SHENG DAN QAI LE

Jameson opening Incredible Hulk videos on Christmas morning

Joseph being so helpful the night we decorated our Christmas cactus.

Selah and the present she received from Sadie Edwards on christmas morning

Emma and Joseph using the gift she was so excited to give to him...his first toothbrush.

Our unforgettable Christmas cactus with very few ornaments and too much garland.....but now we know why we use trees.....OUCH!!

Sheng Dan Qai Le....or .....Merry Christmas!!

Christmas evening 6:30

As I write this our living room is full of scattered opened presents and shredded wrapping paper. Mork and Mindy (season 1) is on our tv (a gift we introduced our children to) Selah is loving her new Barbies with fun clothes and 4 of us are in our new pajamas. Emma is using her new gel pens and Jim has just popped Chinese popcorn for a snack. Joseph is taking advantage of everyone being busy and trying to eat wrapping paper and spilling Christmas candy on the floor....just a relaxing evening!!

Our morning began as Christmas mornings always have with all the kids coming into our room earlier than we would like and we read The Christmas Story by Luke and then entered into the living room where we saw that we had a visitor during the night. The kids were really excited and of course it was fun to hear their laughter at what they got. Emma's favorite gift was her Marilyn Monroe tote bag, Jameson's favorite was his MP3 player (also a camera), Selah's favorite was a stuffed pink elephand and the barbies, and Joseph loved his duck that rolls around on the floors playing very obnoxious music and then stops and lays an egg....I must admit it might be my favorite too!

My hightlight this morning was the oven Jim and the kids gave me. We've been here 2 months now without an oven. I miss making cookies, quick breads, casseroles and brownies. Jim is already requesting a pot roast with potatoes and carrots this week. The ovens here are a little smaller than toaster ovens back home. It fits on top of my small refrigerator and is too small for a 9x13 inch pan.....but I feel like I've been given a fancy appliance! This will help me feel like I'm taking care of my family the way I use too.

We joined other team members for Christmas dinner at 1:00 at the theater at the Foreign Language School. I spent several hours at another team members home (she has 2 ovens!) and helped her cook. We made apple pies, pumpkin pies, green bean casserole, brocoli and rice casserole, 2 baked chickens and a pot roast. We also made fudge and pumpkin muffins and banana bread to give as gifts. We spent days cooking and it was all very delicious. The Korean team members brought Korean dishes and the Russian team members brought food they like as well. I only ate the American food because it's so hard to make here and we rarely eat that way. It was quite a treat. We all brought a present to open. We sat in a large circle (26 of us) and drew numbers. Number one chose a present and opened it. Then number 2 could choose one to open, or steal one that was already opened. We did this until all presents were open. It was so fun and the kids had a great time. Emma walked away with gel pens and black paper, Selah got matrishka dolls and Jameson got a dorky leather hat! We had a great day!!

On the walk to the theater we stopped at few places to deliver candy canes that I received from the States. In Chinese, I was able to say that today is Christmas and that we wanted to share our candy canes. We delivered them to our bakery family, our vegetable lady and her husband and the baker with the great biscuits and the taxi driver who drove us to the theater. It was such a blessing to see the smiles! Thank you to all who sent candy canes to us....you provided smiles in China!

I must admit it was a little hard last night as I got ready for bed. It's harder than I thought to be away during the Holidays. I miss our usual Holiday routine and we miss our families back home. We enjoyed skyping Jim's family on their Christmas Eve and we will set our alarm to get up in the middle of the night to skype my family. We love being able to see and talk to our families thru the computer....technology is great!