It was a crazy one!



Christmas is over! It was a crazy one! I mean Christmas in China is usually a little bit crazy, but this one takes the cake so far! We had the privilege of having the Masalin family staying at our house for the holidays. Having lost their son Levi earlier this year they were eager to spend the holidays in a new spot and make a new memory. They are an amazing family who we learned much from as we watched them firsthand live out God's grace in their lives. We gave them the house on Friday so they could celebrate alone together and Friday we spent the day with Rob's family celebrating Christmas. We had a great time, all the kids running around, eating Grandma's fantastic food, singing together, and celebrating Christ's birth.



Christmas Eve morning found us at a 3 hour preschool "Christmas" program. A few weeks back the preschool asked Rob if would be the English host for the program. Since we needed to go anyways, he grudgingly said yes. Then they asked if he would sing.....when that didn't work they asked if he would model......um NO. You can imagine how well he took that. So Rob and Robbie found their places for the program with equal excitement. Robbie is terrified of public performance, and Rob isn't a fan of screaming children or awkward public situations. It was comical. Rob did a great job with all of his lines. Robbie on the other hand sat in the back and cried for about an hour in anticipation of his upcoming performance. His teacher finally brought him to me and told him to stay with me until it was his turn. He perked up a bit and finally he and his buddy Lenox who's mother was sitting with me and who also got returned to his mother for crying went up on stage holding hands together. Robbie blubbered his way through BINGO (a real Christmas song I know). It was adorable! I laughed so hard I think the video will be useless.





Then the real fun began. I returned home and started cooking for our big Christmas Eve dinner. The more I cooked, the more nauseous I got. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. The dinner came out great, but I couldn't eat anything. After dinner we sat around talking and laughing and just as the kids were headed to bed I knew things were gonna get bad. And they did. I spent the next 5 hours tossing my cookies, and just when I was finally starting to feel better Maddie started, and so went the rest of our night. We ushered in Christmas Day with a bang!



Christmas Morning was a little tough. Maddie and I were wiped out. Fortunately I have a stellar husband who made the cinnamon rolls all by himself and got breakfast out for the gang. Maddie and I just huddled in the armchair together and listened to everyone else sing Christmas carols together and read the Christmas story. I couldn't exactly cook Christmas lunch, but I had some wonderful elves who pulled it off. After lunch we took a nap and woke up feeling just well enough to attend an afternoon Christmas pageant. Can't even tell you how wonderful it was to be part of the true meaning of Christmas all together.




We managed to pass on our lovely virus to a few of our live in guests :-( so it was a difficult next few days, but interspersed with lots of laughter, Settlers of Catan, and bland food. We also were blessed with a HUGE wonderful box of suprises from America, curtesy of my amazing Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grandmother. The kids had so much fun opening each thing in the package and were especially excited to get 3 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios which are practically the same as gold here. Now a few days later and feeling all better we are happily enjoying all the yummy goodies they sent.




So although our Christmas was celebrated in a foreign land, with family, friends, and virtual strangers, and had quite a bit of sickness attached, we were blessed to be able to celebrate the greatest gift of all time. The gift of God's son becoming one of us, that He might redeem us. It was a crazy one but as always a blessed one.

Comments

  1. KristiDecember 30, 2011 at 11:38 AM

    Thanks for sharing, Gretchen! I enjoyed reading!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kate HillJanuary 4, 2012 at 8:48 AM

    Gretchen, I'm having problems commenting on your blog, which I thought was wonderful. So the last post which I think actually went through, was a test, please disregard. Anyway your blog is always good and very inspiring.
    Best
    Kate
    You and your family are always in our thoughts.

    ReplyDelete

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