Christmas has come and gone. It was a busy but great season for us. It was a time when we certainly missed family and friends at home, but we were very busy. Christmas is not celebrated the same or a similar importance put on it here in China. There were many signs in stores for Christmas, but all with Santa Claus and Christmas trees. We did have a lot of students over for Christmas parties though--about 120 in all. We went to Guiyang, the capital of the province for Christmas. It was a really fun time, as about 100 foreigners got together for a celebration at a hotel. We enjoyed getting a chance to meet other foreigners in the area. Many came from Europe and America. Patty played the flute for the music. We had a couple of other get togethers with other teachers from our organization and we enjoyed staying with a family the Millers who have four children. It was fun to see their excitement. We bought some presents for the children before coming to guiyang.

On Christmas morning the kids woke up at 4 am, which was way too early for me. We did not go to the annual church service held on Christmas eve, but watched one on DVD from last year in Missouri. I guess town was really crazy with lots of people who go to the service which is usually just performances. The weather has been very cloudy with a good deal of rain, but we have been staying relatively warm and healthy.

Since returning to college, we have had quite a few opportunities that have come from the parties so that has been great. The students are relived now that the CET tests are done and they get Monday and Tuesday off for New Years. We are not sure if we want to have a New Years get together or not. We are continuing to be busy with finals and getting prepared to travel to Beijing. We had a couple students come over and teach us how to make Chinese dumplings which was really fun. We first went shopping with them and saw where they kill the dogs, it was really hard to stand because over the weekend was the dog meat festival. The dumplings are relatively easy to make with only the skins, meat, green onions and cabbage that has been steamed and drained of water. We made about 100 of them and finished them off between the 6 of us. Maybe we will learn some more Chinese cooking before we come home.

We did not get any snow though over the holidays, as the computer said we could, but I guess Minnesota and the Midwest got all of it. We hope you were all blessed over the holidays and that you are healthy and excited for what the Boss has in store for the New Year.

This week did not many exciting events. It was a cold and foggy week for the most part. It has been in the 40's with some mornings in the 30's, but without the sun it has not been too fun to be outdoors. We are preparing for finals here, so we have gotten to learn all kinds of new things.

This weekend, we had two more Christmas parties for our 06 three year students. It was really fun. We had to make another batch of cookies on Friday to prepare for the parties--another 80 or so cookies six at a time in our toaster oven. They are not quite like the ones at home, but they are chocolate chip cookies. On Saturday, we went out shopping to get some things for the parties. For some reason, every time we go to the market, I have missed the dogs that they are selling there. I mean dead dogs with their skin taken off that they sell for food. Now they are abundant and everywhere, laying there with their tongues hanging out and skinned. But at the grocery store, we were finally able to see a little sign of Christmas as it is at home. The store was totally outfitted for Christmas, they had small and large Christmas trees all over, each worker had a Santa hat on and they were playing all of the Christmas caroling favorites in English and Chinese. This gave us a chance to sing and shop at the same time. I don't know if they change the music when we come, but whenever we get there they start playing songs in English. They are usually rap songs with lyrics that I hope they cannot understand. Once we got home, we made supper and found that our gas was all out, but luckily we had just finished making everything. On Saturday, we had 17 students who came. Our Christmas tree is now virtually full of ornaments and our stash of cookies are again waning. We watched our wedding movie again, which has become a great way of teaching about American culture, but also sharing about church and some of our beliefs. They leave wanting to get married themselves. We have gotten a few Christmas cards from students and a few gifts, which are really fun. They often give us chocolate, but it is just not the same as American chocolate. On Sunday, another 16 students came and it was very similar. We shared some of the songs that we had written together on the piano that we were given. It was really fun to be able to share those things with them. We again watched the wedding video and it is fun to see so many friends and family members on film and to see the exciting events over again. But we have watched it about four times this month!!

Well, this week, we are performing with the other American teachers in a Christmas program for the English department. It should be fun to share some Christmas songs and get a chance to celebrate with the whole department. We have some of our finals this week, but most classes are preparing for their CET tests on English proficiency. They are very nervous, because it is rather important that they pass. It will help get better jobs. We will be off to Guiyang for a large Christmas party this weekend and stay until Christmas day there. In the forecast, they have snow possibly coming on Christmas eve, so that could be very fun to see. They do not get much snow here ever, so the students are excited. Well, we hope your Christmas seasons are being blessed by the real reason we have Christmas. The gift of Jesus who came to allow us a relationship with the Boss. Enjoy!!

Last weekend, we learned a good lesson about trying to have parties for students who live off campus--our five year students who still live at home. We baked lots of cookies, prepared everything and no one came. It was sad, but we learned that we had to plan the parties earlier for them because they cannot get a bus back home late at night. We did have a couple of students come on Sunday and they ended up watching our wedding film and looking at our pictures, which was really fun to share with them.

The weather here has been a little mix of very cold and reasonable days, depending solely on whether or not the sun comes out. We did buy winter coats yesterday, something I thought I would hold out to buy, but mine was very cheap, only 39 RMB or about $5. When I got it home, I found that it was a 7XL, boy does that make we feel like I am huge. Patty also found one, so she is excited to be much warmer. We did a little shopping yesterday and actually found some Christmas decorations at the supermarket, so we got some to decorate a bit.

