After that we made one last stop in the basement of the shopping center so McKay could show me a store that carried games. They store the Chinese version of lots of familiar games including Monopoly, Settlers of Cattan, Pictionary, and last but not least, BANG! We bought out their entire collection of Bang games because the basic game back home costs $15-20 and the expansion pack costs about $40. However, here in China we were able to buy the original game and the bullet expansion pack (which includes all 3 expansion packs) for the equivalent of $13. We thought that was a pretty sweet deal. We are not exactly sure who they will go to when we get home, but we couldn't resist. When we got home one of our fellow teachers Katrina came over, and we talked with her as she helped us finish off some birthday cake.

It was a good day, and I am so excited to experience my 22nd year of life!