Tender Taiyuan Christmas

 Several times during the previous months--before I came to China, even--I remember dreading Christmas. I knew homesickness would be hard this year in general, but I was certain that being away for Christmas would be killer. 

I was ready. I armed myself with ways to deal with sad thoughts and loneliness. I expected to have at least one good episode of sobbing with a weepy song playing in the background sometime during the month of December. 

You know what the Father did, though? He made me busy. Somewhere in the midst of Christmas lessons, Christmas parties, English Festival practice, shopping, and living life in the freezing cold, December flew by without time to think about missing things back home. 

You know what else? Christmas was really FUN.

On Christmas Eve, I came home from school cold and grumpy to find this: 

 

Yeah. My roommates covered my entire room in Santa Claus. He definitely watched me while I was sleeping and I even found him in my sock drawer.

That night was the school English Festival. We danced to a mash-up of What Makes You Beautiful and Call Me Maybe. I got to be a man (let's hold back on the man-jokes, please) and felt like a rock star. The performance was awesome and we were so popular, in fact, that they asked us to perform at the 6th grade performance as well and we got THREE rounds of applause.

Team Taiyuan. 

Don't call us, maybe. It could cost you a lot of money. 

Then. 

It was here. 

 Christmas.

The day started a little sad, with a song dad plays on Christmas running through my head as I woke up. But then we had breakfast, and as everyone knows, food makes everything better. 

 

 

Then Susie read us the Christmas story because you HAVE to read the Christmas story before you...you know...OPEN PRESENTS. 

 Which, of course, is what we did next.

 

Guess who got to play Santa.

 

 

Then ensued the ecstasy of Christmas present joy. 

 

Giggles, smiles, squeals of delight, and lots of China fabulous gifts. 

The rest of the day was filled with Christmas movies and fifty million chocolate crinkle cookies and being lazy in Susie's apartment. 

 Natalie and I also took some time to make Susie's facebook horse-themed while she was out spreading cheer to our Chinese co-workers. It was a smashing success.

Merry Christmas, Susie. 

Finally, I got to skype the family and open the package they sent me. Dad was out being a superhero and delivering babies, but I did get to sing Christmas carols with Mom and annoy the snot of out Audrey and Daniel.

That night before bed I read a booklet Mom had put together--copies of pages from some of my favorite Christmas story books. That was when I did cry, but only a little, and only because I have a loving family that's worth shedding tears over missing. 

It was a wonderful Christmas, though. 

A Tender Taiyuan Christmas, indeed.