平安夜 (píng’ān yè) Christmas Eve

I have been warned not to go out tonight.  Apparently, it is common for young people (and possibly older people too) in Wuhan to spend Christmas Eve window shopping, and eating dinner with friends.  So the streets will be crowded with many young Chinese wishing each other a Merry Christmas.  My language teacher told me that if you didn't make your restaurant reservations months ago, then you were already too late.  Unfortunately, I will be taking her advice, although I'm now curious to see this phenomena, how does a country that is not even the slightest bit religious take on a Christian tradition?  DH says that Christmas sells itself, it's shopping and giving presents, there are no strong food traditions, no weird foreign activities, just shopping.  And while I want to disagree with him, he's right.  In the fight to keep Christmas everywhere, what we have done is to take the Christ out of Christmas.  Instead of keeping Christmas at home with our families and in our churches we want to force stores to put up displays, we want schools to have parties, and governments to celebrate too.  But why should an Indian grocery store put up a tree, why does a Chinese restaurant need holiday lights?  Because this is what Americans want.  So we end up with that sanitized Santa version of Christmas which is all about buying and getting.  And you end up with a country of Chinese people who don't even know that Christmas was a Christian holiday. 

But don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, I love Santa, I love nativity scenes and mulled cider, and the Christmas story.  I love all of it.  I'm going to leave you with a quote from Michael Buble who sums up my thoughts on belief and Santa Claus.  (this is from an interview with him on the today show).

Michael Buble

Even as an adult, Buble says he still has faith and is a staunch defender of Old St. Nick. Don’t even TRY to tell him he’s wrong. When asked how old he was when he learned Santa was fictional, Buble responded with mock anger.

“There is a Santa Claus. When you stop believing, then he doesn’t come, and I feel sad for people don’t believe in him anymore.”

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!! 

Good bye Thanksgiving... Hello Christmas!

So I survived the Thanksgiving Extravaganza!  Even though I kept waking up in a panic the whole week before I managed to pull it off and no one got sick (my measure of a successful meal)!  And despite a mishap with the macaroni and cheese (I pulled it out of the fridge to put it in the oven and it was still frozen!) the lunch was on the table and ready to eat at 12:30 as planned.  There were even times in the morning when I was standing around thinking that I should do something, but everything was done (except of course for the frozen mac n cheese).  To make a meal like this involves LOTS of planning.  I started a month before, I picked out recipes, looked around to make sure that I would be able to find all the ingredients for everything I wanted to make, then I made a menu.  The menu went up on the fridge and beside each item I had a make ahead schedule.  Then for the day of the event I had an oven schedule, also posted on the fridge so that everything was cooked and things that needed to be hot were hot, and everything was cooked (except the mac n cheese, which ended up in the microwave and then stuffed in the oven at the last second).  I ended up with twice as much food as needed; a whole extra turkey, an uneaten cake, and a gazillion leftovers!
 This is what a Thanksgiving meal for 20 people looks like before it's cooked. 

From Blogger Pictures

And here are some pictures of the spread.  Thanks to a friend of mine who actually has an eye for photography!  

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

 And the end of Thanksgiving means the beginning of the Christmas season so this past weekend Babes and I decorated the tree to the first playing of Xmas music this year!  I used to have fairly strict rules on when Christmas started and when I would start decorating for it, but since I've been overseas I've realized that it's important for me to decorate because otherwise, in many places, you won't see Christmas.  Oh sure, you'll see some trees and lights, but it's nothing like the holiday spirit that you get in the US.  So every year after Thanksgiving I put away the fall color and bust out Christmas. 

From Blogger Pictures