And so this is Christmas...

And what have you done?

We had a fabulous Chinese Christmas. It's my first Christmas in a long time to be around small children. They really make all the difference! We had so much fun spending time here with Logan and Sarah's family. Sarah was sweet enough to loan us a little spare Christmas tree to brighten our home. And then we enjoyed all Christmas and Christmas Eve meals and festivities at their house.

I have to say. My family does Christmas pretty low-key and low stress. But this Christmas wins the trophy for "least amount of grunt work" on the part of food. For Christmas Eve dinner, we had yummy french toast (with actual syrup!) and bacon. Quick, easy, delicious. And fun to eat with the kids. Christmas Day was even more laid back with McDonald's delivery for breakfast and Pizza delivery for dinner! I guess there are benefits to celebrating a Christian holiday in a country where nobody else has the day off!

But despite cut corners--and maybe even because of those cut-corners, we had so much fun! On Christmas Eve day, Austin and I skipped Chinese class and went down to the giant Toy Market here in Beijing for our last minute Christmas shopping. On our way out the door that morning, we found a little package tied to the handle. It big wad of cash in it! I have no idea who left it, but we were so shocked and grateful! Someone did a wonderful thing, freeing us up to shop for our baby and each other without worrying so much about our budget.

Later that night, after the French Toast, we gathered in the kids' playroom for singing, stories, and the Nativity. 6-year-old Samara, who lost out on the role of Mary in the Primary nativity earlier this month, got her chance that nite. 4-year-old Ashley was a "perfect angel". And Carson and 2-year-old Rocky wrestled around as shepherds and wise men. 7-month-old Ezra would have been a perfect baby Jesus, but she had already gone up to bed.

After that, we came back to our place for final gift wrapping and Carson's photo shoot by our little tree. I left socks out for Santa (since we didn't have "proper" stockings, I just left some clean socks out. I figured the Man would know what to do,) and put Carson to bed. We went to bed early so we could be back at Logan and Sarah's house in time to open presents with the kids.

Oh what fun! Seeing kids open presents and get excited about them is even better than opening presents yourself--honestly! Carson was especially fun to watch. Last year he was more into shredding and crumpling wrapping paper. This year he had loud, excited things to say about everything he opened. When he opened his little soccer ball, he squealed repeatedly, "Ball! Ball! BALL!" When he opened a new, personalized sippy cup from Granny, he wouldn't put it down, and kept trying it out even thought it was empty. And when he opened the little wind-up car I bought him, he couldn't get enough of winding it and letting the wheels spin. It was awesome.
All of us made out really well--in getting cool stuff as well as giving things that people really enjoyed. I bought watches for the little girls. I think of everything I received as a kid, what I remember most vividly are the watches I got for Christmas--and it seems that was a recurring gift. Swatch watches one year, a ring watch another, and a necklace watch another. Samara was thrilled, "It's just what I needed!" and Ashley put hers on right away.
Austin and I dashed off to school for a coupld hours after that. It was freezing and windy! Plus, Austin forgot that he had left his bike at school the previous day, so we had to both ride on my bike. (See previous posting for picture of my bike.) My bike has no gears so pedalling is not easy with a heavy load, and the seat on the back has handlebars that make it quite small for an adult to squeeze in. But we did it. Austin pedalled and I wedged myself into that little baby seat. It was awesome. And I think we probably could have walked as fast as Austin was able to pedal. Fortunately we had both bikes for the ride home.

After naps, we went back to Logan and Sarah's for the final grand hurrah. They invited some Chinese friends over for a gift exchange and dinner (the aforementioned Christmas pizza). We had a chance to explain what Christmas is and why we celebrate. We got to show the Nativity video and, even thought we're not allowed to promote our religion in any way here in China, we were able to explain the basic Christian understanding of why this time of year is so special for us.

And finally, Logan donned his old Santa suit, and we all went off to a local poor neighborhood to give out little gifts to the kids. We had balls and stuffed animals and cars and jump ropes and mini-badminton sets. It was really cool. Unfortunately, it was -7 degrees C and really dark outside, but enough people came out for us to give away all our gifts and have a really fun, meaningful Christmas night. Kudos to Austin and Logan for having the idea.

And that's all we did for Christmas! Despite not being able to get together with either of our parents' families, it was still probably one of my favorite Christmasses yet! (Or as Samara put it in her prayer at Christmas breakfast, "The best Christmas EVER!")

And to all a good night!