Christmas At Home

We moved our Christmas celebration up a day. Jonathan had school all day on the 25th and I worked that evening, so we thought it would be best to pick a day that we could actually be together as a family. We had a construction paper Christmas tree and fireplace to try to make the house feel more like Christmas and we played Christmas music in the house everyday. I wish we had been able to find/had the time and skills to make a small nativity to be in the house....next year, next year. Christmas never did really feel too Christmasy this year. Maybe it was the lack of snow, or the lack of decorations around the city. Maybe it was trying to figure out how our new little family celebrates and what traditions we want to start, or maybe it was because we didn't do many things we would normally do- bake cookies, gingerbread houses, Christmas caroling, etc. We did get to talk to both the Gleaves and Nelson sides, sorry the connections isn't always the best. It was great to see you and talk with everyone. We opened our presents on Tuesday, Peter caught on really quickly as to what needed to be done.

Dad, what is this?

Something to tear and you don't get mad at me? How fantastic!

Then he ate the paper...because that is what he does with most things.

So,  we distracted him with a new gift and it started anew.

Peter got some shoes and an outfit from Grandparents Nelson...

Some new books (we traded books with the other moms here, so all the kids got 'new' books)

Books for reading...

And eating...

He got 2 new balls, and is currently learning how to play 'roll the ball back and forth'. He catches on pretty quickly.

Here Peter is showing off his new shoes and clothes and showing you how well he can stand.

Jonathan got a coat, 2 sweaters and some new church socks. The clothes were purchased online and all had to be returned for a bigger size...we bought XL...oh China. People here aren't really that tiny...I think the sizing is just weird here. Hopefully the replacements come this week so Jonathan can be warmer.

I got some delicious chocolates...and am ashamed/proud (?) to say, they are almost all gone. Chocolate cravings in China...missing America.

I also got these beauties. China has some of the most delightful winter apparel...which we will be getting more of, because I love it.

We hope you had a lovely Christmas and got to spend it with those you love. 

Merry Christmas from China! 

We love you!

English School Christmas

Last Sunday, the English cram school I teach at had a Christmas party. But before I get to that, I need to backtrack a bit and tell you about my invitation to the party.

Ahem. It began on a Wednesday, about 2 weeks prior to the party. Sherry, one of the other teachers, came into my class during the 10 minute break and the following conversation took place.

Sherry: Hello, Robin. We are having a Christmas party on 22nd December. It is from 2 to 4. I would like to invite you to the party.

Me: Oh! That's great! I would love to come. 

Sherry: Also, I invite your husband and of course Peter to come. Can they come?

Me: Yeah, wait, what day is that? I don't know if Jonathan will have class.

(we check the calendar, it will be a Sunday)

Me: OK, we might be a little late, because we have church that day. But, we will come by after church.

Sherry: Oh, good. Would you prepared a song or small presentation for the party?

Me: (enter confusion) Wait, what? You want me to teach a song to the students to perform? Or you want me to sing?

Sherry: For you to sing. And maybe your husband can sing with you. Yes?

Me: Oh... Ok. (at this point, I felt like I had been tricked into singing for the school)

Sherry: Ok, thank you, thank you. Then, you will come and your husband and Peter?

Me: Yeah, we'll be there.

I went home and told Jonathan we were going to be singing for the school. His response was, "What?! How did we get roped into that?" I'm pretty sure it's because we are white. I think that is the only reason she asked me to do anything. The next time I saw Sherry, I asked if I could read a story instead. She said that was fine. I ended up reading an abbreviated version of T'was the Night Before Christmas. 

Many of the kids from the school. They had passed out headbands with Snowmen on them, so all the kids were wearing them. The kids were also hopped up on sugar and were super loud and wiggly. One thing that surprised me the most was that they never got quiet. The teachers asked them many times to be quiet and listen, but they never did. If it had been an assembly in either of the schools I taught at back home, they would have been noisy at first, but then quiet once we got started. These kids- just loud the whole entire time. I wonder if it would be different if we were at their normal school and not the cram school.

Three of my students. These girls are super sweet and some of my brightest kids.

One of the kindergarten classes did a dance- it was really similar to the bunny hop.

These girls are adorable. They are twins and they did two different dances.

Peter got fussy and one of the moms gave him a snowman headband. He wore it longer than I thought he would. The next day he found it at home and tore the hats and bows off in record time. Peter was also given an orange and 3 or 4 candies by various people because he was a bit fussy.

