It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Although the week leading up to Christmas was kind of a bummer (death disease), the actual Christmas weekend was really fun and memorable.  These are all of the pictures from our Christmas celebration here in China.  Enjoy!

THE SEASON OF GIVING

Apparently, I temporarily lost my mind and decided it would be a great idea to bake sugar cookies for my students.  This would be something I would usually do as a teacher in the states where I have 30 or so students.  I have over 500 students here!!!!  Yes, I'm crazy and yes I did bake 500 sugar cookies for my students even with the death disease.  

Some of the sugar cookies.  (This picture was taken prior to said death disease)

SKIP THROUGH THE NEXT 5 DAYS 

(No pictures available due to the death disease)

**I promise it's the last time I'll mention it.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

On Thursday night, Les and I were feeling better so we invited all the girls to come over and make gingerbread houses!  (Thanks mom for sending me the kit)  It was so fun to listen to Christmas music, drink hot chocolate, and make cute gingerbread houses!

The kit with hot chocolate and candy cane hershey kisses!

My Gingerbread Outhouse

 (We all decided that my house looked like an outhouse, so I affectionately named it the W.C.)

Some got messier than others

Dawn with her gingerbread house

Chelsie with her peppermint house

Erin's church

Lesley's house

Our Gingerbread Village

CHINESE CHRISTMAS CARDS

Dawn, our best Chinese friend, is amazing!  I know I have said this before, but we really wouldn't survive without her.  She stayed after making gingerbread houses to help us write Christmas cards in Chinese.  We baked cookies to deliver to people in our lives here in China that mean so much to us, even if they don't know it and wanted to give them a Christmas card that they could read.  Two of them are our regular street vendors, jaozi (dumplings) lady and sweet potato man.  We also brought them to our guards at the school, who are so sweet and our always looking out for us.  Lastly, to our hip hop teacher whose class we take twice a week and love!  All of them were so surprised and appreciative of the cookies and card, especially since it was written in Chinese!

Dawn writing the Christmas cards in Chinese!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve started out very different than all my other ones, including some last minute shopping, checking the school for our missing packages from home, a trip to the grocery store, KFC for lunch, hip hop class, and finishing up our desserts for dinner that night.  Christmas Eve night we headed over to the Randall's home, where we celebrated with a delicious dinner and a service to remember the true meaning of this holiday.  We also had some special guests, University students from the U.S., here for their month off of school who joined in on the festivities.

The desserts we made for the night

Our feast

Dawn at the dessert table with the panda cake she made

The Randall's Christmas tree

Chelsie lead us in Christmas carols!

Just us girls

After dinner, the seven of us from the Zhong team headed over to Paul and Erin's to have a Christmas slumber party, so we could all wake up on Christmas morning together, exchange gifts, and eat breakfast!  

Paul and Erin's apartment was truly a winter wonderland!

Erin's very Chinese pjs!

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Erin and I were so excited about Christmas morning!  I never get a good night's sleep on Christmas Eve, I guess it is just the anticipation of it all.  I woke up early and thought I was the only one awake, but then I saw that Erin and Paul were up as well, so we played a board game on Paul's ipad while we anxiously waited for the others to get up!  Once everyone was up, we drank some much needed coffee and began to open presents! We did Secret Santa, so we were all excited to see who had who!

Aaron, Les, and Chelsie excited to open gifts, while Kevin is still bundled up on the couch.

Les about to open her present!

Aaron was Les's secret santa and gave her a heater!  Awesome gift since we are always cold in our apartment.

Erin had Aaron and she gave him a very nice journal.

High School Musical 1, 2, and 3 

Lesley was Kevin's santa!

Erin got an adorable hat and sweater from Chelsea.

My turn!  I must say I was very spoiled!  Paul is an amazing gift giver and got me so many fun things.  These are leggings that are very popular here in China.  I have already worn them and they are so cute and incredibly warm because they are fur lined!

I also got gloves and a scarf, hair bows, and purple and gold yarn (Erin is going to teach me how to knit)!

Paul=best Secret Santa ever!!!!  Thanks P!

Kevin had Paul and got him a lamp.

