On Christmas Day evening, we welcomed Krista and Stuart to our house for a Chinese twist on a Christmas Dinner - duck pancakes, sprouts & bacon, potato cake and a game of "forfeits" pass-the-parcel.
 I spent Christmas morning helping to marshal over 500 runners in a terrific Chippenham Park Run.  Fantastic Christmas Eve evening spent at Krista and Stuart's. Delicious meal with all the trimmings and some silly games and quizzes to give us time to digest it all. We return the favour tomorrow.  JiaJia, JD and I joined Krista & Stuart and some of their church friends yesterday evening for a hour of Carol Singing in the neighbourhood. It was a very traditional event for Jiajia to participate in (despite not knowing any of the songs) and we enjoyed hot chocolate and party nibbles at the church afterwards. 
Some folk make more of an effort than others though. This Christmas Tree in JD Sports looked very drab (I've had a word with JD about "his" shop!). But this garden in nearby Trenchard Close is a burst of gaudy colour! Hope they have a good electricity tariff...
With this probably being my last Christmas in China, I pulled out all the stops in my small classes and once-to-one lessons. My students - young and old - watched a Nativity Story powerpoint, reconstructed cut-up Christmas cards, made paper angels, opened presents and crackers, completed wordsearches/crosswords, acted out charades and played Christmas Bingo. Back to grammar next week...
Despite a last-minute panic when we couldn't find a shop that sold chickens(!), JiaJia managed to rustle up another fantastic Christmas dinner. She even made a lemon cake for dessert. Yum yum!
25th December here is a normal school day for JD, so Santa kindly agreed to come a night early - complicated by the fact that JD woke up with a blinding headache at 2am! He was asleep again by 2.30am and alarms were duly reset!!  The title refers to "1-2-3" in Chinese. JD hung up THREE stockings!
A bit of a low key Christmas this year. JD got his main present a month ago (a bicycle) and has been off school ill for the last week. Jiajia is busy studying to pass her English language exams to qualify for a Spousal visa, and I am packing, preparing lessons and trying to finish my huge Birthday Lego model! So limited festive excitement here.
But the decorations are all up and we have a nice pile of presents.
And Jiajia has promised to rustle up a Christmassy meal on Sunday! JD's been after a new bike for ages, so we went to a few bike shops today and settled on a blue mountain bike. We bought his last bike when he was five years old! This one is a (very) early Christmas present. It made sense for him to get a decent 6 months of usage out of it before we head to the UK, rather than leave it until late December. We're hoping his newfound enthusiasm might lead to a little bit of weight loss, too!
We had a great Christmas Day. JD opened his stocking presents in bed in the morning. Then, we opened our main presents after lunch. JD was delighted to get everything he had hoped for - Lego, drone, earphones, tent, cooking tools, Frazzles etc. We even had a surprise Christmas Spelling Test, where JD won cash prizes for every English spelling he got right! I got a Lego Death Star with 4200 pieces!
Then Jiajia pulled out all the stops with a traditional Christmas dinner - roast chicken with all the trimmings, plus crackers and mince pies!
 Once my birthday is done and dusted, the pressure is on (from JD) to put up our Christmas decorations. This year he was keen to pitch in with his own ides of what to put where, and how to decorate the "showing its age" tree! We'll gradually add presents underneath it, over the next fortnight, to build up the excitement. Jiajia is already scoring the internet for cheap and cheerful stocking fillers, Christmas crackers, sweets, mince pies and presents!
One of JD's Christmas presents from me was a jar full of 300 slips of paper, each one containing a statement about him. He pulls one out each morning and reads it aloud.  About 90% of the slips have something positive and encouraging ("JD, you make friends easily" or "JD, you can ride a bike pretty fast") while the others are less so ("JD, you don't know your 12 times table" or "JD, your feet are stinky"). Something to enjoy throughout the year!!
We celebrated Christmas a day late as everyone was working and/or studying on the day itself. JD woke to not one, but three full stockings - his (successful) attempt to trick Santa into extra gifts! Then, after dinner, we opened all our presents - those for Ma, Jiajia and myself combined being less than those for JD alone! Lucky boy!
 OK, so it was chicken instead of turkey, "ganlan" instead of sprouts, home-made crackers and rice-based stuffing, but it was still pretty Christmassy and very tasty! Merry Christmas, readers!
Decorations have been up for a month, the advent calendar is nearly empty, presents are piled up beneath the tree ...and someone is very excited!
 JD is enjoying his "Advent Calendar train" - he opens one carriage a day, each containing a small toy.
It took me about 5 hours but I've finally completed my main Christmas present - a Star Wars AT-AT Walker. Over 1400 pieces. Fully functional.
A Chinese friend of mine likes to make little Christmas tableaus out of her rice meal! [The title? "rice" is called "mifan" in Chinese!]
Seems like Santa visited last night. The snacks left out for him and Rudolph were nibbled and consumed, and JD's stockings were filled.
JD had decided to try and trick Father Christmas this year by leaving two stockings out in the hope that Santa would fill both. Santa duly obliged and at 8am Jiajia and I heard the pattering of not-so-tiny feet as JD came in and opened his presents with us. After his 2-hour home-schooling and lunch, we'll start on the pile of presies under the tree!
With Jiajia at work and JD at school, it was a low-key Christmas Day for me at home today. So we've arranged for Santa to visit tonight and we'll celebrate our Christmas tomorrow.  My UK family did manage a lovely little get-together on Zoom today though, which included catching up on all our news, a fun quiz and some heartfelt words of mutual appreciation - something which can all too often go unsaid. Happy Christmas, everyone!
 JD is getting very excited by all the gifts under the tree!
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 AuthorPaul Hider started this blog to share his rather odd life living in China for over 20 years. Since returning to the UK in 2024, the blog now records his more "normal" lifestyle! Past blog entries
December 2024
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