This Chris.tmas season was filled with so much joy and so many blessing provided by Father. Being away from our families was hard, but I wouldn't have missed this opportunity to share the true meaning of Chris.tmas with all of my students and friends for anything in the world! Heres a little glimpse into all of the happenings of the past week.
First off, Camille and I are currently still living in our dorm room. We tried to make it as festive as we could with the little we had to work with.
We added Chris.tmas lights to our balcony a.k.a the outside bathroom!
Our very miniature Chris.tmas tree and gifts. The ornaments my mom so lovingly sent for a bigger tree were just put on display! Again, we did what we could!
The week of Chris.tmas started with my lesson for all of my high school students. For almost two weeks, we practiced singing Chris.tmas carols in English so that we could all go caroling together before Chris.tmas Day. More importantly, every class read the story of the Son's birth! Here is the link to the video that we watched in class. It is a cute story told by children of the Son's birth. I thought some of you might enjoy watching it!
The Saturday before Chris.tmas was a very busy, fun-filled day. Camille and I started the day by having our hair and makeup done for our dance performance that afternoon. This explains the interesting Santa outfits from my previous post. Camille and I also work at a training center, for younger children, called Gallop. The center was having a show for Chris.tmas and asked if we would be in it and help by teaching the other teachers how to dance. Obviously we said yes! So we dressed up in Santa outfits with the other teachers and danced for all of the students and parents. Even Dawn joined us in the dance!
Camille, Dawn, and I before the performance.
One of my students, Mary, who is quite a character. She also performed in the show, telling the story of Cinderella, entirely in English!
This is Celia. She runs Gallop and asked us to be in the show.
Some of the other teachers we work with who were also in the dance. 
Many of the students also performed. The little girls in red were a big hit, as they danced to "Gangnam Style". Basically, I spent the afternoon dancing, teaching children how to dance, and handing out gifts and candy!
Later Saturday night, we continued the tradition started last year and went caroling with our students. Camille and I invited all of the high school students we teach from our school and our good friends Brad and Dana invited all of their students from the No. 3 High School. This means we invited about 3,000 students to go caroling Saturday night! It was wonderful! Hundreds of students turned up and I was excited and surprised by how many of my own students came. We passed out lyric sheets and santa hats and sang as many songs as the students knew. (We had been practicing in class) After, we got to hang out with our students and take pictures. They love to take pictures of all of us because they don't meet many foreigners!
Some of my students. I was surprised by how many of my "bad" students came. I didn't even think they liked me or English, but I guess I was wrong! The boy in the red is named Craig and he sleeps in every class, yet he still came! He was much better in class this week ;)
Two of my best English speakers, Ethan and Catherine!
These are some of my wonderful Grade 2 students. This is the second year that I get to teach these wonderful kids and so many more of them came caroling this year than last year.
The decorated Chu.rch.
They even sell interesting memorabilia outside of the Chu.rch, including light up reindeer ears!
Inside the Chu.rch. I was so encouraged to see so many fellow believers in my own city!
On Chris.tmas Day, our school decided to take us out to lunch.
The picture is bad, but these are our headmasters and bosses, including Diana. None of them really celebrate Chris.tmas as it is not celebrated in China as it is in America, but they know how important it is to Camille and me. It was a really sweet gesture from them and fun to spend time with them in a relaxed manner outside of school, they even allowed us to pr@ay before the meal, just like we would if we were home for Chris.tmas lunch!
Another wonderful treat from our school was getting to spend a night in the nicest hotel in Huangshi. Since Camille and I have been living together in a student dormitory with an outside bathroom (let me remind you that it snowed, so it is really cold outside), we were very excited about this.
In the lobby ready to check into our room!
The view from our room! I can't believe I'm still in Huangshi!
You are probably wondering why I'm sharing this on my blog, but that is how happy I was to have a soft bed, and indoor bathroom, and best thing yet, a BATHTUB! Sometimes, its the little things in life!
Best Chris.tmas present!
We finished Christmas by going to dinner with some of our closest friends, including Dawn and Wu Xia.
Aaron, Wu Xia, Camille, Me, Brad, Dana, Baby Leila, and Dawn!
The holidays were wonderful. I was a bit nervous, because last year I felt home-sick and cried a lot at this time. But this year, Father really poured out His love on me and answered so many pr@yers. He lifted my spirits when things didn't go as planned. He provided good internet so that I could talk to my family back home. He gave me so many opportunities to share joy and love with people here! He even provided a bathtub!
I hope everyone had as an enjoyable and uplifting holiday as I did here in China! Here is a message from my students to all of you! Thank you for all of your pr@yers!
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