I had Chelsie!!!!  She loves owls, so I found a very Chinese scarf that had owls on it and was fur lined!  Also, some finger less mittens and matching earrings.

Erin is an amazing girl!  She knitted all of us stockings, so we would each have one for Christmas.  Both her and Paul even stuffed our stockings for Christmas morning.  They are such a sweet and giving couple.

Kevin and Aaron with their stockings.

Paul and Erin with their stockings.  She didn't have enough time to knit ones for her and Paul, so they had these instead.

I love these girls!

Thanks for making this unusual Christmas so memorable!  Y'all are the best!

Breakfast time!

We had blueberry muffins, hash browns, eggs, fruit, toast, and yogurt!

CHRISTMAS NIGHT

After breakfast, we hung out for awhile and then headed our own separate ways to Skype with our families.  Later that night Dawn came over so we could give her a Christmas gift!

She is traveling for the next 2 months, so we got her a panda eye mask for all of the train rides.

We then had dinner together.  Yes, our Christmas dinner was baked eggplant and Chinese noodles made by Dawn.  Oh Christmas in China!

Roomies!

Dawn and Les by our Christmas tree.

Last picture from Christmas!

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Usually, I am very positive and uplifting on this blog...today there may be some not so great parts to this post as well.  (Just an FYI!)


Let me set the scene for you:


It's a week before Christmas,  we are at fellowship having a time of community, wo r ship, and pryer then my dear roommate starts feeling ill.  She decides to head home after fellowship, instead of eating lunch with the team. After I grab a quick lunch with everyone, I head home to check on her and she looks awful (no offense Les)!!!  This is the beginning of what will now be referred to as the "death disease".  After a rough evening, we assume she has gotten food poison and will hopefully be better in the morning.  Boy were we wrong!


Monday morning rolls around, I'm feeling a little off, but no big deal.  We head to school to help some students and then it hits me..."Oh no!  I've caught the death disease too!!!!".  Yes, folks you heard me correctly the entire week before Christmas Lesley and I were sick with the worst stomach virus I have ever had!  Unfortunately, all of the fun activities and plans we had for the week of Christmas were ruined and instead we spent most of our time either teaching or in our beds watching Christmas movies trying to stay in the spirit of it all.


I wish I could say the bad news ends there, but it doesn't.  All week we were waiting on packages from home.  Both of our moms sent them with more than two weeks to spare (which is usually how long it takes a package to get here).  We got nothing.  We checked with the post office, who claims they dropped the packages off around Wednesday of last week at our school.  Our school has never seen the packages. Blah!!!!  It was just kind of disheartening because there were so many fun things they sent us to make it feel more like the holidays. The main disappointment was there were gifts for some of my team members and our waibans.  We still have hope that we will get them some time this week and there was just some mix up.


All of this to say the last few weeks have been rough with the kitchen fiasco (check my last post), death disease, no packages, and nothing going as planned for Christmas.  I know, I know, I live in China things never go as planned!  As much as I know this to be true, sometimes you just hope that things will work out the way you want them to.  Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.


Okay enough negativity, just needed to get it out of my system!


My main pryer for Christmas was that I would be feeling better and it was answered!  That was probably the best gift I could have received.  I was able to eat a real meal for the first time on Christmas Eve night!  What a bl e ss ing to be able to enjoy the wonderful food prepared by my family here in China.  I even got to try some of the desserts, which were amazing!


The week did consist of many positives and fun times, including making gingerbread houses, delivering gifts, a Christmas lunch with our principals, baking, Christmas Eve dinner and service, and slumber party/Christmas morning at the Korsons!  Homesickness definitely set in when I skyped with my family their Christmas morning and later Christmas night.  I expected though, so I gave myself some grace and shed a few tears.


This week has truly humbled me and made me realize how Christmas isn't just about one day, but can be an attitude of thankfulness, gratefulness, generosity, etc. that is extended throughout the whole year if we allow it be.  It's not about the gifts that are in my missing package, but about the one and only GIFT that really matters.  Did my ideal Christmas occur? No, it didn't, but such is life (especially in China).  I am counting my ble ss ings and trying to be thankful for everything else that has occurred while being here.


Next up...Pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!  


