Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all!  We hope that you had a blessed Christmas remembering God's great gift to us all and celebrating with family and friends.

Although Christmas isn't widely celebrated in China, it felt nice and festive in our house with lots of Christmas music, decorations, the smells of Christmas cookies and a pecan pie.  Of course we missed being with family and it did feel odd to be here by ourselves, but we were together, remembering what it's about.  On Christmas, most people were just having a normal day.  There were few indications that it was a special day.  But thankfully, our apartment complex had colored lights and two Christmas trees up.  It was a welcome sight!  Beyond that, only a few store fronts had Christmas decorations up and people in general just don't know how to celebrate it or even what the meaning of Christmas is. 

   

The other day I saw someone selling wrapped chocolates (or maybe they were apples) in pastel wrapping paper inside of tall purple and pink baskets.  If people give anything, they'd normally give friends apples.  I'm not really sure why, but when we've asked people if they've ever received a Christmas present, some have gotten apples and oranges.  I personally think someone told them about Christmas and Easter and there was a bit of confusion between the two and somehow they now give apples in Easter baskets:) 

We spent our Christmas with our friends and had a wonderful Christmas lunch.  My DS loved his presents from grandparents and family.  He's quite into cooking at the moment, so my parents got him a little stove.  He also got some small figurines (thanks Amanda:). ) We saved them until Christmas and soon after he opened them up, he started cooking the dog and people!  haha  

It's fun to share enjoy Christmas.  Skype has been a blessing and we were able to have some Christmas moments in many different places. 

Time to do some cooking with my little guy.  Thanks for all your Christmas greetings!!  Hope you recover from eating all the Christmas treats and food and get some rest in these next few days. 

Poor dog and people:)

Our master chef

First present on Christmas Eve:)