I'll be Home for Christmas- in 24 hours!

T minus 24 hours and we're in the air on our way home for Christmas! Although I could VERY easily distract myself with packing or the like, I decided that there were more than enough "happenings" for another blog entry.


The Chatteris Christmas Party was a hoot. An event which, I must admit, required a lot of hostessing savvy on my part- almost to the point of non-enjoyment myself. All of our staff seemed to enjoy it though, and more than a few came up and acknowledged our valiant effort at creating a western Christmas abroad.


I even managed to get Brett on stage during our short music program. here we are singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside!"

Next, I should talk about the EAT team party, which consumed some time and planning. Our English Ambassadors are some of the most helpful students around and always lend a hand with projects and activities on campus. Sometimes I wonder if colleges will recognize the work of primary students- hopefully they will continue on this English heavy course!

We made Snowmen out of marshmallows and Oreos, as I've been studying "The Snowman" movie with them in our classes. (I realized there is no spoken word in the story- and it translates quite nicely to these guys. Plus, they have never seen snow and are fascinated by the concept!)

Sorry for the out of order photos...a few more of all of us at the Christmas party.

"The Best Cooking Show" was a lesson Scarlet and I did in class. Students had to script a cooking show with real demos. The kids got pretty into it!

Just last night I hosted Gingerbread house making here at the office. Little did I know when I bravely advertised this activity that my clever milk carton and graham cracker idea would be impossible. (add graham crackers to the list of popular American goods impossible to find in Hong Kong.)

I decided that chocolate wafer cookies would have to do- and luckily the staff managed to be creative with me! Check out my sugared-digs! Completed with backdoor and pez-lined garden. LOL. Such fun.

Below find a photo of me with some students at a Christmas Carolling Event I hosted.

A Picture of Kristy and Hannah with SK after their Aladdin Pantomime! My first real taste of the British classic.

Can't wait to see you all soon. I'm counting the minutes! To those I won't get the chance to see- I look forward to a long phone call? So as my British friends say "Have a very Happy Christmas!" HUGS!

Chinese Thanksgiving

There is no such holiday so named. But there is Thanksgiving IN China, when Americans decide to challenge themselves to create the authentic experience.

Here's Brett prepping his mom's famous Chinese Salad- traditional Peach Family Thanksgiving fare. It was QUITE tasty I must say- though the funniest part was that the "Chinese Noodles- or- Chow Mein"was unavailable here in China. Go figure.

Some of you know that I have a counter top toaster oven which is serving me quite well. I assumed though, that attempting a turkey would be tempting fate with the toaster oven gods...so, I looked to my local (30 minutes away) western grocery which reminds me of an expensive WholeFoods. As luck would have it, they offered fully cooked US grown turkeys for the Christmas season. What's better, they would give it to me HOT so I didn't have to solve the problem of reheating my whole turkey without a clue how I'd attempt it. Great. Now the problem was that the smallest turkey I could order was 13 pounds. We called on our American friends Sean, Matt and Jacqueline (Pictured below very happily seated at our makeshift thanksgiving table. Sorry you can only see part of Sean's head.) We could only invite three as 5 is the number of most things we have in terms of dishes in the kitchen.

Check out this package deal! The turkey came in a Styrofoam box to keep it hot, and came with some veggies and gravy and cranberry (which, frustratingly was better than my homemade whole berry version). YUM! All that was left was the potatoes, stuffing and pies!

I had a real blast prepping everything and I think our friends really enjoyed the gesture.

Pictured: Turkey, delicious, and still warm!

At the end of the night- here's Brett doing the hard work...stripping the bones of leftover turkey which would last us another 6 meals! Good thing we got creative with the meat. :) Good Job, Brett.

Jacqueline has a few more photos- some of me even! :) and I'll add those as soon as I can.

13 days until we are on our way home for Christmas. Gosh- there is SO much to be thankful for.