I'll leave you with a little tease...

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM CHINA!

(matching shirts provided by Lesley's mom)

Randomness

I haven't updated in awhile, so I decided to do a picture blog of randomness over the past few weeks.  

THANKSGIVING LESSON

For Thanksgiving, I told my students the story of the first Thanksgiving, explained about holiday traditions in America,  and then we made turkey hands!  Each of my students got a piece of red, yellow, or orange paper and had to write four things they were thankful for.  Holidays are one of the best ways I get to share and explain to my students about my faith, so it was wonderful to show them my turkey hand and share with them what I was thankful for in my life.  

Three of the boys from one of my classes.  As you can see, one was a little picture shy! haha

Two of my sweet students from Grade 2.  Since they are older, I made them write full sentences about what they were thankful for. They did a great job!

UNIVERSITY FRIENDS

Our school hosts student teachers every year, so we had a great time getting to know three of the student teachers who we shared an office with.  It is crazy to think I was in the same position as they are a year ago!  Oh how time flies!  These girls were so sweet and we had lunch with them during their last week of teaching.  They had such a heart for their students and were very sad to leave our school!  

Doree, Fredia, Lesley, me, and Carrie

KEV'S BDAY

Another team member had a birthday!  Kevin's bday was at the end of November, so we celebrated with a sushi dinner (delicious!) and dessert at the boy's apartment including brownies, chocolate covered strawberries, and a Chinese birthday cake. 

Kev's present from all of us was the original TRON dvd set!

Chelsie, Aaron, Kev, and Dawn

Paul, Erin, me, and Les

Kev blowing out his candles! 

KITCHEN FIASCO

So every Thursday and Saturday, Les and I go to a hip hop class at our gym.  Honestly, it is a highlight of our week.  So about two weeks ago, we were headed back home from hip hop in fantastic moods until we walked into our apartment and we heard water dripping.  Our kitchen was flooded and water was cascading down the sides of our kitchen walls onto the floor!  Oh China!  We called our waiban, Diana, and she came over and thought it was from the apartment upstairs.  She had a chat with our neighbors, but it wasn't them.  Come to find out a pipe had burst in our ceiling and it had to be replaced.  This was a very long process!!!!!!!  We were without a kitchen for two weeks.  As horrid as it sounds, and believe me it wasn't paradise, it is one of those things that can't be controlled and just have to step back and realize how many other areas of our lives we have been blessed in.  Our apartment might not be the greatest, but it could always be worse!  I'm just happy I have heat in my room because you know this Southern girl can't deal with the cold weather.

The workers had to tear down our ceiling to fix the pipe.

Ceiling on the floor that is covered in an inch of water.

Another view of our flooded kitchen.

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE

Lesley and I decorated our tree this past week.  It is very small, but at least we have one!  It really hasn't hit us that it is Christmas yet.  We have been so busy with school events and the kitchen disaster that we haven't had time to think about it.  Luckily, our apartment is now decorated a little and it's beginning to feel more like that time of year.

Les posing with the tree!

The finished tree and of course our LSU tree!  We had to improvise with our tree skirt, which is a shower curtain! haha It works though.

CHRISTMAS CAROLING

This past Saturday, we invited our students to come caroling with us.  Students from my school came, as well as students from No. 3 High School where Paul and Erin teach.  All of our students thought it was a performance and were confused when we wanted them to sing with us.  It was wonderful seeing all of their smiling faces and how happy they were just to hang out with us outside of school.  We sang four songs and then just hung out with our students. Two of my students brought me Christmas presents, which was so sweet!  I really do love my students.  They are awesome!

Students trying to sing the Christmas songs.  We printed out lyrics for the songs so they could try to sing.

Paul leading the group!

Lesley, Chelsie, Grace, Hope, and Erin after singing!

The whole crew after caroling!

**Since I don't post on a regular basis if you want to know what is going on with me or in my city, check out Erin Korson's blog (www.erinandpaul.com)  She updates a few times a week!  

***Also, another team member had a birthday, Aaron Noble, but I forgot my camera that day, so I don't have any pics.  So shout out to Aaron!  We had a great time at this party as well, with a homemade meal, brownies, and banana pudding.