Christmas in Xi'an . . . and a glimpse at home!

We have had a wonderful Christmas in Xi'an, though very different from what we are used to. The highlight for us was being able to speak with and see Chi and David and kids and to talk with Adam and Kimmy and all their kids. THEN to make it even more special we received an email from Nya telling us all about their Christmas, her gifts, and the school play she is going to be in. That was such a treat. I think hearing from our kids and grandkids is the greatest joy we can think of. We have loved our weekly visits from Chi and family on Skype. Being able to see the kids growing up is really neat. We have missed having a similar experience with Patrick's and Adam's families. Adam has been traveling and their at-home computer died so we were thrilled to hear that they have a new computer at home for Christmas. Patrick and family don't do Skype so we really miss seeing and hearing from them but have appreciated Patrick's taking the time in recent weeks to write us an update about each of their family each week.

We are really enjoying our experiences here, as difficult as they are but all the same having contact with family makes a very special difference in our lives. It was wonderful to receive a picture card from Adam's family, though their envelop of pictures has yet to find its way to us. Hopefully sometime. China mail is not easy!

On Christmas Eve I gave my last two oral finals from 2:00 until nearly 5:00 pm, taking bus 313 from Rainbow bridge rather than my bike since we were getting our first snow of the season! How's that for perfect. A white Christmas!


After the final I scurried home to get the last touches of my dinner ready. I had done the earlier preparation in the morning. We had two couples and two single sisters in our branch for dinner to try to brighten their homesickness for family. One of the singles is a widow and Christmas without her sweetheart is a very difficult time--I can't even imagine it! We had an Italian/Norwegian dinner with artichoke/chicken/tomato panzanella salad, tomato basil soup, Ruby River-like yam disks, deep fried then served with cinnamon butter, and for dessert Norwegian rice and cream. Yummy (Thanks to Elaine's recipe from years ago), fruit--oranges, grapefruit (well here it had to be pemmellos, and pomegranates) as well as Christmas cookies I figured out how to bake in my TINY oven using a flattened 9" aluminum pan. It was a delightful evening, admittedly much smaller than our usual Christmas Eve open houses in our Maryland and Salt Lake years, but fun anyway. It made Christmas Eve for us too.


On Christmas day we slept in! We were bushed and had no little people to roust us out early. We enjoyed a Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls, orange juice, hot chocolate, granola/fruit/yogurt. It wasn't like going to Little America with Gledhills for our traditional outing but it was yummy, and we didn't end up eating as much.

In the afternoon we went to our branch president's house--they are back in town to make their official move to Xiamen, though they have been there for a couple of months, kind of camping out. It was wonderful to see them again.

For the Christmas Night party we had all the branch (all 21 of us) plus visitors who are here volunteering at the foster home. They had come from Norway, Sweden, Canada, Indonesia, etc. Wonderful young people, traveling around to see the world and stopping along the way to lend a hand in service. It was a pleasure to meet them--and to sample their contributions to our meal! Helena, the Swede, is a chef. Oh my! Once more we came home very tired but happy, so glad to be with good friends and feel the joy of the season.

Elise and Ed Britton spoke in our Sunday meetings today and they really touched our hearts with their desire to serve the Lord wherever He wants them to be. Turning their lives over to Him and allowing Him to lead and guide them has blessed them with great miracles, as we know happens to all of us when we do likewise.

After church today we had a pot luck while we all waited for our turn to give our tithing settlement declaration to Pres. Britton. Not many units in the Church where that can be done in one afternoon! I made Hard Rock Cafe's baked potato soup from the left over mashed potatoes and Aunt Margie's salad, and no-knead bread.

Because we never have the opportunity to have homemaking meetings, we took the first five minutes of our Relief Society time for me to demonstrate how to mix the bread and then put a batch I had brought with me ready to form and raise for second time, set it to raising and baking as part of our potluck, though it didn't get done in time for the main meal,it served its purpose and was gobbled up after dessert when it finally came out hot from Ruth Ann's little toaster oven.

John and I, with the Brittons finally dragged ourselves to the bus stop to catch our respective buses home. It has been a very long but very good day. Because John is not only first counselor but also the branch clerk we were there for the duration to get all the signed declarations, collect the little bit of tithing, and have all paper work in order. He has decided that one of the important reasons he is in Xi'an is to get the branch clerking tasks organized! He may be right!

We hope that your Christmases were filled with the greatest joy of the season and that you will treasure being together with your families. We love and miss you all. Next week sees the last of my finals--then I have hundreds of papers to correct and grades to give for my writing students. John gives his finals on January 4 and then he faces millions of papers to grade in order to wrap up his semester. But we will get it all done and deserve our upcoming break in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Southwestern China, and Gulangyu (Xiamen) directly across from Taiwan.