here's a picture (if it works) of our church family. we were saying goodbye to someone (which is very common in this kind of community) and they wanted a group picture.

by God's grace we made it through this week. lots of fun and lots of busyness. every day was just packed full of things. I tried to fit in some teaching in between all the other music and Christmas activities going on. I look forward to things settling down in the New Year. though apparently it's quite busy with Chinese New Year, Enrichment Week, Spelling Bee, Brain Bowl. the fun just never stops!

our Christmas performance was on Thursday night. the kids did such an incredible job! they are all such enthusiastic singers and musicians. it was a long day and a lot of work, but we had a good time. and it was all worth it to show off to the parents :) I felt a lot of relief once that was finished, but even more after today was done. today the students were dismissed at 1:30. We had a spelling test in the morning, finished up some crafts, then had a tournament of Contig with the other class. then parents showed up with lots of food, we had a feast and then they went home! I got some cool presents too! my favourite being a quilted sign that says Merry Christmas in mandarin. pretty cool.

once the kids were gone I cleaned out the room of all Christmas things in preparation for the new year. I finished some last bit of marking and exported my grades then celebrated by going for a Starbucks run one last time with Hannah, who is leaving tomorrow. tonight we just relaxed! it feels so good to be on vacation. we're really looking forward to this trip. it's nice to have the weekend to get ready to head out. we leave early Monday morning!

Merry Christmas everyone!