Chinese Santa came! He only drew numbers out of the box to give prizes...he didn't even say Hohoho or Merry Christmas and he was skinny...the differences of Santa.

There were performances by a few other kids: 2 different songs- Happy New Year and a Halloween song, another dance, and a kid who played a little whistle. I was the only teacher who did anything, which convinced me even more that they just wanted me to do something to show off their American teacher and make their school more appealing. They also had a magic show at the end. The magician was trying to recruit kids to come learn magic at his school. He also showed us how he did some of the tricks...I liked that. 

Overall, it was a strange Christmas party. Aside from the garlands, Christmas tree and a few other decorations, it didn't feel like Christmas. We didn't sing any songs, there were no candy canes, Santa didn't act like Santa, and there was no Christmas feeling. But, my students and the other teachers loved seeing Peter and he got some treats, so I guess that counts for something.

Church Christmas in China

 

Peter with his owl hat, and Jonathan with his professor mustache, which has since left us.

Christmas is going to get a few different posts, because we did a couple of different things. First up, our branch Christmas dinner! I think one of the things that has helped me not lose my mind or be too overwhelmed with moving to China is having a church family here. It is amazing how quickly strangers can feel like people you've known for ages. I feel very at home in the branch here in Nanjing. We can all relate with each other here and there is a feeling of love and happiness at church activities. This Christmas dinner was great! It was fantastic to get together with everyone and have some delicious food. Everyone brought something to the dinner. When we got there, everyone was helping to set up and get everything ready and soon it was eating time.

Peter loved wearing Santa's hat...for about 10 seconds.

 We had so many delicious things to eat! There was salad, delicious mashed potatoes with bacon, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, rolls, tons of fruit- including strawberries! It was food heaven. There were also lots of desserts. We had banana bread, cookies, blueberry cake, egg tarts, and chocolate cakes.

Peter, what 'cha looking at?

Ohhhh, the cool Chinese thing. 

After dinner, we had a short program about the symbols of Christmas- the candy cane representing the Shepard's crook, the star on the tree as the star that led people to Baby Jesus, lights as the light of Christ, and the Christmas tree as an evergreen being that Christ lives. We sang some Christmas hymns, and then some secular fun songs. It was merry, and joyous, and has been one of the few times it's really felt like Christmas here. I'm so grateful to have a church family here, to have people to celebrate Christmas with, and to share these times with.

Peter decided to head out on his own adventure. He went back and forth under the tablecloth for a while, and then he didn't come back...and still no sign of him. I went to investigate. He had made it quite some distance from the tables before someone snagged him. He's an escapee. 

Ellison and Peter, sharing a shirt. It's quite the brilliant way to keep him still. Those boys love each other.

A Baptism in China

Ellison and Jonathan, ready to go.

We had a really neat experience this last Sunday. One of the other students from the Flagship group, Ellison, was baptized! In a land where the LDS church isn't allowed to send missionaries, the gospel still spreads. Ellison is from California and goes to San Francisco State University. About two months ago, Jonathan invited Ellison to go to an Elder's Quorum activity (an activity for the men of the church). They all got together to watch one of the BYU football games and have a great American breakfast. Ellison was excited and he went and met many of our Branch members. They had good food and good conversation.

President Ferney, Jonathan, Peter, Ellison, Ben and Esther Truman. 

Ben and Esther are the branch missionaries and they taught Ellison many things about the gospel.

About two weeks after that, another one of the BYU Flagship students invited Ellison to come to church with us. He was excited to come. He asked lots of questions and was happy to be there. Since that Sunday, Ellison has come to church every week. The next day, after his first time at church with us, he came and had dinner with a big group of us at Blue Frog (a restaurant that has a Monday deal- buy one hamburger and a drink and get another hamburger free!). He mentioned that he had thrown out all of his tea that morning! I thought that was really impressive. No one told him he had to, but at the Elder's Quorum activity someone had told him that we don't drink tea or coffee, so he got rid of his! That's the first time I realized that he was pretty interested. That night, we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and began meeting with the branch missionaries to learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He asks lots of good questions and readily accepts the things he is taught.

All of the Flagship students who made it out the the baptism.

