As we were getting ready to leave for China in August 2009,
Chris had the idea to take some miniature candy canes with us. She was thinking ahead to the Christmas
season and thinking it would be fun to hand them out to our students. Once we got to Tianjin and began teaching at
Nankai University, we realized that the students loved anything to do with
American culture and traditions. Not
being a Christian nation, they really don’t have any Christmas celebrations,
but the fancy malls would play Christmas music and have some decorations. As we thought about what we might do as a
surprise for our students—a total of 300 between us!!—we decided to make
miniature Christmas stocking for them.
We had discovered a fabric warehouse and we went on the hunt for some
cheap red fabric. We bought yards of
fabric, drew a pattern for the sock and then cut out hundreds of little, 6 inch
red socks. We took them to a tailor that
worked in the market next to campus and he sewed them up for us.
In the process of all this holiday planning, John decided he
wanted to play Santa Claus. We went back
to the fabric store and bought some furry white fabric and more yards of red
fabric. We printed off a picture of
Santa Claus and went back to the tailor to try and explain what we wanted him
to sew. This required a lot of pantomime
and pointing to the picture to explain that we wanted pants, a big jacket
trimmed with white fur, a Santa hat and a big Santa bag to carry our
presents. We went back for one fitting and
we had to keep saying “big”, which was one of the few words we could say. The jacket was more like a big tent, but
Chris had a wide, stretchy black belt and it worked out just right.
Then we had to decide how to give Santa a beard. We had been to a shopping area that consisted
of several large buildings with 4 to 5 stories each. Each floor had multiple little shops and you
could find all kinds of clothes, decorations and household items. We looked up the word for “wig” in the
dictionary and began asking people where we could buy one. Sure enough, after being pointed to the right
building, we found a shop that sold cheap, synthetic wigs and they even had two
white ones. (Think funky, 80’s go-go
dancer wig.) We took it to a barber shop
next to campus and turned one upside down, cut a hold for John’s mouth and had
them trim the bangs for a moustache. We
attracted quite a lot of curiosity and giggles as they combed out the wig and
tried to make it look like a beard, but it was surprisingly successful.
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We had a Christmas tree and everything in our apartment.
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Not bad for two wigs. |
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This is one of the girls that worked at the desk in the lobby of our apartment building. She was one of our favorites. |
The week of Christmas, we had our classes sing Christmas
songs and during the singing, Santa would knock on the door and then burst into
the room, yelling “ho, ho, ho Merry Christmas.”
These students would squeal with delight and pull out their cell phones
to begin snapping pictures. Santa would
give everyone a Christmas sock with a few pieces of candy and we would all sing
together. It was one of the most
memorable things that we did—for them and for us.
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Mom and I handing out Christmas stockings in one of our classrooms.
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One of my classes. You can see their Christmas stockings on the desks.
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You might say I was a very big hit.
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I'm sure this is a combined class of mine and Chris'.
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Mom would have them singing Jingle Bells and I would knock at the door shouting Merry Christmas.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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More Class Pictures.
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The university also took us to a Christmas dinner and
program, where kids danced and sang Christmas songs in English. It was quite entertaining. We had a Branch Christmas party at our
apartment and enjoyed the Spirit of the Season.
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Making gingerbread houses and tree ornaments at Sister Delores Derby's home. Center, Carol Larson and right Cheryl Edmonds.
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Dinner and Christmas program. The kids sang Christmas songs in English.
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At the Christmas program with John and Carol Galbraith.
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Two of Chris' best friends. Left Cheryl Edmonds and right Dorte from Germany.
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This was a branch party at our apartment.
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This is Ruben, a member of the branch who was from Mexico, who was studying Chinese on scholarship.
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Dorte and Santa.
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Santa and our maid. She cleaned the apartment everyday.
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Two of our students who came to our apartment to visit.
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