Special cookies for Santa!
Wadley Family Nativity
Our "Thanksgiving Christmas"
What a great few weeks we've had! The children got out of school the week before Christmas. We had a fun week checking out some fun spots in Nanjing. We went to a big indoor playground at a mall (where we were almost the only people there! Chinese students were still in school), a small indoor ice-skating rink, and finished up our Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, Mike had to watch us skate, as they didn't have any skates in his size. I got quite sick the week before Christmas, and the kids were very patient on the days they had to be stuck at home.
Christmas Eve was a great day. We had a one-hour church meeting at our house, and then all ate a ham dinner. We played our traditional (I can say that, since we did the same thing last year) white elephant game, which included a very popular huge box of bananas, a fought-over plate of brownies I added last minute because some people forgot gifts, and a coveted rooster made of sea-shells. Everyone was so excited about the meal, you'd think they'd been eating Chinese food for months or something! Oh, that's right,they have! After everyone left, we decorated our Christmas cookies. Eli was so much fun this year! He made special cookies for Santa. Amazingly, he didn't eat any frosting or candy himself! He layered frosting and skittles to make a very few very tasty-looking cookies! We then had our traditional opening of the love-gifts we exchange with my family each year. That is such a special time. It's great to see what each person does for another. The nativity had a few hitches. First, Eli cried and cried because he wanted to be baby Jesus. He finally gave in, but insisted on being an angel with Caitlin. Eli was on Caitlin's shoulders, and they wrapped a blanket around them. Don't forget the fairy wings. When we put the boys to bed, Eli was so excited he was shaking! He was laying stiff in his bed with his eyes scrunched shut. Jay came into my room at 2:30 and couldn't sleep. We got him back to bed, and Eli came in at 5:30. He climbed in my bed and tried to sleep for an hour. Finally at 6:30, he said,"Mom, I can't sleep anymore. Is it time?" How could we refuse that?
We had the most wonderful Christmas morning. The children were so cute this year. Excited about the gifts they were giving to each other, and really expressing their gratitude with hugs and squeals. We had a nice day, and even fixed a Thanksgiving dinner to share. Some of the kids used their treasured bottle of IBC root beer for their dinner. Others saved theirs. That evening, our friends, Paul and Ginnelle Mullins, and Warren and Julie Baker, traveled through the worst fog in 30 years, here in Nanjing, to visit us. We played a fun game with them. They had really wanted to join in a nativity play with us, but they needed to be quick because of the fog. What a wonderful Christmas. It was so wonderful to get gifts and cards from our family back home. It's wonderful to be missed, and terrible to miss, this time of year!
