Wednesday,
December 24, 2008
CHRISTMAS EVE IN CHINA
Mike woke up feeling horrible today; he tried to eat some
breakfast but couldn’t even get thru the meal and then spent the
rest of the day in bed. He’s got a fever, sore throat, aches,
etc…maybe a cold, maybe more? We aren’t quite sure what it is.
One of our travel mates found a pharmacy and picked up a Z-pack
for him just in case so he has started on that. We are making an
extra effort to keep him hydrated.
One of the activities today was a trip to Reed Flute Cave, which
is supposed to have some of the most amazing rock formations,
stalagmites & stalactites in all of Asia. I chose to skip this
outing, as it would be hard to navigate in a cave with the baby
& backpack by myself. But I heard it was indeed very cool. The
group returned after they had lunch and then Lauren & I joined
them for a trip to Elephant Trunk Hill, which rests on the
western bank of the Li River. The rock formations resemble an
elephant drinking water from the river. If any of you have seen
the Sesame Street movie called “Big Bird Goes to China”, you may
recognize this spot from the movie. There’s a park & walking
path surrounding this area and it was very pretty.
Afterwards we went to a pearl market, where I treated Lauren &
myself to a little “something-something”. It was actually a
really interesting trip because upon arrival we were given a
tutorial on how the pearls are harvested and then sat for a
“fashion show” type presentation were beautiful girls in gowns
walked a catwalk modeling some of the pearl choices. The place
was huge and offered tons of options from “reasonable” to “whoa
– who can afford that?”. And yes, of course, I was the last one
to leave the store; everyone else was waiting on the bus to go
back to the hotel. XiXi laughed at Ellie and I and said, “you
ladies really like to shop”. Yup – you said it sister! The
afternoon would have been totally pleasant had Lauren not peed
thru her diaper and all over my lap, but hey that just meant
more tub time for her as soon as we got back, which by the way
she is starting to really like. You are probably sick of hearing
it but thank God for those stacking cups…now she just sits in
the tub filing and dumping those cups, what fun!
Once my little angel was all cleaned up we headed off to our
Christmas Eve dinner with the group (minus Mike). I was
surprised to find out that Christmas is very big here in China.
There were fireworks set off after dark and everything! At our
hotel, they hosted a big celebration with a (skinny) Santa Claus
and had live music with a lovely choir of children singing
carols in Chinese. In one part of the hotel they offered some
sort of fancy-shmancy dinner that was packed! As for our group,
we were ushered off to another part of the hotel for a “western”
dinner menu. The only things I recognized were rice and steamed
egg, which it was what Lauren & I had. Tonight’s selections were
a far cry from our usual Eve favorites and quite frankly it was
a bit of a bummer and we all left feeling a bit empty – our
stomachs and our hearts. It’s hard being away from our families
at Christmas. One of the mom’s in our group, Kay, graciously
invited the group to “her place” after dinner for hot chocolate
and Christmas cheer. Not only did she have coco, but also lyrics
to Christmas songs and a small Christmas tree. Earlier in the
day, she had the older kids make ornaments out of paper &
crayons to decorate it. Too cute! Another person in our group
had brought along a Christmas version of Trivial Pursuit. We
sang carols and tried to guess the answers to the trivia (not as
easy as you may think), ate some sweets and just hung out and
had some laughs. Lauren had fun interacting with the other kids
too. At the end of the night, Kay read the story of Jesus’ birth
from the bible and I think we all got a little misty eyed. It
was really nice and sweet of Kay to open her “home away from
home” to us all and it was truly needed!
So that’s today’s news. Please send positive energy our
way….Mike needs to get back to himself so he can enjoy this
precious time in our daughter’s home land and NOBODY wants to be
sick for Christmas!!!
Oh and as for the baby in our group who is sick - she had to go
back to the hospital again today for I.V. fluids. This is so
hard on her little body and her parents sanity. Please continue
to keep her in your prayers.
We are truly looking forward to next Christmas when we are home
celebrating with all of you, our family and friends. Please know
that we are carrying you in our hearts and wish you all a
wonderful day. We hope you get lots of great presents too. As
for us, we got the BEST present we could ever wish for!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! |
Pretty in pink on Christmas Eve!
Momma & Lauren hanging out with Aunt Ellie at Elephant Trunk
Hill
The lovely choir
Relaxing after a meal
Lauren loved hearing all the carols!
Grace & Mahli are very proud of their beautiful ornaments!
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