A Chinese December

I’m sitting here in our apartment this morning playing cars with Aiden and thinking about this season. Christmas is so much more than a holiday, but it makes you think harder when the country you live in doesn’t “really” celebrate Christmas. I start to wonder what Jesus was like as a little boy. Was he as curious as Aiden is at the age…so many questions! But more than anything I’m THANKFUL that he was born to be our savior! What an incredible event that changed our lives forever! Happy Birthday Jesus! 

Well as always, there are funny stories to go along with everything that goes on here. We went a few weeks ago to go get our tree. Back home we always had a fake tree and we knew that was what we were going to get again this year…I’m not sure they even have real ones here. But with my black thumb there is no way a real tree would EVER survive December in our house! 

We made tree shopping a big to-do around here. We went to a massive store called, in English, Stuff Mart. And STUFF is what they have. Going there on a Saturday with 5 foreign adults, 3 kids, 2 babies and 2 drivers was like Black Friday on steroids!!! People were everywhere!!! Definitely a crazy experience trying to push through the crowds to find the Christmas areas, but we did it! It did take almost getting run over by a car twice to get in and out of the mart. That's pretty scary in and of itself, but when you have a baby strapped to you it makes it doubly crazy...and I'll admit that I had to work really hard at keeping my mouth shut. And of course, one thing about China that is so different from America is the lack of personal space. I've had to learn (the hard way most times) that they will cut in line, push you out of the way or totally run into you when they aren't paying attention. They really don't mean anything malicious by it, it is just the way they do things...and I'm not learning that fast enough apparently! Ha!

Decoration city!

Will and Chen - our drivers

Trees, tress, trees!!!

Oooo...wreaths!

Our fabulous shopping group - minus the men - with our reindeer hats!

We found a great tree that has fiber optic lights, a wreath and some adorable snowmen! I brought ornaments from home so now our house feels like it is actually Christmas. Jeffrey and I put the decorations up that night once Aiden was in bed. The next morning Aiden was enthralled! I tried so hard to get a good picture of him but it just didn't happen. He just couldn't believe his eyes and the fact that the tree had lights. So precious!!! I'm so looking forward to teaching Aiden all about the true meaning of Christmas!

Aiden checking out the tree!!!