Merry Christmas!

There's been more holiday festivities to report on:

We went to the Christmas service of the International Fellowship this morning. It was really encouraging to see the American, English, Canadian, Indian, Chinese, and Korean influences all shaping the music and the service! It is definitely the benefit of having that kind of mix of people.

Also this morning, we opened our Christmas package from Michigan. I'm amazed at how well my parents packed so many things into that little bitty box! Even though it was a rush (we were late to leave for the bus downtown!) it was really fun to have a little early Christmas reward. [note: the reward was ACTUALLY undeserved. When we got the package a week or so ago, I clearly laid out the rules: no opening the box until all grades were done. Now while Rachel worked hard to finish her work, she still had a small stack of papers to grade. I guess I'm too much of a softie...]

Friday night we celebrated Christmas with the English corner gang. Rachel led some games, which most everybody loved, of course. I enjoyed talking American politics and economics with the college students. I still think that Chinese students know a lot more about what's going on in America than most Americans! The internet is quite a tool.

Finally, I'll close with a report on the great Christmas candy sale - and all you need to know is that Rachel cleaned up! The middle school ran a candy sale (over 1100 RMB was sold!) and Rachel got at least 6 bags...and I only got 1 :( I'll be visiting Rachel's room to get some Snickers an awful lot come January!

Now that's we're here in Taiwan, we'll get to continue the Christmas celebrations! Yay!

-alan