Here's the newest electronic addition to our apartment - a free-standing heating and cooling unit, which works kind of like a window unit in America. We had it installed in our den after the college had some rewiring done to accomodate the extra use of electricity it needed to function properly. Unfortunately the rewiring didn't do the job, so for now the unit is sitting in our den, doing nothing but looking very sleek and pretty. It's been consistently 55 degrees F in here at this point, but we're staying cozy and warm by layering up our clothes - lots of thermal underwear! - and drinking lots of hot chocolate and tea, which actually has been quite nice so far.








We found a fake Christmas tree the other day in a florist shop here in town. It's the only place in our entire city that sells anything for Christmas, that we know of. Unfortunately, there was nothing in there about the true meaning of Christmas, though, just lots of Santa Claus stuff, plus a few Halloween masks. We still haven't figured out what they thought that had to do with Christmas. It seems that the holiday is seen as the equivalent of a "western festival" over here, much like the traditional Chinese festivals that are celebrated at different times of the year. We do have some neat lights on the tree that do all kinds of funky things. We have the most festive apartment at the college now, and the local kids like to come by and stare at the tree through our kitchen window, watching the lights blink on and off.





Besides making some pretty white paper chains and snowflakes for the tree, the kids have enjoyed making orange pomander balls for a basket in our den. We found some whole cloves in a bucket at the vegetable and meat market, and we have all enjoyed the wonderful aroma from putting them into the skin of big Mandarin oranges that we bought from the ladies who sell different types of fruit on the street. The girls have liked the fact that Laura Ingalls may have done these same type of crafts at Christmas, too.

We miss you all so much, and wish you the merriest of Christmases! We'll look forward to getting to celebrate Christmas with many of you when we're home in a few years! Don't forget the "Reason for the season" -

OUR FIRST "ASIAN THANKSGIVING"

Now that our internet is connected for the moment, I can update you on our first big American holiday overseas! As you can see by the huge spread, we did not want for food at all, and we didn't want for warm fellowship either. We spent our first Thanksgiving at our friends' house in the big city. There is even a restaurant there that imports turkeys for all of the foreigners! So we ate and ate - turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, pies, iced tea! - and then we moved our stuffed bodies to the sofa and watched football games on DVD while we dozed in and out of consciousness. Then after a while, we went back to the kitchen to repeat the process again for dinner. It felt almost like home! We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year, even though we're away from the ones we love the most.



Here are some of the guys working off their meal - throwing around an American football for a while. A good time was had by all!














This is a sign that is in the hotel where we stay that makes us laugh every time we see it. Sometimes "chinglish" is so funny to us - an indication that we're finally off our rockers, I guess. Now the kids instinctively know that when we enter the hotel, we are keeping silence.














Meet the WONDER MACHINE!! This is the dehumidifier that we purchased while we were away for Thanksgiving (they are difficult to find even in the bigger cities). Since the humidity in our apartment had been hovering between 70 and 80 percent since we arrived here, and our clothing, furniture and walls were growing mold constantly, we felt like this was indeed a wise, much-needed purchase. After getting the lovely machine home, realizing it didn't work and that there was no one here who had ever seen one before, we finally found an electrician willing to work on it. He fixed it in 30 minutes! In the first 24 hours it was functioning, it filtered out over 2 gallons of water from the air in our 850 square feet of living space. Unreal. Now our humidity level has dropped by 20 percent and it doesn't smell like mold in here anymore! HOORAY!!!!




















And speaking of being thankful, this is what greeted us when we arrived home after our Thanksgiving trip - 13 care packages in 2 days! Our pantry looks like we live in America again! Easy Mac! Froot Loops! Peanut Butter! Jello Pudding! Hamburger Helper! Maurice's Barbeque Sauce! And the list goes on and on! This is a picture of our 4 very happy little American people, eating Froot by the Foot. THANK YOU, FRIENDS!!! We love you and are very thankful for you!