As you can guess the holidays make us a little homesick. It’s all the memories and the missing of delicious treats. Umm, caramel, candy canes, and grandma’s lemon meringue pie. Yet, we are trying to create our own holiday traditions here. Thanksgiving just passed and we did have a wonderful time with 20 other westerners at a local Beijing Duck restaurant. We pretended the traffic was the holiday Thanksgiving rush and it just made me smile, and actually enjoy the traffic. While duck is no turkey, we’ve done it two years in a row and it has become our new tradition. We brought delicious homemade pumpkin pie, apple crisp and stuffing. I found it quite funny we had to bring our own forks to avoid eating pie with chopsticks. To make the night even better, we ended up singing Christmas songs in the car on the way home. The next day we decorated our home with lights and a fake tree. Stockings were hung and we listened to Christmas music from the Internet. We skyped the family and heard their voices and wished them a Happy Thanksgiving.
Next we look forward to the 2nd year in a row of ice-skating on the pond in the middle of town on Christmas day. Alleyah will be in her school Christmas play and we will have our students over for Christmas too. We might just have to bring Christmas cookies to Noah’s school and share with the local children in his class.
Here in Asia men on bikes pull a basket ringing a bell to collect recycling. I like to think it’s the Salvation Army bells in a storefront. I was actually shocked to see a Christmas tree in a front window of a nice hotel! Yet the only Christmas store in town does not open for 2 more weeks. All year round the trash truck plays “Here Comes Santa Clause” as it passes by so people know it’s time to take out their trash. It’s just fitting now that the season is actually here. I guess it makes up for not having Christmas music playing in the grocery store. There are no Christmas lights in the neighborhood, but this city sure does light up at night. The typical scene you would think of with blinking neon characters. The city at night always has us gazing out the taxi window in amazement. It’s cold outside and the hustle and bustle of people just fits the holiday craze my mind thinks it should be. I guess you can make anything feel like home.
While we miss home for the holidays we are so thankful to be here. We love the people around us. We love the work that we are involved in and the friendships we have made.
May all of you have Happy Holidays!!
