It's Christmas All Over the World

I woke up early Christmas morning. While Jason was still sleeping, I slipped out of bed and skyped with my family. Slowly but surely Jason woke up, showered and got dressed. Then we skyped with his mom and brothers. It was the night of Christmas Eve, but they opened presents so we could be apart of it.

Then Jason and I rushed to church where we set up equipment, baked goods, and coffee. Our church is small to begin with, so on Christmas Day about 15 people attended. This small group made for an intimate time of prayer for our families, the church and our countries. I almost cried when I prayed aloud for my family.

Next on the itinerary was Christmas supper at a friend's house. Again I made Jason's Aunt Deb's famous bean dip. I'm not a great cook, so this is my go to party recipe. Everyone loves the dip, and this time I was making it by request. There were 9 people representing 3 countries. The food and stories were great.

Our last stop was Flowering House Hostel. Our very first week in Beijing we stayed at the Flowering House and we made very good friends. They invited us to exchange gifts with them. It turns out that Chinese gift exchange (White Elephant) is actually Chinese. 

These people really know how to party. We exchanged gifts as usual, but every 5 minutes they had someone perform an embarrassing act. I mimed using the restroom, Jason made out with the door, and there were other activities like tongue twisters and hula dancing.

Jason making out with the door.

At the end of the night we sang Jingle Bells, and we walked away with a wooden gun and small toy. Jason enjoys playing with the wooden gun. He has shot countless rubberbands at me. We loved visiting with them because our Chinese and their English is just good enough for our conversations to be half and half.

Christmas in Beijing could have been depressing, but great friends and skyping with family made for a wonderful Christmas.

-KAMALA