Hardins: Christmas traditions

A friend of mine had an album on Facebook based on traditions and decorations that they put up each year. I thought it might be interesting to show how we (the Hardins) decorate and get ready for Christmas in China.

The holidays in another country can be very strange. We have a mix of our old traditions and we make some new ones. The next several blog entries are about how we celebrated this year. This is our second year in China so we didn't have to buy as many new decorations this year.

We have had this guy for several years. The kids like to keep up with how many days are left...

We have a tradition of taking a picture of the kids in matching Pj's in front of the tree.

This one of Jon's favorite decorations. I remember having one when I was a kid too. You light the candles and the angles move and make the bells ring. We need to find replacement candles for next year.

This was a new tree this year. The kids wanted a white tree. We found it for only about 20 yuan! A great deal! This stayed in the school room most of the time.

I found this guy last year. I have one similar to this at home, but did not bring it. I love snowmen!

I use these boxes to pack some ornament away after the holidays.

Every year my dad and Karen (a.k.a. Poppa and Granny) give us a family ornament. This is the one for this year. They also give the kids Hallmark ornaments and we let them choose an new ornament. I brought all the kid's yearly ornaments when we came on the survey trip before we moved here.

I found this little guy at Toys R Us this year. It is small and wooden. The kids really like it. It will be a tradition from now on.

Every year we make cookies and some of the cookies we make and decorate are the ones we leave for Santa. The kids love to do this.

Last year we bought the biggest tree we could find. Almost all of the trees in China are pretty Charlie Brown, even the tall ones, but if you put enough garland, lights, and ornaments it does look pretty good. It is still magical, even if it is a little different.

Clarks: Christmas Day - Sharing the GIFT

To tell the truth, I (Jason) have a pretty "humbug" attitude about being bothered on, or even around, Christmas. Usually, if anyone wants to visit, I'll say no. And that goes for everyone - Christian and non-Christian alike. How's that for a mission field confessional?
What's more, if there's any one person here in Hangzhou (and there is) who I especially try to avoid seeing, I must confess, it's this Chinese Christian named George. For some reason I really have had trouble being patient and friendly to him. I know, it's terrible. He's a brother, after all. He's had us out to his hometown; he's taught us Chinese; he's always been very nice... It's the perfect storm as far as guilt goes - he's done nothing wrong, yet I can't seem to tolerate him!
So, when Cecely came to me with the news that George would be coming over, on Christmas day, it was assumed I would not take it very well. After all, we'd already agreed to break with our usual policy and host three girls for a Bible study Christmas Eve. Now we were looking at having guests both days! But, without much complaint, I agreed to George's visit.
Well, as it turned out, we and the girls had to reschedule for Christmas Day - meaning that all four guests would converge on our apartment at once. And so they did.
And it was great!
It turned into a very, very long Bible study and discussion that did a lot to teach and challenge the girls and stretch and strengthen our own faith. George - as I had already known but not experienced firsthand - has a passion and gift for patiently and thoughtfully explaining the gospel. He and I and Cec all took turns, as it were, adding to the conversation, and each of the girls were also fully engaged. Cecelia (middle) is the closest to saving faith - PRAY FOR HER. Her roommate, Katrina (far right), has now come over twice as Cecelia's invitation. And Ashley (aka, Ice, nearest George) has also been over maybe two or three times with Cecelia. George and a sister, Joanna from Wuhan, have talked to her before. [Joanna also recently bought and sent to us a Chinese copy of Purpose-Driven Life to give to Ashley; Ashley and Cecelia have both read The Secret, which, if you don't know, is more-or-less the anti-Bible.]
Anyway, it was a productive and meaningful Christmas.
The gifts of God - the message of salvation, brotherly love - were enjoyed by us all.

