Happy Holidays from China with love

It was the strangest feeling walking through the malls here this past month.

Just like at home, there were dazzling ten-foot-tall Christmas trees and yards of sparkling lights strung along the streets and storefronts. Cheerful Santas and smiling snowmen lounged about in meticulous wintery tableaus. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” blared incessantly from strategically placed speakers.

But unlike home, I knew I would be returning to a cold, empty apartment for the holidays. And instead of rolling out of bed Christmas morning to make waffles and take pictures around the tree, I would be at school teaching.

I've missed Thanksgiving a couple times due to my travels, but never the Big 3-- Christmas, New Year's and my birthday. And, to be honest, I wasn’t thrilled about the idea. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. The smells, the warmth, the hint of surprise and mystery, that slight sparkle that everything seems tinged with as the day draws closer. I didn’t want to wait another 365 days to celebrate.

If living abroad has taught me anything, it has taught me to be adaptable. To make do. To Macgyver whatever situation you find yourself in and turn it into an opportunity.  

So this year, Christmas was introducing my students to Elf. It was forgetting the lyrics to “Winter Wonderland” while performing at the school’s Christmas Eve program. It was a can of Vanilla Coke for the Chinese teacher in the cubicle behind mine. It was a shared meal of rice and noodles at a new restaurant we found. It was singing Christmas hymns at church and praying for the safe return of our deported pastor. It was finding neither wrapping paper nor gift bows and settling for reusable grocery bags and large pieces of stationery paper. It was sitting with my brother in my little apartment and surprising each other with a gift that was somehow exactly what we both wanted and needed.

It was not like home. It was not Christmas as I imagined it should be. It was Christmas in China and I’ll never have another like it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to all of you, dear bloggies!

(For pictures from our Christmas Eve program at school, click here.)