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Published: December 6th 2008
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Wow, we have had one lovely day. It has been really cold the past few days, and we awoke to glorious sunshine which we have come to realise is deceiving to the temperature. We were up early this morning as William was being picked up at normal time on his school bus to go to his school xmas concert. I knew it was cold when Ian rang me from the bus stop to tell me it was so, as he is usually telling me to stop being such a wimp with the cold, so we wrapped up warm and all went to the Hongqiao cinema where we eagerly awaited our gorgeous boy's appearance! This had been an expensive ticket price, at 120RMB per adult and 100RMB for Sophie. Plus we had to pay 100RMB for William's costume, so we had high hopes. We were not to be disappointed. As we were waiting, photos of the children were being shown on the screen, and the show then started with a video of each child sending a xmas wish. Most of the Chinese children spoke in English and most of the Western children spoke in Chinese, including William.....and they even gave us the
DVD of this in William's goodie bag to bring home, so we can bore you all with his brilliance!
Once the video was over, the children entered from the back of the cinema, carrying torches, all dressed in their costumes, it was totally amazing. Each class had a theme, the younger ones were Hawaiian themed, the older ones wore beautiful princess dresses, or tuxes for the boys...and Ladybirds class wore blue and white. Not just any old blue and white costume though...the boys had satin suits with sparkly sequins and the girls had white satin dresses with a blue sash. Needless to say they looked gorgeous. The show started with a whole school rendition of Deck the Halls. We have all been practising this with William for weeks and he was word perfect by this morning. (See previous email!) They then went on to sing 'If you're happy and you know it' in Chinese....amazing, and he still remembers every word to sing to us now!
We then sat through each class doing several performances...the younger ones were hilarious, not singing involved only dancing but so funny to see them wandering around on the stage, picking their noses, yawning,
waving at parents and totally not focused....but remember they are only 2 yrs old! William's class came on to do a song and dance called 'My Angel' in Chinese, which was amazing. His stammer has got really bad over the past few weeks and we have been worried that it is because of the pressure of this performance, but he was fabulous. We have found someone who is going into school twice per week to work with him and already, one class seems to have helped. It has to be said that you could hear him singing the loudest and his dancing was impeccable. He was focused and in time and just full of enthusiasm and excitement. It will not surprise you to hear there was a tear in our eyes full of pride. After this, they sand 'We wish you a merry xmas' with another great dance routine. This time he was partnered with Nelli (yes, a girl!) and they were brilliant, swishing around together and singing away again. After each class finished their songs, they came to the front and introduced themselves, so the nerves set in as to how he would be, but he was fine.....'I am
William, merry xmas'....wonderful. They all shouted a xmas message to the parents and did a lovely bow. Words just cannot explain our pride and pleasure.
There were a couple more classes, then the teachers duly embarrassed themselves with a few songs, and the children were returned to us. They came armed with a goodie bag with a lovely calendar in, with each child's picture on the date of their birthday, and food also. We had each been given a box of food to munch on during the show...beautiful cakes from the premier bakery Ichido once again. They were able to bring their costumes home also, and then , yes there's more.....santa turned up! He called each child onto the stage and they were each given their own personalised story book. William's was called 'William's xmas with the teddy bears' with his own photo on every page. Brothers and sisters were also given one, but not personalised, the thought was there though.
We have to say we had a throughly enjoyable morning, probably one of the best ever....and we left at about 12pm to venture onto our next xmas engagement in a very cheerful, christmassy mood.
We had
been invited to a pre-xmas party at the house of one of sophie's classmates and were duly concerned when the invite said each family was to prepare a performance, but Ms Chu had said it would be fun and we like a xmas party, so there we were! I am running out of adjectives for today, but again it was great. The house was out by Hongqiao airport and huge. We have taken some pictures, but we're not sure it will quite represent the beauty of the house. There was an open fire, a huge kitchen with lovely nibble-type food, including cheese we haven't even seen since we've been here, cold meats and more. Downstairs in the cellar, a movie theatre showed Finding Nemo, and in the garden the golden lab was enjoying the company. After a while Ian was approached by one of the co-hosts and asked to dress up as Santa. Yes, it's true, and it was hilarious. I can't tell you how much I laughed....see pics attached! Unfortunately some of the kids were feeling a bit grown up for Santa and decided to revolt, luckily for Ian! They all ventured off with several ayis and a big
sister to the Clubhouse a few minutes walk away within the compound. William stayed with the adults for a while, then decided he wanted to go too so I took him. Oh my god....the clubhouse was something else. On the second floor of this building was an indoor play area, the type we would pay £10 to visit back home. The kids eventually came back and there was more suprises when a huge sack of presents came out for all the kids....so thoughtful and lovely. We had a really lovely afternoon too, sitting by the fire, talking with a couple of parents (American and Chinese) and Ms Chu. Poor Ms Chu was great, her boyfriend was at home in their new apartment they had only moved into yesterday, and she was with her class again! We left at about 5pm, but sadly it took about 2hours to get home, what with troubles finding a taxi and saturday evening traffic. The children were shattered and have gone straight to bed and we have cracked open the vino and have jacket potatoes cooking in the oven while we wind down. All in all a fantastic way to start our xmas celebrations.
We have attached numerous pics, such a shame we couldn't get closer but we were assured the school photographer was taking loads of pics too so we hope to get some close ups.
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