Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays!!

Well, Christmas has come and gone...but in a small way I sort of feel like I'm still waiting for it.  This year was definitely different, which is no surprise of course.  First of all, being in a totally different climate this year didn't prepare me as the bitter cold and snow of Minnesota usually do, by making me realize it's winter and that Christmas will be coming.  Then of course, there weren't finals (not that I can say I missed those!).  But I've sort of gotten used to those as being the last thing to conquer before I can really delve into Christmas festivities completely.  And finally, here in Taiwan we had no Christmas break and in fact, I also had to work on the weekend before Christmas (more on what those days involved later), so I joked about the 12 Days of Work instead of the 12 Days of Christmas...which doesn't actually sound funny now, but for some reason I found it amusing at the time.  Anyway, despite all that, I would still consider it a really great Christmas! And the title of this post isn't trying to be ironic or something, it's just stating a fact.  There really is nothing like being with your family for Christmas! But I had the joy of being with my family via skype on Christmas Eve during our family celebration.  Besides the fact that I wasn't actually there to give everyone hugs...it pretty much felt like I was there (until I signed off and went to work...that was probably the low-point of the day).  But through skype we all took turns opening our gifts just like usual and I even had some to open due to a wonderful friend from college (thanks Amy!).  Then my dad read the Christmas story from the Bible (which we usually do before presents, but in the excitement of skyping we got things a little out of order).  Anyway, I was (and am) very thankful for technology because it really makes the distance seem much smaller!

Despite the fact that (and maybe because of it) Christmas isn't celebrated much here, I got to teach about it in school.  We even got to have class in a different classroom with a projector that day just for the occasion! We sang some songs and I gave a little presentation about Christmas traditions and then shared what my own family does.  Cutting down Christmas trees was a subject of fascination and one fourth grade class in particular asked tons of questions.  They wanted to know how much they cost and if you had to pay more for bigger trees and if you could just pay fee and then take as many trees as you'd like, and lots of other things...Then some of the classes got to play Pass the Parcel which is always a big hit.

Just talking about Christmas to one of the classes

Who will get to unwrap the parcel?! (Clearly that's what they're all wondering)
By the way, if you noticed the face mask on the little boy, that's totally a common sight.  People wear them whenever they have a cold or cough

The excitement of Pass the Parcel never ceases!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l3e-xe9iEg

Here is a link of the second graders at one of my schools doing a funny little dance to Jingle Bells.  They could sing it really well, but multi-tasking was a little difficult for them.  They actually practiced this for a couple lessons so  performing it and getting recorded was the reward.

And below is a video from one of my first grade classes on Christmas Day!  This was at my other school and the first graders are singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas (and also doing a funny little dance).  This was only a one day thing, but I think they did a pretty good job! In the video they are practicing because they went back and performed it for their homeroom teacher.