I can't believe that Christmas has already come and gone! This weekend has flown by, with lots of fun and good, quality family time together. We spent Christmas Eve with some friends here who have been so kind in taking us under their wing. They have lived in Tianjin for 17 years and have 4 kids of their own, ranging in age from 9 to 15, and all of whom are great with little ones. So a total blessing to our family! We went to their house late in the afternoon so we had time to walk to a nearby Chinese nursing home to sing Christmas carols. It was a great opportunity for us to give the kids a chance to serve, and the older Chinese men and women seemed to genuinely love having us (mainly the kids!) there. I was pleasantly surprised by the nursing home itself. It was certainly no five star accommodation, but was much better in appearance than I expected. Our friend's aptly described it as "stark", but it did seem pretty clean and like the staff was fairly kind to the elderly who lived there. We passed by their private rooms on the way to our meeting area where we were to sing, and I saw their metal beds with four to a room. Definitely different from what I'm used to seeing with grandparents in the States, but nonetheless was still better than I was thinking it would be!
As we sung, I was struck by the fact that I love Christmas Eve services each year and the singing involved, but mainly because of how pretty it sounds to my ears. When we sang at the nursing home, the sound itself was definitely nothing to write home about, but the meaning behind the words and the attempt we were making to love and serve the people there were what reverberated in my heart, getting me all choked up more than once as we sang! This year at least our "Christmas Eve service" was not just about me, and it was refreshing! I'm not sure if the kids got any huge life lesson out of our feeble attempt to serve others, but it sure was a wonderful reminder to their mom of what Christmas should be all about, in sharing His love.
After our time at the nursing home we went to our friend's house to eat a wonderful meal with friends and do a Christmas Jesse A
dvent Tree (which tells the story of Jesus throughout the Bible). The family hosting us gave us the best Christmas gift--a gift certificate for their kids to babysit ours once a month--even free of charge! We're so excited--and so are our kids!Christmas morning was spent tearing open gifts, of course. We did start the morning with a stocking hunt, where the kids had
to find their stockings that were hidden somewhere in the apartment. I left our stockings at a friend's house in Dallas that I need to pick up on a later trip to the States (thanks, E!), so we just made some to use this year out of paper. But our makeshift paper stockings couldn't hold very much in the way of loot, so we stapled some small bags to them in order to fit all the goodies inside! (The kids didn't complain about this at all, for some reason!) The picture is of them on the sofa with their stocking bags!They were all thrilled with their gif
ts (thank you grandparents and Unkie and Allie!) and were totally content to stay in the apartment all day playing with their new stuff, which was a good thing because I think the temp topped out at about 29 degrees that day, and that is before the windchill factor! Eli says his favorite present is the Wii game he got called "Indiana Jones"--but he can't remember the "Indiana" part so instead calls him either "Banana Jones" or "Cowboy Jones"! (Random sidenote: I left our windows cracked open on Thursday night when we went to bed because it was so warm in our apartment, but we had a serious windstorm that night. I awakened Christmas morning to a layer of dust over literally everything in the apartment! I had to clean all the hard floors because we were tracking the filth all over--and this is with us even on the 10th floor!)We took off to
day to head to E Mart and the play area just to get the kids a little exercise and to stock up on some food items. We have my sister Sarah and her husband Rob and their little boy (Ben) coming to stay with us this next and we CAN'T WAIT! We're so excited to have visitors come and spend some time in our world! And we've been enjoying the pieces of the States that so many of you have sent our way--care packages and Christmas cards that could not be more cherished! (One of my precious friends from home, Joanna, helped put together a package for us that had a lot of favorite food items in it. When they saw all that she was sending her little girls were concerned and kept asking, "Does the Joseph family not have food in China?"! I thought that was precious!) But thanks to so many of you, our pantry is now well stocked with treasured goodies that will be enjoyed in the months to come!!
