It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas!!!

​It's hard to believe that then end of the year is upon us. With the end of the year come Christmas. Probably my favorite holiday of the year because you get to spend time with family! However, this year I will spend Christmas abroad. This will be my first Christmas away from family. I said the same thing last year and ended up going home early, however I don't think that will happen this year.

A group of us (our family here) went out to Christmas dinner at the Mariott. It is so beautifully decorated and the buffet had tons of delicious foods!! 

Rocking my UK scarf during this scarf weather :).  

Sometimes it is hard to believe it is December let alone Christmastime. The weather here has just recently dropped to the low 60's. Back in the States I would have welcomed 60 degree weather with a light hoodie and jeans. However here 60 is like 40 so people are breaking out the winter coats and gloves and scarves, I love it though!

The tree that decorates the door to 2nd grade. Also there are handprint trees on the window with all their hands.  

My school has decorated for the Christmas holiday. My roommate and I are on the event committee for our Christmas party so it has been fun (and stressful) getting everything together. This week our 1st and 2nd graders painted salt dough ornaments to hang on our beautiful Christmas tree. I also painted their hands so that we could paint the windows in each class. Grade 2 has handprint Christmas trees on the door window. Grade 1B has two wreaths on their middle window. Grade 1A has reindeer going across their windows. It was so awesome to see the smiles on their faces as they get to paint the window. They laughed so hard when I painted their hand. At the end of the lesson we had some beautiful decorations :).

2nd grade's Santa and reindeer handprints.  

First grade's handprint wreath.  

Our batch of sugar cookies!!! Yummy!!! 

On Friday our staff is coming to our apartment for a Christmas party! We decorated our apartment this week (well actually Jen did most of the decorating). It's looks beautiful! We made sugar cookies to be iced and decorated at the party. Then we will share the Christmas story with them and then listen to and sing some Christmas carols!!!

It's beginning to look like Christmas, everywhere you go!!!

Young Adults Outreach

On Saturday the HIF young adults planned an outreach for a local home for disabled people. We met at church at 9am to take a motorbike convoy to the home that was about 45 minutes away. There was probably 20 of us foreigners so we definitely stood out from the crowd. We were planning a Christmas party for the home so we all were carrying the gifts for the people. The convoy was a lot of fun even though it was rainy and cold. :)

Our HIF young adults motorbike convoy! Right after this photo a guy pulled up beside us and just kept staring at us for at least 5 minutes! Never breaking his concentration.  

At the home we mixed in with the residents. We didn't speak the same language but we could smile and smiling is infectious. We played a couple games and ate lunch with them. We also sang some Christmas carols and one of the little boys sang a song for us. It was super adorable! After lunch we were able to present each person with a Christmas gift! Their smiles and excitement made the whole day perfect! I am so glad we were able to bless this home!

Our group and the tree we made out of straws and toilet paper rolls. We tried our hardest but our tree came in last place. But it doesn't matter because we all had fun!!

This is the little boy that sang us a song. He was soooo cute!!! 

One of the games was Freeze dance. Everyone was so good we decided to have a dance off. So much fun!!! 

This was a great way to start the Christmas season!

Group photo! 

Holidays in this Strange Land

It's the holiday season! This is my favorite time of the year! I love getting together with friends and family and just spending time together! It's the best thing in the world. Quality time... it's my love language! I know people say that Christmas is their favorite holiday because they get presents and tons of food. Well I could care less about the presents and the food, although there is some delicious food at Thanksgiving and Christmas! The best thing about Thanksgiving and Christmas is that families make it their mission to be together for the holidays. Whether it is seeing one side of the family for Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas or everyone gets together for both. That is the best part of the holiday in my opinion!

Unfortunately this year I will miss it (and more). These Western holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) aren't really celebrated here in East Asia.

America is the only ones who celebrate Thanksgiving and, here in China, I don't really have any American friends. I'm not complaining. I love all the friends I have here in China that come from all over the globe. But when it comes to beginning the holiday season with Thanksgiving there is no one here that actually celebrates it. :(. That was hard, but thankfully I have some awesome friends (*cough* Tanith*cough*) who want to celebrate with me even though they don't actually have this holiday in their home country. So the group of foreigners I work with decided to go out on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) for a "Thanksgiving" in China meal. Sadly there was no turkey but again it's not about the food. It's about the company. :)

I did call home on Thanksgiving. It was cool to FaceTime with my mom and get to see all my family after they had stuffed their faces full of Thanksgiving food prepared by my awesome Aunt and Grandma. It was great talking to everyone for the brief time I had but I was a little envious. I wanted to be there so bad. Not just for the delicious food that you can truly only get back home, I mean it's called home-cooked for a reason ;), but for the company of family. My family has been going to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving for at least the past 8 years and I always enjoyed it, but the phrase "you don't know what you got til it's gone" really resonated with me. I don't have the quality time with family this year and I definitely miss it.

But now that Thanksgiving is over.... I get to look forward to Christmas.... here in Asia.... where December 25th is just another working day. You read that right, I have to work on Christmas day. Our school is having a party for Christmas but I think it is called a Snow Party. In preparation for the party we have to decorate our classrooms with Christmas decorations. I don't know why but this makes me want to go home even more. I miss decorating the tree and making holiday cookies. Because all of these things are done with friends and family.  Holiday movie nights, baking Christmas desserts(No Bakes, sugar cut outs, peanut butter balls, etc), and just being together. WAAAHHHH Can I go home?

But a good thing is I have some great friends here that I get to spend the holiday with. My friends at church are having a Christmas dinner on Christmas. So I am leaving school that day and traveling the hour distance to go to their house and have Christmas dinner! I am super excited! Then I think the day after Christmas some of us foreigners at IVY are getting together for a Christmas dinner. So I will still get to spend time with friends. It's the family traditions of Christmas that I will miss out on. Hopefully I will get to Skype/FaceTime with my family so I will get to see them at least :).

Everyone tells me to enjoy this adventure because it's a once in a lifetime. I agree I am going to enjoy it but there are definitely ups and downs that come with it. I miss the holidays and my family and friends back home. But I wouldn't change this for the world. I know this is where God has called me to be. I don't know for how long but for right now this is where I am meant to be. I have learned and grown so much during my time here and my time isn't over. Just keep me in your prayers this holiday season! :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Remember the reason for the season, the birth of Jesus! :)