Monday is coming to a close. Really, it’s Tuesday but I don’t really count my days by the clock, but rather by when I go to sleep and when I wake up… so despite the fact it’s almost 3 am, I am still couting it Monday…after all, it is my favorite day of the week. So what in the world am I doing up at 3? It’s the same ‘ol thing… it’s perfectly quiet.. I can think, I can make decisions, I can work without ANY distractions. How can I possibly waste this precious quiet? Sure, I will pay for it tomorrow. Right about 6am when Connor starts the little noises indicating that he is awake, and he’ll be happy to roll around and play with his blankets and toes for about 10 minutes. It’s like my 10 minute chance to wake up, and face the day. it’s at THAT time, that I curse myself for THIS time… but I do it anyway… the quiet productivity must outweigh the painful exhaustion… or else I would be asleep by now. 
Tonight, for ‘family home evening’ we joined some friends and went about 2 hours north/northwest to this certain gorge that freezes over in the winter, and they do something of an ice sculpture festival. I don’t know the name of it, but it was up on the way to the Badaling location of the great wall. It was awesome, and the kids had a blast. we left Connor and Capri with a sitter, and just took the older kids… I was too worried that it would be super cold, and it was. At the entrance there were hundreds and hundreds of red Chinese lanterns strung up… they were all lit up and they looked awesome. With the approach of Chinese New Year, lanterns similar to these are hanging everywhere. It’s very festive. This place was so decked with lights… it was quite spectacular. I couldn’t get a good photo, but they had lights that went all the way up the mountain and it looked like they had strung Christmas lights up along the Wall, and the guard towers. The mountains up there are fiercely steep… so it’s shocking to see the Wall running along the ridiculously intense contour of the land. They had dancers and singers performing up in the outside square. But the highlight was the ice city they had created. My favorite part was that they had frozen neon lights inside the ice, so everything was lit from the inside. It was so beautiful. We could totally climb on stuff- the kids were having a blast… but it was seriously slick to be climbing on the creations.—they were designed to walk through and on in some parts. When you get to the very end, you walk out of the show area, and there is this huge wall of a frozen waterfall. I couldn’t resist taking some silhouette photos. it was perfect. we had a great time!
i loved the chandelier style lights hung along the road..
Good news! We do get American Idol right along with the folks at home! American Idol is one of the few shows on TV that we see at the same season as at home.
Ok, last tidbit of the night… I have come across a really good recipie for chicken tacos and my kids loved it and it’s really easy (well, if I can cook it, it’s gotta be easy).
Saute about ½ an onion (chopped fine) in butter (1-2 Tablespoons).
Mix in taco seasoning- as recommended by the back of the package… (add the powder and water into the butter/onion)
Add 1 pound of cooked, shredded chicken and mix well
Add ½ C. sour cream
And ¼ C. cheddar cheese. Mix it all up and dish onto a tortilla
Serve on warm tortillas w/ salsa. YUM.
Try it! easy and good. (more time for scrapbooking)