It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

212 sugar cookies have been baked. 40 handmade ornaments have been strung and handed out to my English Corner students, which they will decorate. 25 presents have been wrapped and tied with a bow, but there are still 15 more that are patiently waiting to be wrapped before Christmas Day. As you can see, Christmas preparations have kept me pretty busy in the last week, but there are no complaints coming from this girl. Being away from home during the holidays is never easy. Yet, when I help create new traditions and celebrate with friends, there are many ways to celebrate these days, even if I’m halfway around the world.

During the last week, my English Corner students started preparing and rehearsing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “It’s a Small World After All.” The Linden Centre has put together a holiday performance that will combine our Western holiday traditions with the local Chinese songs and dances. Santa Claus will be coming, my students will be decorating the tree, and colorful sugar cookies will be passed out with cups of hot green tea to all of the audience members. It will be quite the sight to see, and all of my students are extremely excited to be a part of it.

Not only did I have to teach the students how to line up, stand straight, and smile at the audience while singing, I also had to give six more students English names. Tyler, Lucy, Jessica, Susan, Adam, and Ella have now been added to my class roster. They were all really excited about their new names and kept running back to me, pointing to their name, and asking me how to pronounce it again. “Erra. Erra,” said Ella with a big smile. Her pixie cut hair style accentuated her round head and her big brown eyes glittered in the night sky as I repeated her name, concentrating on the importance of the “L” sound.

This past Sunday, we held a short rehearsal to make sure everyone knows where they are standing and how to place their ornaments on the tree. (Ella will be leading the group out on stage!) We practiced the two songs, and I had to remind them to stay on the same beat throughout the songs. It seems that when they start to sing in Chinese, the tempo picks up a slightly faster pace. All of their ornaments were beautifully decorated and designed. Coco, one of my older students, decided to paint her snowman ornament a bright neon yellow color. I decided to tell her how beautiful and bright it looked, just like a star, and ignored the fact that in the United States we are always taught to stay away from yellow snow! Wish us luck and think of my 30 students singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” on Christmas Day in front of the entire Xizhou village!

Til next time.

Peace, Love, and Happiness.