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 One of JD's ex-teachers gave him a choice of Christmas presents - a dancing robot or a 180 piece coloured pencil set. Pleasingly, he went for the latter. So this last weekend he and I together drew a huge picture of an aircraft carrier (JD's latest obsession) complete with sharks, tanks, octopus and flower pot!
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 We celebrated our Christmas this last weekend as we are all working on the actual day. JD woke at 6am to see what Santa had bought him [see above] and then we played with various toys throughout the day, opening all our presents after lunch. JD seemed more interested in making a junk plane from the boxes which the present came in at one point [bottom, left]. Then JiaJia managed a delicious roast dinner [bottom, right] in the evening to round off a very enjoyable day. Merry Christmas to all my blog readers!!
 Christmas is fast approaching but it is largely a theoretical celebration here. Christmas Day itself will be full working day for me - six hours of watching students perform role-plays for their final exam. We may actually trick JD into thinking that Saturday and Sunday beforehand are actually Christmas, so he has more time to enjoy the fun and the presents which are slowly gathering under our tiny tree! We can probably cook some sort of vaguely Christmassy meal then too. Our tiny flat is barely decorated this year since we are about to move back into our old flat which is three times the size. But I fear by the time we get settled in there Christmas will be long forgotten! Oh well!  Making Christmas decorations/gifts
We're back at my parents' in Sidcup, Kent for another full and fun week. We visited "Lark in the Park" a community event my parents' church helps to put on. JD got his face painted as Spiderman, and took part in various activities such as painting, pets and puppets. We also visited Hall Place, a Tudor house which was hosting a Lego exhibition.
Then at Cooling Garden Centre, we watched a Bird of Prey show and JD got to handle an owl. And finally my Mum and Dad put on a "belated" Christmas celebration complete with a tree, roast dinner, crackers, carols and presents. How do we fit it all in?
 I am currently enduring chants of "Come one, Santa" from "Crayon Tree Kindergarten" which is overlooked by our flat. It's been going for 40 minutes already! Must be Christmas Day.
We celebrated Christmas a day earlier than most, since Monday is a normal working day here and JD will be at school. On Saturday, Jiajia attempted her first Christmas dinner and, despite limited ingredients and a tiny oven, we had a fantastic roast chicken with all the trimmings [see above]. That evening, JD made sure to leave out a stocking, biscuits, milk and a carrot for Santa and his crew [below left] before heading to bed. We were amazed he managed to stay awake until 8.00am this morning at which point the present-opening began. JD and I then enjoyed a day of making Lego models [bottom right], as well as various more festive activities. There's nothing like a kid around to make for a great Christmas atmosphere.
 JD is getting increasingly excited about the prospect of Christmas, as the pile of presents slowly grows and the advent calendar chocolates get eaten up. We are planning to have Christmas lunch (or our limited version of it) on Saturday and hang up JD's stocking that evening. Then Sunday can be our Christmas Day (JD is at school on Monday) with the present opening and a hotpot with friends in the evening. At least the bitterly cold weather here gives things a Christmassy feel!
 We had a quiet-ish Christmas Day yesterday, as is often the way in China. JD brought some excitement to the morning however, totally blown away by Santa's visit overnight and opening all his gifts under the Christmas tree. His main present was a new two-wheeler bicycle which he enjoyed trying out later in the morning. His favourite gift though was a toy electric drill which kept him amused for ages. Ava got the latest iPhone and I got a year's subscription to "The Week" magazine. In the afternoon, I drove JD to a large play centre in the north of Kunming for a few hours of fun and games there. Merry Christmas, readers!
 JD and I put up our Christmas decorations last week - very early, but he was home ill, so he enjoyed the activity. He's already way too excited about Christmas, with little comprehension of the many weeks to go before he opens his presents!
 JD's been excited about Christmas (or at least his presents) for some weeks now and, with Christmas Day being a normal school day for him, we decided to let him open some of his presents early over the space of the last week or two. Ava found a boxed set of fake Lego construction vehicles online and so JD has been opening a new toy every few days and then making it and playing with it until the next one. Well, when I say making it, it's actually watching me make it. The models are designed or 6+ year olds and it's been a tough job to complete each one up within JD's hour or so concencentration span, especially when they don't clip together quite so firmly as real Lego. But then at 20% the price of the real stuff, we're not complaining too much! And he's loving the influx of new toys.
 I spent an hour decorating our living room yesterday, with ma-in-law hovering in the background complaining that it was all too early and it would mean higher electricity bills (not that she ever pays any bills). I then made it clear to JD and our nanny that, whilst there were various soft decorations around the room which JD could have a little touch of, he was forbidden from touching the tree at all, as it could easily fall over and had electrical lights on it. Less than an hour later, JD walks into the kitchen with a fistful of tree decorations. "He climbed onto a stool to reach them", laughed the nanny. Cue another talk with JD and the nanny about the dangers of grabbing tree decorations AND the danger of climbing onto stools to do it. Never thought I'd end up being the Health and Safety bore!
