Reunion party

My father-in-law frequently gets together with several of his high school classmates that live in the Beijing are, each fall they have a reunion in Shanghai where they went to school.  When he was meeting with them last month they sent cookies home with him for his grandsons.  

They wanted to meet the grandsons and so the boys were to stay home half a day on Saturday to meet them.  The apartment was transformed to erase all traces of kids toys and our stuff, all shoved into closets and into the boys bedroom.  They pulled out the sheets to drape over the couches like old people love to do.  And topped with  bamboo roll out mats.    They pulled out the pictures of the kids and the photo book I made for them.  

I guess she does like the quilted duvet cover I made for her, she pulled it out for this little party(and put it away directly afterwards).

They wanted the boys to call all these strangers nai nai and yeye.  And told the for several days you will be meeting your other nainai's and yeye's.  The boys started telling me we have a lot of grama and grampas.  I said no you don't and explained who their actual grandparents are and what makes them grandparents.  Being the parents to Mommy and Daddy.  

I don't agree with this and told them, they are not their nainai's and yeye's, they are yeye's friends.  This is why kids get stollen, when you keep telling them strangers and random people are their family.  (Just like most car accidents happen close to home, most kidnappings are by someone you are associated with.  There was the story on the news here about the person living in the same building and the principle of a school during school hours.  I do see why they are so strict on lock down here in the big city, especially when how many students are stollen from schools to work in factories or worse.  I'm impressed that our principle knows all the parents and grandparents associated to each of the 380 kids in the boys school and can recognize when other people are hanging around during pick-up time.)  Luckily the boys were in shy and show off mode and didn't really do any talking.  

My mother-in-law and I walk them back school at 11, in time for lunch and naps.   Then the rest of us went to lunch.  I really like the food at this restaurant, they have cheap Peking duck and  a good lamb dish with cumin.  The table was over flowing with food for us 10 adults: garlic broccoli, wilted spinach with peanuts, braised eggplant, salad,  dumplings, pork and garlic scapes, sweet and sour pork, soup, seafood dish, tofu roll-ups with pork snuff, and gelatin beef bites(I didn't try this).  

After I stuffed myself, my mother-in-law said I could leave.  I walked down to Tesco to walk around.  

I'm not opposed to calling special people grama or aunts or  uncles to your kids.  But these  are people that I, as the parent choose and are involved in my kids life.   Not a once in a lifetime meeting.   My Grama Roberts growing up, was not related, she summered up north and would tell us stories, play games and give us popsicles.  

Lone star quilt

Sugar sculpture of phoenix

Elvis never left this building