The holiday season

It's the holiday season!  One of my favorite things to do around the holidays is to think back on all the previous years and how I have celebrated in the past.  For example, every Thanksgiving I remember that one year my family celebrated Thanksgiving in a castle, the year we ate a free turkey-less Thanksgiving dinner in Key West, and the year my mom spilled the turkey grease all over the floor of the kitchen.  (Sorry Mom.)  Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now I have one more in the books to look back on: Peking Duck in Shenyang with 130 people.  This was certainly the largest T-day dinner I've ever participated in!

 

But one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is that the Christmas season follows it.  I have recently been thinking back to the last time I spent a good portion of the Christmas season in China, that time in Beijing.  I remember that Christmas being very bizarre, because I had basically no "season" before the 25th.  If I hadn't had a calendar, I probably could have spent the whole season in Beijing without ever realizing it was Christmas!  Remembering how disappointed I was to miss out on the thrills of Advent, I've been much more particular this year about recognizing the season. 

 

Since the first week of Advent, the music in my room has been set to one thing: a certain oratorio by Handel that just seems to fit the season.  To make things even cheerier, though, I successfully decorated my dorm room yesterday.  I spent 30 kuai (about $5) on a 1 meter tall tree and all the decorations to go on it.  Seemed like a good deal to me, and with a room as small as mine, just a simple tree can effectively change the dynamics of the entire place.

 

I am also excited to have joined a choir for the Christmas service at my fellowship.  We've only practiced one song so far, but it's been fun to actually learn the alto line to Silent Night.  (Well, okay, it's not actually the traditional alto line for the hymn, since we're singing a jazzed up version.  But it's fun anyway.)  Saturday afternoon we have choir practice at the Medical University, and I'm looking forward to the hours of singing Christmas carols and spending time with many of my friends. 

 

The most touching part of the season thus far, though, was definitely receiving a package from my "family" in DC.  What a joy and blessing!  Not only are all the Dutch treats and hot chocolate ridiculously tasty and enjoyable, they also make great decorations under my tree.  And somehow they also seem to attract people to come hang out with me in my room. :)

 

Speaking of Dutch things, many of you might know of the Dutch holiday that precedes Christmas: Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Day).  Certainly, growing up in a Dutch-American community meant I learned about Sinterklaas in school and occasionally "celebrated" that day.  This year, however, I happen to have a lot of Belgian friends who all celebrate Sinterklaas regularly!  It was terrific amounts of fun to be able to celebrate the holiday with them this year. 

 

For those of you who did not have the privilege to learn about Sinterklaas growing up, let me explain how one would celebrate the holiday.  Sinterklaas is remarkably similar to Christmas.  There's a guy named "Sinterklaas" (St. Nicholas) and his helper Black Pete.  They have a white horse.  The night before, children all across the Netherlands and Belgium place their shoes outside the door, and leave a carrot or something of the sort for the horse to eat.  During the night, Sinterklaas and Black Pete come through and leave presents (usually candy) in the shoes.  But if the children have been bad, they are taken away in Black Pete's bag.  That's certainly stronger motivation than simply not getting a gift from Santa Claus!

 

So how do three Belgians and two Americans celebrate Sinterklaas in China?  Wow, we had fun.  We decided to play a game: we all put our shoes outside our doors, and over the course of 36 hours everyone had to put something in everybody else's shoes.  The catch? You couldn't get caught.  The punishment for getting caught was having to make dinner for the group of us on the 18th (the night before the one girl will go back to Belgium... sad!). 

 

It was so much fun to go buy a few things and have to stealthily put them in everyone's shoes.  Especially since we don't all live in the dorm here.  It was also fun to randomly find bags of goodies outside my door!  (The best was definitely the packet of real American taco seasoning from the American guy! Apparently he's stockpiled but has to get rid of it before moving next month.)  The most hilarious part of the game, though, had to have been when someone actually got caught.  G was standing outside one girl's door to drop a present, but she hadn't put any shoes out.  So while standing there, he called her cell.  Since she was simply inside her room and could hear his voice on the other side of the door, she caught him red-handed. 

 

The down side?  Let's be honest, none of us really want to eat G's cooking.  So we told him he should just pay for our dinner at a restaurant instead. :)

 

So all told, I'm thoroughly enjoying my holiday season thus far.  I even had far more fun with Sinterklaas than usual.  Although I'll admit, Christmas day itself will probably be a little bit difficult...