Classes and the preparation for finals has been keeping us quite busy. Students are very nervous for their final exams. They also have their CET-4 and 6 tests coming up next weekend, so they are studying for those as well. They show their English level and help them get a job teaching, but connections also help as well.

Some of interesting happenings from the week, include lots of activity of course. Even though it is colder, I have tried to stay active to keep myself warm. Patty chooses instead to curl up next to the heaters with a book and blankets. This weekend, they had a ping pong tournament and I was asked to play which was very fun. That day I went down early to play some basketball and I ended up coming home early, because I slipped and slid across the concrete giving myself a large gash in my right hand. It is healing quite well, but it made ping pong playing more interesting.

We have also been preparing for our trip to Beijing in January. We have been trying to find places to visit and things to do. It will be fun to see where the Olympics are going to be help as well as the Great Wall and other famous sites. This is possibly the only time we will have this opportunity, so it is a good time to go, even though it will be a bit cold.

We have been learning a lot during our individual studies each day. I have been really enjoying studying Luke in-depth. It has taken many weeks and I am still inching through it, but there are so many great pieces of knowledge that the Boss is showing to us. Patty is continuring to look at the Beatitudes and what that can teach about right living. She is loving it!!

This weekend, we had two more parties for our 4 year students. This time our house was full of students. I think we had about 23 students in total. Because they were watching the Nativity for class, we ended up watching our wedding video again (both times). It is fun to see so many faces of friends and family and to celebrate the event again. The students also had lots of questions or comparisons to Chinese weddings. Some of the interesting differences were that Chinese weddings use red for almost everything that we use white for, they have red dresses for the bride because it is a sign of good luck, red candles to celebrate the ancestors (they use white candles at funerals), a red carpet for the bride to walk down, and everyone must give the bride and groom money based upon how well they are related (a way of proving how good a friend you are). Things are changing though as most wedding shops also have white wedding gowns, so sometimes they may change into two or three wedding gowns in one night. It was most interesting!! For the most part, they liked the cookies we made. We tried to make them with less sugar. Our tree is slowly becoming more decorated with students ornaments and a couple we bought from the store.

One other interesting tid-bit is that one of my former co-workers from Albert Lea, sent an article from the newspaper there about our penpal exchange between China and ALHS. That was exciting to see. We are hoping to be able to send some gifts this next time to share about Chinese culture and maybe even some Chinese candy. We hope this finds you doing well, staying healthy from the cold winter weather and that you are having a blessed Christmas season. We send our love!!

After the exciting weekend of Thanksgiving, returning to school and Anshun was a little different. We were excited to be back, but things were different. We did not have SanSan anymore, so we were not forced to get up early to take him on walks and take him on late night walks around the track and campus. We have been trying to keep up walking at night, as it is fun to be able to talk and share about the day and reflect before going to bed. This week, we have wanted to eat more American food though, so we have made spaghetti and we bought some olive oil and nice bread, so that was fun. I also made some vegetable stew, which turned out really well. It is kinda fun to try new things, but each meal is a big production with many plates to wash in the end. We received a package from home with some gloves and hats and a nice surprise of chocolate. That was really fun to have--most of the food here is salty or spicy, so a little sweets are always nice.

We have been working on getting things together for having Christmas parties for all of our classes. We decided that this being our first year, we should try to have each class over individually for a small Christmas party. We will show "The Nativity" and share the story. We put up a Christmas tree, but we did not bring any ornaments, so we are having students write what they are thankful for on paper ornaments we traced and cut out: angels, snowmen, stars, and Christmas trees. We also stayed up late last night to make some cookies. We made 88 chocolate chip cookies (from some of our chocolate) and about 50 sugar cookies. We are not good bakers so hopefully the student will like them. It was quite the production, because we only have a small toaster oven, so we could make about six at a time. We are excited to have students over, but it will mean some very busy weekends. We are having our two five year student classes over this weekend. In the end, we will have eight parties and somewhere around 300 students over if everyone comes (we are not expecting everyone to come, but we will see).

The weather has been really nice, each day being quite a bit nicer than the computer said it would be. The sun has been out, so that usually means that it will be warm. I had my final two basketball matches this week. We played the math and science departments and then the middle school in town. Each of the matches were rather large victories but a little violent in nature. The teachers are fiercely competitive, but we won both games, 85-15, and 73-37. Also, I was invited to play in a volleyball match between the teachers and the school's volleyball team. We tied two games a piece, and it was fun to play with the same teachers again. We have started having two a week Chinese lessons and that has been really good. We are hoping to practice more and feeling more confident. It is still a little bit of a stuggle, but we are definitely learning more. The days are just not long enough for all of the activities, classes, and having study time, but we are learning to make the most of our time. We hear there is a big storm coming at home--we hope everyone is safe and warm. I will update everything again when our parties are over on Sunday night. Many blessings and love!!