Christmas in China

Spending Christmas in China away from friends and family while feeling sick and adjusting to a new job kind of sucks.  I'm very much looking forward to next Christmas.  

The Sunday before Christmas we had a Christmas program in church.  I was feeling really sick and spent most of the meeting in the foyer so I didn't hear all of it but what I did hear was really beautiful.  There were some musical numbers and some narration of the Christmas story as well as other passages from the scriptures and church leaders.  A few days later I went to the home of Nicola and Andrew Dougherty.  They are a couple I met at church and they were having a get together with others and invited me to come.  I was tempted to stay in my warm, cozy hotel room but I forced myself to be social and I'm glad I did.  I met some really nice people there from church and they had yummy food including guacamole which I couldn't stop eating simply because I was just glad that they had it!  A lot of people that were there were from other countries so we went around and shared Christmas traditions.  After that they split us into groups to have a Christmas songwriting contest so my team came up with "The Twelve Days of Christmas in China".  This is what we came up with to the best of my memory (please excuse my misspellings):

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me..

1 great wall

2 chopsticks

3

4 (is bad luck in China so we skipped four)

5 kuai dvd's

6 some kind of food I can't remember

7

8 rip offs at the silk market

9 fake louis vouitton handbags

10 sweet potatoes

11 

12 spitting cab drivers

Chinese businesses try to get in the holiday spirit by putting up trees and various decorations.  The only Santa I ever saw was skinny and short Chinese guy wearing a Santa suit that was way too big for him.  He was standing outside a restaurant not far from where I work and obviously he was there to help bring in some business.  I spent Christmas Eve at work and then afterwards going out for dinner with my friend Glen who works here for Disney in the hr department.  Seriously, this guy has been my lifeline here and has done so much to help with logistics, getting around, and any other questions I have!  It was impossible to find a Taxi.  Apparently Friday nights are the busiest and when everyone goes out.  I am sure because it was Christmas Eve, there were even more people out than usual.  In America, most people spend Christmas Eve at home with family and friends eating food, watching Christmas specials, etc...  but in China, everyone goes out to restaurants and spends the night out on the town.  I spentChristmas day at work all day.  I left for a couple of hours to finish meeting with my relator and landlord to secure the deal for my super groovy apartment.  It felt so weird conducting that kind of business on Christmas.  Business goes on as usual here that's for sure.  I took my dvd of the movie Elf to watch between my classes so that helped put me in a more cheerful mood.  I finished work about 8:30pm and fabulous new friend Sheri Bensfield and her husband Dave told me I could come over for leftovers so I went and they fed me potatoes and gravy, turkey, veggies, pumpkin pie, etc...  I was probably more grateful for that Christmas meal than any other one I had ever had.  I came back to the hotel and was pretty tired but tried to take a few minutes to review the Christmas story from my scriptures.  

So I know this is a long entry but I do want everyone to know that I am really very grateful for the Christmas season.  I am grateful the Savior came to earth and lived a perfect life.  I'm grateful for the faith of Mary and Joseph and for those that sought him out.  I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!