I'll be home for Christmas...*

(My tree gets better and better all the time!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Christmas has come and gone here in the Middle Kingdom, and as with everything else in China in 2008, it was an Olympic-sized event. Even though the true meaning of Christmas is often lost on the Chinese people, they do recognize that it is an important Western holiday, and they do their best to celebrate as well as they can. This year was no exception.

Tuesday night, the 23rd, John and Kevin Di Palma and I attended the Finance & Trade School Christmas party. It was a raucous event, with singing, dancing, and lots of games and prizes. Santa even made an appearance!

I think its funny that in Chinese, they call Santa Claus "Sheng Dan Lao Ren (圣诞老人)," which translates literally as "Old Man Christmas." I guess it's much closer to the British idea of "Father Christmas" than to the American idea of "Santa Claus."

And what would Santa be without his bag of goodies?

This shot gives you a pretty good idea of how big of a crowd there was. You can see the students lined up on the stairwell, and that balcony stretches all the way across the room and there's a similar stairwell packed with students on the other side. There had to have been at least 250 people there that night. Needless to say, it was the place to be.

After the FTU party, we hurried over to a banquet hall on the 11th floor of a local hotel for another Christmas party. This one was hosted by a local group of Chinese Christians. Our friend Ruth invited us. It was really neat to see people celebrating the real Reason for the Season.

The back of their shirts read "Jesus loves you."

MJ and David sporting their new shirts. David is terrified that the government will use this photo to have him arrested. And of course, being the considerate friend I am, I posted it on the internet for the whole world to see! :-)

On Christmas Eve we all had to teach, but that evening we were invited to a couple of parties with our students. This is us with kids from Class 3.

Christmas dancing is exhausting!

Christmas without your family is about as difficult as you can imagine it would be, but it sure helps when you can spend it with people who care about you (and who you care about) as much as our students do.

After the Class 3 party, we headed over to join Class 1 for their Christmas Party. Along the way we ran into Santa again! Or is that one of his elves... ;-)

Class 1 decided to celebrate in the best way they knew how: karaoke! KTV is definitely one Christmas tradition that I think needs to come to America.

Here I am giving a rousing rendition of
"Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin (月亮代表我的心)"
or "The Moon Represents My Heart."
It's one of the few Chinese songs I know every word to, and it was a big hit. The next day I received this email from some of the girls in the class:

Aaron,
We do enjoy last night.We won't forget the song,月亮代表我的 心，you sang last night. Thank you so much for teaching us so many songs. If you were put in a packet tonight, you don't need to scare. That's because we called santa claus to sent us a good friend.
Merry Christmas! Have fun in your holiday!

All in all, it was a fantastic night, and after KTV we grabbed some peach pies and hot chocolate at McDonalds. Not exactly Christmas cookies, but it was a suitable substitute.

In Chinese, Christmas Eve is called "Ping An Ye (平安夜)" which literally means "Peaceful Night." Pretty cool translation if you ask me. And yet, it's not even the coolest translation of the season. Christmas Day in Chinese is called "Sheng Dan Jie (圣诞节)" which literally translates into "Holy Birth Festival." I mentioned before that if you ask the Chinese people why we celebrate Christmas in the West, many of them don't seem to know. Yet I have to believe that the knowledge is there, somewhere, even if it's hidden away within their language. A true reason for hope.

On Christmas Day we all got together with our Chinese teachers Ruth and Liu Laoshi and went to one of the five-star hotels in town for their Christmas Buffet. It was a massive spread of food, including turkey, grilled-to-order tenderloin, fresh sushi, and so much more. I'm still full from the meal!

We ended up opening our gifts from each other on Friday. David is a big fan of this one particular brand of Chinese chocolate soy milk, so he received a couple boxes of that. Yeah for VITASOY!

Friday night was the last of the Christmas festivities. The Oral English Association held their big party that night, and we all were in attendance. I put together a slide show of pictures from home for an "American Christmas" presentation. That was a huge hit. They especially loved the photos of Hannah in the snow, and Simon Jacob by the Christmas tree and in his Santa hat. We also sang some Christmas carols, we danced, and we played lots of games. And at the end of the party, they brought in a birthday cake, as the 26th was also John's birthday!

It's customary in China to smear frosting all over the face of the birthday boy/girl. John is no exception. Even Russel got in on the fun!

As in the States, the end of the Christmas Season also marks the end of the year. That is certainly the case here. Classes are all finished, and now the next three weeks will be dedicated to giving final exams and handing out final grades. This is probably the part of teaching that I hate the most, but it has to be done. It's nice to be done with classes, though. It was a rewarding semester, but stressful at times. I'm really looking forward to the break.

David left for a bit of traveling in Yunnan on Friday, and John and MJ took off early this morning for Sichuan. Ben and I decided to just stick around town, save some money, and just chill out. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to spend more time with my students as well. Hanging out with them outside of the classroom is easily one of my favorite things about working in China.

Despite all of the fun I've been having the last week, please know that you all are in my thoughts and prayers even more than usual this time of year. I love China, but it's not home. You all are missed.

I hope the rest of the year treats you well, and the New Year treats you even better!

圣诞节快乐!!!

-Aaron

*...if only in my dreams. ;-)