A Unique Christmas - Confessions of Paul

Here we are the end of March and our Christmas Day post is not posted. I have often wondered how the blogs I follow can go weeks, sometimes even months, without a post. I now know and now with full empathy. Life does go on. Can you hear my sweet Ann saying, "Paul, lets just get it finished"; "Just post what you have done"; "Anything will be OK"; "Better something short rather than nothing"; "Come on, lets remember that 80/20 Rule." All of it very kindly patient, but wanting the post. Finally, here it is. My New Year's "Almost April Resolution" is "less is more." I am committed to merely proofing this (basically finished the day after Christmas) and publishing absolutely before March turns to April. Hope you enjoy. We sure are enjoying living it. If pictures are not here yet, they are still being added to this post.

One of the true joys of Christmas is that no matter where you are and no matter who you are with, the Spirit of Christmas, rejoicing over Christ's birth and having His Spirit of love, and peace and hope in our hearts, can be with you. It is true in China. So while we have missed being around our families, we have had a wonderful Christmas day and a wonderful Christmas season.

For us, Christmas actually began on Dec. 20, 2012 at about 2:30 in the afternoon. Beautiful Ethan Darl Flake arrived directly from the presence of Heavenly Father to Jane and Darl.  He weighed in at 8 lbs. 6 oz. and is 21 inches long. While it is still early it is quite possible that he has the same great red hair as the rest of the family! How blessed we feel!  Mary is spending the holiday in Baltimore with Jane and Darl and is having a great time. Hmmm… Ann will just have to wait to see him later. Thanks to Mary they are in great hands.

One of our preparations included a schedule of when we could talk to the kids. It is very complicated when you live, according to our grandson Peter, "in the future." Between having a full schedule here and needing somewhat normal sleeping hours, here is what we offered the kids as available times: Sun: 1am-3am, Sun: 6pm -11pm,                              Mon: 7am-9am, Tue: 2am-9am, Tue: 6pm until Wed: 9am, Wed: 6pm-11pm. Of course all that gets complicated by their very busy schedules and the realities of their young families.  But in fact it all worked out and we had some wonderful visits - albeit quite challenged by internet connectivity issues.

A clip from an email to a daughter pretty much sums up the feelings of our missing some of the everyday things that we just can’t get here in China.  Luckily we were rescued.

“Hi naughty (better be careful or you might get coal in your stocking for taunting your father by eating fudge in front of him on Skype) daughter Lisa." Actually, thanks to an amazing Christmas present from Mary of two jars of Marshmallow cream (it does not exist in China) and some very complicated efforts of Ann to locate some Italian chocolate chips and some Dutch evaporated milk, Paul is now the possessor of some delicious homemade fudge! Ann was so generous in leaving so much in the bowls to lick out!!!!

(As we wrote about the marshmallow cream we just stopped to talk about what, if we had more suitcase space, would we have additionally brought now that we have been here for awhile.The list includes clothing and food: marshmallow cream, vanilla,  Lipton soup, a few spices; a couple more sweaters for Paul; and for Ann, more clothes period, different shoes, winter boots, zip up sweatshirt. We are pretty sure this cannot be the case in all of China and we are seeing enough big people here there must be a set of stores we are missing  But we are both bigger than the largest shoes and most of the largest clothes they sell in the stores (China XXXL seems to equal American M). We have no idea what big men do. Women with large feet wear men's shoes which must be very painful style-wise since shoes are such a key part of Chinese fashion.

It’s been a really unique and pleasant Christmas Day. We finally got to bed at 1 AM on Christmas Eve as we finished preparing for a Christmas Day of teaching in the morning. Got up at 5:30 AM to prepare to leave for school – an earlier day than most Christmases; no chance for Paul to set everyone’s clock back an hour or two here. Then on to the 7 AM bus to get out to campus.

Ann administered an oral final to her sophomores. They gave a speech on “Their Gift of The Magi.” Can you guess what they read to get ready for that?  She said she heard some fascinating speech content, including one girl who laid out her heart to one of the boys in the class. Family is extremely important to these students and their speeches were quite tender. For her Senior Movie class she showed Santa Claus 2.

Paul's classes today received “Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Christmas.” "Culture" and "History" make many somewhat off-limit subjects carefully approachable. I talked about the common Abrahamic roots of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (we have a couple of Chinese Muslim students – Xi’an has a large traditional Muslim quarter). Then showed a PowerPoint of the nativity with Silent Night as the music. The lyrics were superimposed on the slides. It was nice. 

Then I talked about Santa and read The Night Before Christmas. I had accompanying slides of the story along with lots of different Santa pictures. Then I showed a PowerPoint with the Carpenters singing I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas. Had great slides which effectively conveyed a "Currier and Ives"/"Norman Rockwell" portrait of traditional Christmas in America. I then showed Mr. Krueger’s Christmas as “typifying the Spirit of Christmas we personally feel as Americans and try to live at least during the season.” I skipped just a few parts. Then I went onto "Wilson Family Traditions." I showed them a 36 year collage of movie clips of our "Wilson Christmas Eve FHE" focusing on us singing "The 12 Days of Christmas." They were entertained and amused. It was a nice few hours.

At 12:30 we hosted a party for all 170 of the English majors: the 125 whom we teach and the 45 Juniors we do not teach. We thought we had about 140 (every seat in our 104 student language lab was filled and we had about 30-40 standing). Pretty much every one of our students came plus a handful of Juniors. Did we have a rocking, rollicking party! Santa came, gifts for everyone, and lots of Rock/Scissors/Paper for a bunch of special gifts we had. The kids love it. It was so much fun. Everyone wanted their picture with Santa. Santa let all the seniors come up individually to get their gifts and pictures. The rest of the gifts he had to distribute by walking the aisles of the classroom.

So I have no idea which is more amazing – you tell me. Is it that I, me, stogy dad, etc., 1) actually agreed to be Santa or 2) that I had the time of my life. I could do that again. It was so fun. And not to leave Mom out, this could not have occurred without her preparation, participation, and party management. And like me, she was very reluctant and was equally surprised by how much fun it was. For all morning and then during the party, our students were so gracious, so happy, so appreciative, so..everything positive. It was too totally great!

Everyone had class at 2 PM so we had to wrap it up by 1:45. And surprises of surprises, we made the 2 PM bus and were home by three. Took a very nice nap, had a wonderful Christmas dinner, enjoyed our Christmas music, opened some gifts (all from family in America with all but one having the label "made in China), and then we waited for the best part of the day – Skyping with the kids and family. And guess what? The internet is currently down. Hope it comes up.

One big advantage here is that the mail service is up and running on Christmas afternoon –phone rings; “we have a package for you”; Our Christmas cards just arrived. Nice that everyone is also working when you are waiting for a package. How interesting Christmas in China is.

Though we are not near you and we are not in a Christian land, we are still surrounded by the blessings of Christmas and Christ’s love for us. How blessed we are. How grateful we are for our testimonies and our membership in His church and Kingdom.