Ellison is a super fantastic guy. He comes over to our home sometimes and we love having him here. He is really mellow and low-key. He adores Peter and loves holding him, even when Peter makes crazy noises and Ellison is scared that Peter is dying. Ellison babysat once (his first time ever babysitting anyone) and learned that sometimes it is hard to change babies diapers and get them into their pajamas, but he still loves Peter. We left the house and in less than 5 minutes, we got a phone call from Ellison. He asked, "So, do I need to take off the clothes he is wearing now before I put his pajamas on?" We laughed and said yes. Ellison has learned a lot about babies from hanging out with Peter. Something that impresses me a lot about Ellison is his faith in the gospel. He still has questions and doesn't know everything, but he knows the church is true. The branch president asked Ellison if he was nervous about getting baptized and Ellison responded by saying he wasn't nervous at all, just really excited. He said he's been waiting a long time for this. How neat is that?!

Back in church clothes, ready to go to church.

Ellison asked Jonathan to baptize him. Jonathan thought that was really neat. How many people can say that they have baptized someone in China?! The baptism was held in a swimming pool in an apartment complex's rec center. Jonathan reports that the water was cold, but not freezing. As we walked to the pool, Ellison was booking it to the pool and we were much further behind him. He was so excited he just couldn't wait. The baptism went smoothly. Talks were given about baptism and the Holy Ghost and we sang some hymns. Katie gave the talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost. She related the concept of the Holy Ghost being like a radio, in that, we have to tune in the the right station and listen. Sometimes the adversary tries to drown out the Holy Ghost, but we choose which "station" to listen to and what to tune into. I really liked that analogy. It was a great experience to be there and be a part of Ellison's baptism day. Congrats Ellison!

Field Trip 3: Fabric Museum and Presidential Palace

On this field trip, we first went to see a museum where we learned about fabric and dress making and a novel titled "Dream of the Red Chamber." This novel is one of the classics of Chinese literature. It's famous, and that's all I can tell you about that.

The fabric making part was quite fascinating. They had a huge old-school loom there and they did a demonstration of how they make the fabric. There is a man sitting at the top in the first picture. He changes different parts of the machine while the woman seated lower down does the weaving part. She has a little picture that she used as a guide to make the fabric. She threaded different colors through while working the bamboo rods with her feet (similar to organ pedals). It was amazing to watch her work, there were lots of different things she had to do together to make it come out right.

There were some scarves, ties, small purses and a few other items on display to show the final products that this fabric company makes. But this wasn't all the museum had to offer, there was also a fashion show!

We arrived before the show started, and the teacher talked with us for a bit. We put Peter on the ground and he crawled around, visiting various flagship students. He was in heaven. He had a HUGE space in which he could crawl about. He crawled up to the teacher at one point and grabbed his leg. The teacher just laughed and continued his talking. The show started, and there were five different models, but they each showed 3-4 different dresses, which means they were changing backstage super fast. 

The first set of clothes were very traditional looking.

Peter loved the lights and the music of the show. He sat very good for the whole thing. 

All of the models in their final looks.

After the fashion show, we walked around and looked at many dresses. They are a style called qi pao (chee pow), which is very famous.

After that museum we went to Presidential Palace. It was, as it sounds, the palace and office for the president, until the office was relocated. Sun Yat-sen was sworn in here. It is now a museum. To me, it was a rather dull museum punctuated with the most beautiful landscape I've seen here. So, overall, I liked the trip, at least all the parts outside.

At the front of the building- there were lots of pushy beggers here, and tons of people in general. This museum was a very big tourist spot (for the Chinese as well as foreigners). This is a famous spot because when the Communists took over, there was a flag of the Republic of China on top of this front wall, and the Communists pulled the flag down and put their flag up. It's a famous picture and important to them.

Inside the palace, there were many school groups. I like the high school kids because their school uniforms are track suits similar to these. I always know when school gets out because I see tons of teenagers in matching windbreaker outfits. I don't know why I love it, but I do.

Here is the part that I loved the most. There is beautiful architecture throughout, like this pagoda and that rounded white wall.

Jonathan took the above picture and then about a minute later, he took the picture below. Baby paparazzi...

The next couple of pictures are of an air raid bunker in the middle of the palace. You walk down a couple flights of stairs, and then there is a long hallway with a few rooms off to the sides. Safety first.

It was a little hazy that day, and it kept threatening to rain, but the rain held off and kept the day nice and cool.

Some of the garden grounds

Bamboo garden area

Hanging out with dad

As Peter leaned forward to touch the dragon, he growled at it. HA!