We are now coming to the end of our first Christmas in Shanghai.
Our Christmas tree is up, decorated and lit with presents underneath. We even have poinsettias around to make the house a little bit festive.
We started off the holiday feeling with a Christmas Eve service last night at the Hengshan Community Church. There was a massive turnout that left the church so full that they filled the outside gardens where there was a large screen set up to show the service inside...and it was packed! All of this was pretty much as we expected. What we didn't expect is that the entire service was in Mandarin. Somehow we assumed that because we found the service through one of the typical ex-pat websites, it would be in English. Still...the music was lovely and the people gathered were very sincere so it was all very nice.
We followed that attending a Christmas Eve party at the home of some of our new friends. It was a great night with riddles, a game of 'taboo' (which it turns out that we are not great at but are definitely improving) and a very nice meal.
This morning our Christmas morning plans were thrown off by the fact that we instead enjoyed what we joked would be the last Christmas for a VERY long time that we can sleep late. So we did. We slept late and spent most of the day in our pyjamas...opening presents and playing with my new wii mariokart game and steering wheel (wahoo!).
A late lunch/early dinner of southern comfort food with friends, and then back to the sofa for a nap and movies. Except for missing our friends and family at home, it was a very enjoyable Christmas.
We're wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with love from Shanghai.
Jason and Christy (and a nearly-ready Abigail)
I love that you are blogging. I've been meaning to get into it myself. As you'll soon see, time is limited to doing such things. It sounds like you are settling in - although I can't imagine trying to accomplish daily tasks in a foreign country! You look wonderful! Look forward to keeping up with you on your blog! Love, Beth Rhamy
ReplyDeleteChristy and Jason, Our christmas eve midnight service was wonderful as well. Christmas is definitely my favorite time of the year, Friends and family gathering and commemorating the most amazing birth of all time.
ReplyDeleteSo glad and relieve to hear all is going well. Abigail is gorgeous.
Its going to be fun keeping up with the Ambrose Clan.