Ah, drinking a nice cup of hot chocolate and listening to Christmas carols.... must mean Christmas is just around the corner... can you believe it? ( I know I didn't keep my promise about updating more often and I'm sorry, but at least I'm writing now and I want to wish all of you who read this a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I won't promise this time to update more frequently, but I will promise to think of you all more often than I update this site and especially now during the holiday season....  I hope you enjoy the occasional updates none the less! Love you all!)

Wishing you a Merry Christmas from my roommates and I!

Here are a couple of pictures from our Thanksgiving feast with all of our students. Each American teacher sat at a different table and enjoyed the feast with a table surrounded with our beloved students. We had a very delicious meal followed by songs, and gifts given to the teachers from the students at the Big Apple, and a reading of the first Thanksgiving story.

The scarfs were gifts from 'grade one' students to all the female teachers.    

We had many interesting foods at our mean. One of which was a carrot shaped kind of fried bread I think. They really looked like carrots. I couldn't pass up this photo opp. We also had a whole chicken (since we couldn't get Turkey at the restaurant), and several other a bit more western, although still very Chinese, dishes.

Working at the Big Apple is a fun time to hangout with the students. Here I'm teaching several girls how to make  popcorn. We put sugar on it and everybody really likes it!

The second picture is Angela (one of my roommates) and I just having fun with the apples.

We got our first SNOW about a week before thanksgiving! It was so pretty! There continued to be little snow flurries for a few days, but it didn't stick much after the first fall. It snowed again just yesterday, but only stayed on the ground for a short time. Actually I was teaching while it was snowing and I kept looking out the window to see if it was snowing, cause I really thought it was cold enough, but all I could see was that the road and sidewalks were wet, so I thought it was just raining, but then after class I looked out another window on the other side of the building and the whole school yard and housed behind the school were covered with a thin blanket of snow.

We are getting into the Christmas Spirit at the Big Apple too, making paper chains and origami ornaments. We just got a tree last weekend, ordered and shipped in from Beijing.

My roommates and I make dinner together every Thursday night. Last week we made noodles with eggs and spinach. It was delicious! This week we made dumplings.... well, actually I should say Angela made dumplings. Katie and I tried to help, but it wasn't easy to keep the filling and all of it's juices inside the little dumpling dough. The noodles were much easier. I think I could actually make them again on my own. :)

We also got our tree yesterday and spend the evening decorating it! I think it looks beautiful! The first really color coordinated tree I've had I think. And definitely the first fake tree I've had, but that's okay. At least we have one and it only cost 30 yuan (can't get a real or fake one in the states for 4 bucks). Also, we don't have to worry about it drying up right next to the radiator. Plus, I can keep it for next year... ;) (oh, there are so many benefits to a fake tree... :)

Well, we'll be having a Christmas party with all of our students and guests on Friday night Dec. 22. We're having a small stocking made for everyone, that we'll fill with candy. Then our American staff will have our own traditional candle light service on Sunday night and an American style Christmas lunch on Christmas day! It's a new experience being in a country that doesn't really celebrate Christmas and the only thing that's really known about it is Santa Clause. I hope somehow through all our efforts to decorate and bring Christmas cheer we can show our students and friends what Christmas is really all about.