Eventful week. Today we went to the college and Jeff gave his Christmas presentation. He was able to share the whole story, and then we broke up into groups and discussed it. It was pretty interesting listening to Jeff tell this story about a virgin girl who gave birth to God to take our sins away and that is what our calendar is based on. Who would believe such a crazy story anyway??
I had Diablo in my group again. I told him that yes, I did believe this crazy story was true, but that not everyone does who celebrates Christmas. Isn't that kind of strange too? He asked me if I had ever been to Israel. The two students who I was with had never heard this story before. Diablo thought the three wise men coming from the East (possibly China) was the most interesting part of the story.
Tomorrow Jeff gives his last final and then he is off for about 6-8 weeks. You never know until the very last minute. Friday morning Xiao Zhang and Yie Yie are coming over to make Christmas cookies and pumpkin pie. Yie Yie LOVES pumpkin pie AND she is doing much better.
Around 12:00 Jeff and Wyatt will go to a Christmas lunch with the president of the school and forgein teachers. Lexi and some students are going to a popular street that is decorated for Christmas. Me...... will be time to cook. I think I am making lasagna. Tomorrow I have to make homemade ricotta, so we will see how that comes out. The recipe seems simple enough.....? We have made homemade sour cream. YUMMY! I highly recommend it.! To do both sour cream and ricotta just includes cream/milk vinegar and salt. Who knew?
For Christmas Eve dinner we are having our Chinese teacher and her daughter, Christine (student) and the seamstress couple Mr and Mrs Wang and possibly our neighbor D. Christine is staying the night, and will spend Christmas day with us. We have never seen her wear a coat, and it is very cold. So we bought her one for Christmas. It is very different shopping for someone who does not own a coat rather than a family member who probably has 5+. It is very sobering and puts a whole new perspective on gifts here.
We are so excited to have new friends to celebrate with being so far from home. But, we will be thinking of everyone back home for sure! Remember us....
Pic: the students enjoying some candy sent from YOU all. They are telling you "thank you"!
B
Bless the people you come in contact with and are surrounded by, whether it's with a coat or a meal. You (all) are doing a great job, just the way you were meant to do. Love you, BG
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing little snap shots of your experiences. I find them encouraging, interesting, entertaining, and motivating. You are missed but are in our thoughts. Pretty amazing that there are people that have not heard the Christmas story, it is a pretty amazing story and we should never forget it.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to each of you.
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