For any readers who didn't receive my Christmas newsletter...  Thank you for keeping up with the blog throughout another year. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! [PS ...sadly my Granddad died a few days after this newsletter was sent out]
 It's Christmas time at Robert's School. All the classes have been practicing Christmas songs for the last few weeks and performed them for parents over the weekend. Father Christmas has been visiting classes to shower students with sweets and posing for photos in a special school grotto. And then teachers have been doing various Christmas activities with their own classes. Mine have included Wordsearches, Crosswords, Spelling races, Bingo, Colouring competitions, Handicrafts and explaining the Nativity with large self-drawn pictures and a DVD.  As it turned out though, The most popular activity was making paper chains (from pages of old magazines). After ten minutes, the team with the longest chain won and we joined them all together to make a super-long decoration for the classroom. The students loved it and the classrooms looked even more festive by the end.
 One of the big perks of my job is my booses' hospitality and my colleagues' cooking prowess, which combines to make an outstandingt Christmas meal each year. Andrew [far left] is an ex-pro chef, with Julian [far right] a keen amateur. Robert [middle] opens up his huge house and well-equipped kitchen, while his wife Rachel buys copious amounts of food, including ordering brussel sprouts online!  So, fifteen of us enjoyed a wonderful Christmas meal this evening. We indulged (rather too heavily in my case) in a huge turkey, brussel sprouts cooked in three different ways, gravy, bread sauce, carrots, beans, pumpkin soup, roast potatoes, stuffing, onions, apple sauce, red cabbage, caramel flan, christmas pudding and cartons/bottles of various beverages! I think it will take me a year to digest, but you don't often get such high quality western food here, so why not make the most of it?   When I lived alone in China, I never used to bother with Christmas decorations. I was, truth be told, fairly happy to be away from the commercialisation, over-expectation and disruption to normal routines! However, with a baby on the scene and a wife who loves to buy stuff, I've had to show a bit more enthusiasm and do my bit! So I have decked out the lounge in rather fun Santas (this year's wifely purchase), a tree with computerised lighting system (JD can stare at this for ages) and a couple of presies. Barred humbugs!
 I'm going to buy a new Christmas decoration for our home each year (this year was twinkling lights for the plastic tree) and I make a new Christmas resource for school use, too. This year I drew and coloured in 5 x A3-size pictures and 1 x double-A3, depicting the nativity scene ("not-if-it-is-seen"). I used them in my lessons last weekend and was surprised at how capitivated most of the students were with the story and how little most of them knew about it already. A recurring questions was, "So, where was Santa?".
 The photo above right from Bangladesh appears in my Christmas Newsletter this year. But as my UK friend Jo pointed out, it's not the first picture of me on a boat she's received. The one on the left was taken some 15 years ago in China. I don't think I've aged too badly, although the boatman seems to have! For anyone who didn't get my Christmas Newsletter 2012 e-mailed through to them, do click below to download a copy. 
 Ava and I joined a dozen others for a fantastic Christmas meal at my boss's house yesterday. One of our foreign teachers is an ex-professional cook and spent 7 hours preparing the meat (a huge turkey and a ham), 6 veg (including my favourites - brussel sprouts - shipped in from Shanghai!) and 2 desserts - all done to a very high standard. Having played badminton in the afternoon (first time in a month - I'm feeling a lot healthier at the moment), I told myself that my overindulgence was almost justified! Happy Christmas all!
 My school did a really good job this month on the Christmas front. Different crafts and activities were on offer each week - some free, some paid for - including paper angels [see photo, left], suggested by me, having been shown the simple technique by my UK friend Victoria. There were cakes, candies, hats and reindeer antlers on sale. Santa had his own little grotto [see photo, right], and visited each class with gifts. Christmas songs played at the front desk while a nearby screen showed Christmas movies. There were Christmas quizzes on the walls and balloons shaped like bells hanging form the ceiling. It all went remarkably (and unusually!) smoothly and the kids were enthralled.
 I thought I'd rustle up a little surprise for the wife's return (from buying shop stock in ShenZhen), by throwing up some simple Christmas decorations in the lounge. As ever, the festivities in Kunming are sparse (...outside of our school, that is. Robert's School has gone to town on decorations this year, and in good time, too). However, the newsagent's shop near my bus stop, which has had a sign up all year wishing people a Happy Christmas, is finally legit again!
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 About the blogger
Paul Hider lives and works in Kunming (SW China) and updates this blog about his life there every other day. Past blog entries
February 2019
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