HuKou

Finally GaoYan has her own HuKou or household register, Hangzhou city citizenship, official documentation, and so on. For the past ten years GaoYan’s HuKou has been in Changsha where she went to university. We had to travel back to Changsha when we were legally married. We had to spend several hundred dollars to hold her HuKou while we lived in America. When we bought our home, GaoYan had to travel back to Changsha for paper work. GaoYan most recently had to get “permission” to have a baby sent from Changsha. Finally GaoYan’s HuKou has found a home in Hangzhou.

Honey

Our honey is bought from real life bee keepers, not from no supermarket. Near our home, the bee tents are where we have to get off our bikes and push up the hill. The first time we bought honey they let us sample several different kinds from large metal containers in their tent. Another day a tarp covered in orange pollen was drying in the sun. They said bee keepers are welcomed by the government to set up camp on any open land for free. The bees are valuable for pollinating crops and fruit trees. Yesterday we bought honey, and they opened up one of the bee hives. The honey man pulled up a tray swarming with hundreds of bees. He said “Don’t worry. It’s too cold for them to sting you.” We even got to see a queen bee resting in a small bamboo cage for the winter. The queen bee is held in a cage otherwise she would be busy about the hive laying eggs. Only one queen bee per hive or they will fight with each other. In the spring and summer the bee keepers will travel all over China with their hives collecting honey.

Christmas Presents

Christmas presents come on Christmas Eve to the university post office and they pedal home on our pink bicycle. Christmas presents come after a long day at day care. Christmas presents come when the school semester should have been long over, when we are trying to explain the incredible gift of baby Jesus with students. Christmas presents remind us of love. Christmas presents remind us of giving. Christmas presents remind us of friends and family. Christmas presents are filled with books and toys. Christmas presents are filled with Estee Lauder, GaoYan’s ancient Chinese secret. Christmas presents are filled with black chocolate and candy. Yum!
Thank you for blessing us so richly this Christmas.

Clarks: Christmas Eve

Here's a picture of Cec decorating the little Christmas tree in our apartment:
We had a really nice Christmas Eve today: First off, we slept in! When we got stirring, Jason made lattes (decaf for Cec) and we sat and talked on Skype with Jake & Shelly and then Jason's mom. Next, we headed to the doctor, but first the background story: On Monday Cec had started a beta-blocker to help her heart not beat quite so fast, and it's really helped already. We've noticed, though, that the baby hasn't been so active since starting the medicine -- the baby moves enough according to kick counts, but just not as much as it had been -- so we decided that we'd like to go to the hospital to hear the heartbeat and make sure that everything's OK.
Anyway, we had a very good doctor visit -- the baby's heartbeat is completely normal, Cec got a really good EKG report, her pulse and blood pressure were both in the best range they've ever been during pregnancy, and... we have reconfirmed that the baby is a girl! We're thrilled! We've had the name(s) picked out for a long time now, for either a boy or a girl. We're going to name her Phoebe Ruth Clark -- P.R.C. (as in People's Republic of China) -- we couldn't resist! Cecely is a "Ruth" as were both her grandmothers; we're the Clarks, of course; and we've always liked Phoebe, which also happens to be a Bible name. It's obviously meant to be!
So, after the doctor visit... and by the way, we need to say, too, that there's this sweet nurse there (English name Jan) who has been so helpful and encouraging to us -- she's really like an angel put there to minister to us... we went downtown for McDonald's followed by Cold Stone ice cream. We bought a last-minute gift for each of us. And we topped off the evening by seeing Santa Claus! A foreign guy in the Hyatt!
We're blessed, and we want to thank you for your prayers, which we believe had sustained us and helped turn the tide of emotion in recent days.
We love you.

It's begining to look a lot like...

....fall!

Just last week, I noticed a tree just outside our building! It was bright red. I had not noticed any leaves changing color until then. I started looking around and saw lots of reds and yellows. So many trees don't change here, so we rarely see the colors we do at home. Once I noticed the colors, I got my camera and snapped several photos.

a closer look at the red leaves

This photo was taken near the lake.

This is my favorite one. It is now the desktop background on my computer.

Hangzhou and Shan shui ren jia (our apartment complex) are really beautiful!