The best Christmas ever!

Maybe I said last year was the best Christmas ever, well I take it back...this year was so amazing! I guess I should start at the beginning.

On Christmas Eve we went to Yidu, about an hour away, to meet some other foreign friends who'd been asked to sing at the church there. This was my first experience in a church in China. And it being a Christmas service may have made it different than usual, but it was just like any get-together in China...performances. There were several different traditional Chinese dances and songs...mostly older ladies. There was one group of little girls that performed. They danced with sunflowers on their hands and sang "This is the Day." We were invited to come on stage and sing with them since they'd learned one verse in English. We were told we were going to be the fourth "act." Well what seemed like 20 acts later we finally got to sing our two songs: Silent Night and O Come O Come Emmanuel. We ducked out immediately after that to head back to Yichang.

We made a palate in Brad's floor with the intention of watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and waking up together on Christmas morning. We never quite got around to the movie. Once it passed 12 I kept trying to get everyone to open the presents then. It technically was Christmas. It's funny because my mom instilled in us the habit of not necessarily waiting until Christmas to open things. We've always been in the habit (with any gift giving occasion) to give it as soon as you buy it because we can't stand the anticipation and want to see the person open it immediately. I see Christmas as more of a season of giving and not just one day ;) Anyway, it didn't work.

We woke up around 8:30 and had bagels and cream cheese, eggs, and coffee! By 9 we began opening gifts and I thought I would burst! I seriously thought I'd have an anxiety attack waiting for everyone to open their stuff. We had all spent so much time and creativity making our gifts, I just couldn't wait! I think we hit some kind of record...we opened gifts until after 2! 5 hours of gifts! Divided between us that's an hour per person!

I was just so impressed with our group here. Each person displayed love and thoughtfulness in each gift, picking up on inside jokes and individual traditions. It was so wonderful. There's no way I can accurately describe everything, and I don't have pictures yet, but I will leave you with these two amazing gifts...

Beth made me a "Girl on the Go" kit which included an awesome patchwork bag she found, bagel chips from Wuhan!, personalized stationary she made, and a 2008 planner she made with verses, pictures, and quotes. Too sweet!











Brad and I got to spend alot of time together over the last week because alot of our gifts were joint projects. We had two 4 am nights, but had so much fun in the process! Brad knows that I'm a quality time person and that's all I really care about in a friendship, so his gift reflected that.

As some of you know, a frequent phrase of mine in the past has been "I want a Diet Coke as big as my head." Well, in China, all the Diet Coke has lemon in it (which tastes like dark sprite to me...not a fan.), so I've had to become a diet Pepsi girl. So far in Yichang it's only sold individually, and usually I go into town to get it. I usually only get 3 or4 at a time because I don't like to haul everything around back to my house. It's not like I can just throw it in my car here. And even more tragically, the store I always go to is currently out of Diet Pepsi! That may not seem like a big deal, but in China if a product sells out they don't think "Oh, we should get more, it's popular." They just order it when they feel like it I guess. So who knows when it will be back in stock.

Anyway, I say all that to present this next gift:
Brad got me 36 Diet Pepsis! 24 in a box (rare!) and 12 wrapped cans. His intention was for it to be like a Sweepstakes and for me to open several of them and hopefully find the prize. Well, I opened the prize-winner on the first try! Inside was a golden ticket awarding me one D-Day with Brad where we can do anything I want that starts with "D". Now this is hilarious and exciting to me, and I can't wait to start making my list of "D" things! He knows I always want someone to dance with, so we'll begin the list with that...


Anyway, all of the gifts were wonderful and thoughtful. Kim made me salsa and a brownie mix because she knows I hate shopping for cooking stuff. Katie made me a note for each day I'll be gone over Spring Festival and not be with them in India. A watch, gloves, post-its, a necklace...the list goes on and on.

I'm so thankful for this group. It makes me want to stay here with them forever, but in reality, how could we ever top this Christmas!? We truly are blessed to be here together.