It snowed a week before Christmas. This is the most snow we've seen in either winter that we have been in Luoyang. The students seemed to think it was an unusual amount of snow for Luoyang as well. It was cold enough that the snow stayed on the ground, and we had a white Christmas.

Here is the Christmas tree Deanna's Mom sent us, complete with tiny ornaments. We added some cardboard gingerbread men and a few ornaments we had brought with us or we recieved as gifts this year. One of our students thought we should have lights on it as well, so he brought us a string of Chinese lights. They were red and shaped like roses, and added the finishing touch to our special little tree.

We brought our manger scene with us from America. Although we had several at home, this one was given to us when we were first married, and was small and durable, making it the obvious choice. We had to get a little creative though, to add a star and angel.

Here is Deanna opening presents in China. We got some packages from home as well as the gifts we gave each other. Some of our students gave us gifts too, so we had plenty to open. It did seem strange for it to be just the two of us, though - a much calmer Christmas morning that we were used to. :-)

And this is Lee with his presents. Before opening presents, we read both versions of the Christmas story and sang a song. Afterwards we had Christmas dinner - a beef, onion and potato stirfry, green beans, bread, and banana pudding for dessert.

On Christmas evening, we had several students and an American teacher who lives upstairs over to celebrate with us. We had snacks and talked, enjoying each other's company. Part of the entertainment was Lee playing Christmas songs on his Chinese guitar.

But the real life of the party was what we call the "red spinney thing". It must have a Chinese name, but we don't know it yet. Here Deanna demonstrates her lack of skill with it. Once she gets it spinning, it flies away like a flying saucer. Lee can spin it flat out on one finger. A couple of our guests were very good at it too, though some worked all evening at it and never mastered it. It got passed from hand to hand the whole party and kept us all laughing.

We received three of these lovely peacock hanging decorations as gifts from students. We wondered if they had any special significance, since so many students gave them to us, but the concensus was just that peacocks are famous in China and these decorations are very pretty.

On Christmas Eve, the Foreign Language Department at our university had a Christmas dinner that was followed by entertainment. First we heard a very good string quartet play, then several students sang, danced or played musical instruments. Lee and Deanna, other foreign faculty and the headmaster had front row seats and enjoyed the show very much.

Copyright 2005, Dr. Lee Williams

Last Modified: 21 January 2005

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