4th Christmas in China

MERRY CHRISTMAS --

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

This is Gloria, one of Dana's students and she just loves Santa Claus.

These are my crazy English classs students. I think I was tired at this point. What do you think?

Cookie Making in our apartment...for the Christmas Party later.

You can see that we have had a fun time at the Christmas Party which we threw for our

English students here in Wuxi, China. They helped Dana make 850 cookies and place them in little gift bags for the student who came. Also, they brought small gifts to exchange and they did that too. The photos with Santa were very popular as you can imagine where this is the first time most all of them have ever seen Santa Claus in person. Now they all believe in Santa and he is not just on TV or in the movies they see...

This was yesterdays tour in Wuxi of a place called Turtle Head Park. It was a fun time for Dana and I as we took a ferry to the island and saw many buddas and budda things and enjoyed the day as you can see from our photos, even though it was cold. This one looks a little upset with us taking his photo.

Sleeping Budda. Colorful female one, and big too.

They are everwhere.

A Ferry boat.

This is the LDS church meeting house in Suzhou, and where we travel to each Sunday for one hour by taxi. Last Sunday about half were gone for the holidays. We fly out on January 4th for almost three weeks winter, (Spring Festival) vacation in Southern China in a city called: Kunming. We hope it is warmer there.

The Branch Christmas breakfast was so fun and we helped flip the pancakes etc...and we ate a lot too. Our branch is so talented when it come to food makin...

FLIPPIN PANCAKES...

We went shopping for pearls and also found this stone necklace quite cheap. It cost about $10.00. When I asked what the stones were because they were really pretty, she looked in her ielectronic nterpreter -- Turquoise. I bought two necklaces with stirling silver, magnetic clasps. She is double tying all of the stones on four strands of cord. Below...

Brother Doug McGregor, is also living off and on in Wuxi. He is in our branch and we went shopping with him for pearls and gifts. He has a driver who drives him wherever he wants to go. b. This woman here, he met on the plane over, who was from Suzhou, and she offered to help him go shopping and she was very helpful that day. The man is the just a parking attendant.

We bought these pearls and have an order for more... They are beautiful. They cost about $35 - 40. american dollars for each set. They are cultured, real pearls and are here in abundance.

My birthday party in my English Class on Dec 15th was a bash and the cake was delicious, and everyone got a piece.

Kirk and Midge Evans visited us from BYU China Teachers program and took us out to dinner at TFI Fridays...in Suzhou. We wish we had one of these in Wuxi. Maybe some day.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Thelin Family Reunion in Portland, July 4th.

THELINS UNITE.  We all came together at a local church park/pavilion and had a wonderful reunion.   There was a program, games for the kids, a wonderful barbeque and pot luck.  It was nice to talk with our family.  We had a good attendance in that Julie, Ron, Dennis and Jay were in attendance.  Beverly was traveling to Canada and so we were able to meet with her later in the summer.

USA -- A Visit with Emma, Tammy's Daughter.

This is one of the glass pendants my Dad, Conan, made.  

 

My mom, Vanessa, braided the hemp necklace part.  It is really nice and is one of many they have made for sale.

Peace Out!  Below is my Grandma Darling and Pop Pop who came to see me for a few days in June in Eugene, Oregon.

"Come on in, the water's fine!"  Emma Phillips

 The beach in Florence, Oregon

 Emma:  9 years old.

 Emma's cousins:  Jacqueline and Jerika.

 This is where my Dad blows glass and makes his beads, pendants and beautiful jewelry.

 LISTEN --  and you can hear the ocean......

Yah, I hear it!  Emma is 9 years old now.  She was born on May 4th, so she will be 10  in May.

Summer in USA--Visit Tiffany's Family, Portland, Oregon.

CHINA: END OF 3RD YEAR.

Finishing up the school year.

Here Dana is in her English class and teaching her students to "SPEAK ENGLISH!" She is an excellent teacher and her students love her.

Jay's classes did drama (skits) this week using the items he provided to the class. They had a ball and really enjoyed the change from their previous, tedious and tiring engineering classes.

This past week, we had three more Christian students from Ghana come to church in our apartment. We had a nice lunch afterward. They are cool.

This was taken on Chinese outfit day at church. This is kind of a Jinan twig "once-a-year" tradition. The twig group photo is priceless however...

Judges at the speech and debate contest---in English.

We entertained a little too.

We took our classes bowling at the big Sofital Hotel bowling alley here in Jinan. It is the only one we have found. We got a great discount rate and most of our student were able to learn about bowling, play two games and have a group photo taken there. The cost was: 8.5 yuan per game with free shoes, or about $1.20 american. They each paid for their experience. They loved it and learned how to bowl. Almost all, about 99%, had never bowled before, or even seen a bowling alley. However, one of the male students bowled a 161 and took the prize -- five more free game coupons.

We went shopping in Qingdao on our vacation there last week with 9 other english teachers. This was a glass shop with giant glass diamonds for sale... I bought a few.

Dana and the others shopped for pearls. They found a lot of them and bought a lot too.

In Qingdao, at the quad in front of the Catholic church, there were about a dozen brides and grooms doing wedding photographs... This couple was willing to pose for us. They all had the same color and fashion design from a rental shop.

We travelled by fast train. In Qingdao, we all stayed in an Elder Hostel there. They are quite inexpensive and quaint. This one is in an old observatory. They served us breakfast up in the top. They had a pet dog. He was the center of attention and even demanded service from the front desk...

On our tour of the Qingdao bay, Dana helped a newlywed couple take their cruise photos...

Back in Jinan, the huge, new shopping mall across the road from Quan Chung, town square is beginning to look like "Noah's Ark"...don't you think?