It's going to be a 7-Up Christmas!

 

 

 

Christmas decorations in my part of China are usually pretty . . . weak. Lopsided trees with little or no sense of decorations; few ornaments, crooked garland, etc. It doesn't bother me . . . it's a fairly new holiday to the area.

Even Christmas carols don't seem unique as "Jingle Bells" gets played all year long on the street cleaning trucks (which make me think of ice cream trucks every time!) and "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" is a somewhat popular song with completely different lyrics.

Imagine my surprise when I came upon this HUGE Christmas tree downtown. I've not seen one this big in a public arena (some hotels have large trees in their lobbies, though). As Rachel and I walked up to it, we saw that it was sponsored by 7-Up and that the entire tree was made of empty 7-Up bottles. I don't think I want to know how long it took to make this tree!

I've included some other photos of decorations in the same area to give you somewhat of an idea as to what it's like here. That gingerbread looking display is about as fancy as it gets here!

Cherub Choir

 

 

 

After a long and exhausting week, the kids and I, along with Michelle and her two daughters, performed tonight at the Graduate School Winter Program. We didn't know that the performance was today (December 12), until Monday. Then there was lots of back and forth over practices and rehearsals. The dress rehearsal was Wednesday morning at 8:00 . . . when all the kids are in school and I'm in class! Needless to say, we didn't make that one.

We were asked to be at the performance hall at 8:30 on Saturday to go over our music on stage. We were there at 8:15, but the doors weren't opened until close to 9:00. Fortunately, they let us practice first and then we got to go home.

Back at 2:00 for one more run through with all the acts and then waited for the 4:00 start time. It was so cute when the kids walked on stage as there was a collective "Awwwwwww" over how adorable they looked! Especially the littlest one!

We had to wait until the end of the show in order to take a bow with everyone. Michael couldn't (and didn't) wait that long and bolted immediately after we were done. Following the final curtain call, everyone mobbed the stage to take pictures with the cute foreign kids. Many of the other performers were my students so the paparazzi flash cubes were non-stop.

In spite of the exhaustion, it was indeed fun. Performances like this are a big deal here and our participation contributes to relationship building all around.

Cookies anyone?

 

 

 

 

I hosted a cookie party last night . . . nineteen (19) students came and we had an incredible time! None of them had ever made cookies before, so this was a complete cultural lesson for them. They loved the cutout kind of cookies. Additionally, the frosting was made using margarine and powdered sugar . . . none of them had ever seen margarine used that way! The looks on their face were priceless.

Rachel and Michael had a wonderful time as well. They mingled with the "big kids" and stuffed their faces with Christmas cookies.

I borrowed a friend's oven so that we could have two batches going at a time. As you can see, the ovens aren't very big, but they do the job!

It was an amazing evening. Next week, we're going to sing Christmas carols and possibly make stockings. It depends upon whether or not I make it out to the market that has the stockings.

I am moving into the land of "beyond exhausted."

The most wonderful man!

 

I have the most wonderful husband in the world! I've always said that he's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and it's true. This is not because he is married to me . . . in fact, I sometimes wonder why he is married to me because I don't think I'm very nice at all. Art is slow to speak, slow to anger. He looks before he leaps. He always considers the other person's thoughts and feelings. He puts other people first. He is gentle and kind. He is a truly amazing man and I'm so glad to be married to him!

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

 

It may be small and it may be narrow, but it's ours and the kids love it! They turn on the lights every day and won't turn them off until evening. They play with the nativity set (made of yarn . . . perfect for play!) every day and their conversations with Baby Jesus are just precious!

Even though China doesn't celebrate the Christmas season in the same manner as many western countries, we are able to find every Christmas decoration (with the exception of nativity sets) known to the world. After all, China is the world's factory. It's nice to keep the true meaning of Christmas alive, no matter where we are!

Cough, cough, hack, hack

 

 

 

Wintertime in my city is filled with the sound of hacking and coughing. Once the coal-generated heat comes on (usually around November 1), the air becomes thick and grey. The coal heating is a top layer of an already polluted area as we have two major petro-chemical factories in our city that belch out black stuff most of the time.

However, wintertime is the worst. Most days look like this. The city sits in a bowl with mountains on all sides, but one can seldom see them in the winter months. It's not uncommon for everyone's lungs to be affected one way or another and this year, I am no exception.

I always feel like I'm coming down with a cold. I caught pneumonia last month and recovered just fine, but still have an achy chest and a cough that just won't go away. I pulled out a humidifier today and will give it a shot at providing moisture in this incredibly dry area. No, the greyness isn't fog and humidity. We live south of the Gobi Desert and it's beyond dry here.

I hope it clears up soon . . . in more ways than one.

Leaves of Thanks

 

One of our Thanksgiving traditions is to make "Leaves of Thanks" or a Thanksgiving Tree. Since living in China, we most often do the simple leaves and tape them to our wall.

The leaves remain up until the end of the Christmas season. They remind us on a daily basis how blessed we are and how much we have to be thankful for!