The Christmas Post (part 2)

Christmas Eve was quite a strange and busy day for us. It began by heading to school to help some of the students practice their dance for the New Years Performance coming up (I will do a post about this soon!) and a last ditch effort to see if our Christmas packages from our families had arrived yet. Sadly, they had not! Then Camille and I had some last minute shopping and preparations to do for the party that night! Camille and had a lunch at KFC and then went to hip hop class so we could give our teacher his Christmas card and cookies! And finally ran home to gather all the desserts we had made and head over to The Randall’s home for a celebration with a delicious dinner and service to remember the true meaning of the holiday.

Its still hard to believe that Christmas Eve was spent at KFC! This is something that would never happen if we didn’t live in China!

All the desserts we made!

The dessert table at the Randall's. Dawn made the panda cake!

I love these girls!

Chelsie led us in wrship and Christmas carols!

That night the seven of us Zhong teachers headed over to Paul and Erin’s home for a Christmas sleepover! It was so much fun! We watched Home Alone, but I fell asleep…whoops. We got up early the next morning to exchange gifts and have breakfast together. Even though we are all so far away from our family and friends, we still had a joyful and memorable Christmas together! It is definitely one I will never forget!

Paul and Erin had turned their home into a winter wonderland with paper chains and snowflakes!

Erin is amazing and knitted us each a stocking. There is no fireplace so we made do with hanging them on the wall!

Erin had made her own Nativity Scene out of cardboard because you can’t find them here in China. She was telling us the story as she put baby J in his rightful place!

Erin got Chinese pjs for Christmas! They are incredibly warm!

We did Secret Santa together. Aaron was my santa and he got me a heater! This is perfect because it is freezing in our apartment!

Erin had Aaron and she got him a really nice leather journal.

I was Kevin’s secret santa and I got him High School Musical 1-3 because he loves them!!! And a Mao mug just for fun!

Chelsie had Erin!

Paul was Camille's secret santa and he got her all kinds of fun things like Chinese leggings, gloves, and hair bows!

Kevin was Paul's Santa and he got Paul a lamp.

Camille had Chelsie. She got Chels fingerless mittens (I bought myself a pair of these too. They are very Chinese but so fun!) earrings, and an owl scarf. Chelsie loves owls so this was perfect!

Each of us with the stocking that Erin knitted for us! Mine is purple because that is my favorite color! She and Paul even stuffed it with some fun surprises for each of us! They are awesome! She didn't even have enough time to knit one for her and Paul so they had those instead!

Such a fun and memorable morning together! We had an amazing breakfast/lunch feast before heading our separate ways for the day. We all wanted to go home to skype with our families!

Christmas Night Dawn came over so we could give her a Christmas gift. She is traveling around China and Thailand for the next two months so we got her a panda eye mask for her travels! Then we made Chinese noodles and eggplant for our dinner. It was officially Christmas in China! 

Some of my students were really thoughtful and gave me Christmas cards, candy, or a small gift. One of the classes that I had been teaching how to dance for the New Year Performance got me this amazing Chinese dragon pillow. I love it! They also wrote me the sweetest card thanking me for my help! Our school's headmasters and my bosses even took us out for Christmas lunch the Friday before Christmas. They do not celebrate Christmas, but know that we do and wanted us to feel appreciated. I really felt loved by our school last week and am so thankful for that since I couldn't be with my family and friends back home!