it's snowing!

yes, it finally feels like Christmas here in China. This morning when I stepped outside I was welcomed by a light blanket of snow. It's still snowing lightly and the trees outside my classroom window are white now. For some reason we'll be having indoor recess today. Maybe because the snow is really wet.

What a good weekend we had! Yesterday was probably the best day of all. First of all, Scott shared his story (testimony) at church, then we went out for some dumplings with a fun group of friends. After a few episodes of LOST in the afternoon we went to Hannah and Becky's for a Christmas movie night. We enjoyed some Christmas treats, and hot chocolate as we watched Charlie Brown's Christmas and then Elf. Everyone was in such good spirits. We even played chubby bunny! This is Hannah's last week with us. She's a student teacher from Minnesota and flies home on Saturday. She even gave us all mugs filled with goodies. We'll miss her greatly.

On Saturday we had the special treat of going to see Handel's Messiah! A friend from church is in the International Festival Chorus, and they perform it each year. Best of all, it was in the Forbidden City concert hall. A modern concert hall in the middle of the ancient city. pretty cool. It didn't feel like we were in China, because the place was filled with foreigners.

Friday night was the Christmas performance of our school's middle and high school students. The newly renovated auditorium was an excellent venue. Apparently they used to have it in a room at the hotel, but it was too small and chaotic. This week we'll be going there with our students on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to practice. (The auditorium is at the other campus). Our performance is Thursday night. They definitely make everyone feel the Christmas spirit, because they are so enthusiastic about singing! Our report cards are also due at the end of this week! Yikes!

We were offered a dog this week! :) Our chinese neighbours are planning to move to New Zealand in February and have 2 dogs to get rid of. They know we like the little puppy...but we don't really think we'd want that responsibility, especially if we'll be travelling around in the summer. We went out for dinner with them on Thursday to a nice korean BBQ place.

there are so many funny stories I wish I could remember to write here. silly things that happen to us, or things we see. I can't even think of any right now....but we haven't forgotten that we're in CHINA, where you pay 70 cents if you want to use shrink-wrapped dishes (which is supposed to guarantee their cleanliness)...where my new gloves bleed colour dark blue into my hands....and where they kick the poor people out of the city so foreigners don't know about the poverty here. Annie, our neighbour says chinese kids mature faster because life is much harder. so many people means lots of competition if you want to achieve anything.

we are grateful for everything we have...and are glad to share it with others. it's great to have a community of people that is generous beyond words. we love our family here!

we love you and miss you all! Christmas will be very different without seeing all of you! this time next week we'll be in Hong Kong and then on to warmer places! yay!