Christmas this year was very different - to say the least.
Whilst the Chinese do acknowledge Christmas, it's not a holiday that they celebrate. Christmas day is just a normal working day for Chinese folk. We had to make special arrangements with the school to get Christmas day off.
All the stores and town is decked out with Christmas decorations, and it all looks quite festive.
Some of the decorations around town:
The school held a Christmas party for its students. It was their first Christmas party, and Liesl and I were asked to host the evening.
We had to put together some games the kids could play. We also arranged for our new teacher, Lucas, to dress up at Santa Claus.
For Christmas day, we decided to invite some of our friends over for Christmas dinner. They were all super excited because none of them have ever celebrated Christmas before.
We couldn't find turkey - surprise - so we bought 2 chickens and loads of veggies.
When we got the chicken home and started to prepare it, we noticed that the head and feet were still attached!! Which means we had to get a big-ass knife and dismember the chicken before we could cook it. This was one of the most disgusting things I've ever had to do! Seriously, I'm never eating chicken again!
Chicken aside, we made some cottage pie, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli and rice. I also made a chocolate cake and some traditional eggnog.
Our friends came over, we exchanged Christmas gifts, had some drinks (which I had to warm up for them in the microwave because they don't believe in drinking cold drinks during winter.... yes, I had to heat up the coke!) and we danced to Gangman Style. All in all we had a good time.
We woke up on Boxing Day to find that it had been snowing throughout the night! A white Christmas! Yay!! So we got dressed and went for a walk to see what snow-covered Wuhan looks like.
Whilst the Chinese do acknowledge Christmas, it's not a holiday that they celebrate. Christmas day is just a normal working day for Chinese folk. We had to make special arrangements with the school to get Christmas day off.
All the stores and town is decked out with Christmas decorations, and it all looks quite festive.
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| Our Christmas tree |
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| Liesl waiting to open her presents! |
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| Christmas morning! Don't you LOVE my Chinese PJs? LOL |
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| Check out all our presents! |
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| View of Guanggu Shopping area |
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| Christmas Tree and lights at Grand Ocean |
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| Merry Christmas Liesl! |
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| Not sure why the house is upside down... |
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| View of Grand Ocean and the Guanggu shopping area |
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| All the trees in the streets surrounding are decorated with these lights. Very pretty. |
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| Christmas tree in the Spanish Street |
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| "Merry Christmas" (said in best French accent) |
The school held a Christmas party for its students. It was their first Christmas party, and Liesl and I were asked to host the evening.
We had to put together some games the kids could play. We also arranged for our new teacher, Lucas, to dress up at Santa Claus.
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| Me in my Rudolph nose and horns |
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| Dora trying to get me on stage |
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| Me doing the welcome and intro |
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| Some of the kids |
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| Liesl and Dora |
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| In the front: Yoyo, Leo, Abel, Linda, Yige, Teddy, Angel and Sweety |
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| Our Teacher Assistants did a little song and dance number to "Rudolph" |
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| Me and Angel |
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| Mike, Susan, and Gigi - and our TAs, Yuki and Rianbow |
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| Ivan, Angel and our new teacher, Lucas, as Santa |
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| Tony and Crystal |
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| Teddy and Yige |
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| Linda |
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| Banny and Jerry |
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| Lucky and Leo. |
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| Sweety and Ariel |
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| Gigi and Ethan |
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| Susan and Abel |
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| Dora and Angel |
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| Mike and Rainbow
Some of our games:
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| Jojo, Mike and Leo |
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| Jojo, Lucas, Essie and Mike |
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| Lily and Dancy at Pin the Nose on the Reindeer (and yes, her name is Dancy) |
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| Liesl in Pass the Parcel |
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| Dora at the Pinada |
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| "Chinese name I can't pronounce or spell", Amy, Lucas and Dancy |
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| Snow and Peng Peng at Decorate the Christmas tree |
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| Kids making their Christmas tree decorations |
For Christmas day, we decided to invite some of our friends over for Christmas dinner. They were all super excited because none of them have ever celebrated Christmas before.
We couldn't find turkey - surprise - so we bought 2 chickens and loads of veggies.
When we got the chicken home and started to prepare it, we noticed that the head and feet were still attached!! Which means we had to get a big-ass knife and dismember the chicken before we could cook it. This was one of the most disgusting things I've ever had to do! Seriously, I'm never eating chicken again!
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| Me and the Chicken |
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| The feet... |
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| The deed is completed... |
Chicken aside, we made some cottage pie, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli and rice. I also made a chocolate cake and some traditional eggnog.
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| Eggnog |
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| Our set up |
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| My cake |
Our friends came over, we exchanged Christmas gifts, had some drinks (which I had to warm up for them in the microwave because they don't believe in drinking cold drinks during winter.... yes, I had to heat up the coke!) and we danced to Gangman Style. All in all we had a good time.
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| Essie, Lily, Jojo, Peter and Liesl |
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| ... and me |
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| Rainbow, Essie, Lily and Jojo |
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| Another new teacher, Anthony, and Peter |
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| Liesl in the kitchen |
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| Antony and Peter |
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| Rainbow and Lily |
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| Jojo and Essie |
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| Everyone enjoying their dinners |
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| Us |
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| Us |
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| Jojo and Liesl's moustache |
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| Peter and the moustache |
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| Santa and Christmas trees in Spanish Street |
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| In our apartment complex |
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| View from our balcony |
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| View of Spanish Street from our balcony. |
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| Us in the snow |
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| Liesl in Spanish Street |
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| Christmas balls |
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| View of our road |
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| Having coffee and a bun at Pappa Rotti |
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| Really tired and cold. |
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| The Don Quixote statue in Spanish Street |
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| Construction of the new German Street - behind Spanish Street |
Merry Christmas ya'll.
Hope you had a wonderful day!
xxx
Hi girls, glad you got to celebrate Christmas, even if it did mean you had to dismember the chickens ... they eat EVERYTHING over there, including the head with the beak still attached and the feet ... uurrgghh!!! And you lucky ducks had a white Christmas, how cool (no pun intended of course), lol. Love looking at your photos and reading your blog, looking forward to exciting blogs this year. Love, Kim xxxx
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