Shopping!!

On one of the days where we made a trip into the suburb of Beijing to doing some grocery shopping, the girls were all able to to pick out a new shirt. Although we do most all of our grocery shopping here in the village, there are some things that we just can't get here like butter, cheese , cereal (with only one choice of cereal even there--cornflakes!), mayonnaise, and peanut butter. About once a month, we make a trip in to the suburbs of Beijing to purchase these items and then store them in our freezer. The girls were delighted when there was a sale on some summer shirts and I told them to all pick out one! You see them all sporting their new shirts in the picture! No, the weather hasn't warmed up that much yet, but they are ready for warmer weather! In fact, it is quite the opposite!! We got snow again this weekend. With this past Monday, March 15th, being the day they officially cut the heat off all across China, I was concerned with it being so cold still. They have been "weaning" us for the past two weeks, cutting the heat down so we can get used to being cold when it actually goes off! There is about a month in the spring after the heat goes off and another month in the fall, November 15th, just before they turn it on that is pretty cold in the house. Sometimes it is miserable and I always dread it. We usually have to use extra electric heat during those times, but it is quite expensive to do that so we limit it. Anyway, this year the Beijing officials announced that due to the extra cold weather, they are extending our heat for a week!! Hooray! We are quite happy about that! Hopefully by this Monday though it will have warmed up more.