Hello Friends and Family,
We've had a lot of fun this week playing Christmas games with our students, giving away lollipops and sharing the Christmas story. As you can tell from Kealy's jacket over her pajamas, the weather is getting colder here and we are finding ourselves more apt to be covered in blankets indoors watching West Wing than out and about doing too much. Although sometimes our concrete walls and tile floors are not great insulators and tonight it is actually warmer outside than in. We have been spending time with other friends in their warm apartments this week and they are sharing their Christmas goodies with us...peanut butter fudge, home made cookies with real chocolate chips and we shared our almond roca stash with them as well.
This evening we had our weekly English corner at the college and I (Ryan) had a nice time talking with some of my students and even got to expand on the Christmas story with some of them, which was really fun. While I was talking with my students I saw about six students walk up to Kealy and pull her out of the group she was in and they took her to the corner where they handed her a gift bag of Christmas presents from one of her classes. The bag was full of gifts and when we arrived home Kealy opened the bag. Inside was a Santa Snoopy that was really cute, a Santa and House snow globe, two suckers, Chinese friendship knots and a notebook. Inside the notebook, each student in her class had written a special note to Kealy, wishing her Merry Christmas, gluing pictures to their note, and telling her how beautiful her smile is and what a great teacher she is. The last note expressed the hope that we could share the notebook with people in America as well. It was a wonderful gift that has to be one of the best parts of teaching and a meaningful gift, when students write you to show their appreciation.
We have one class left each tomorrow and then it is a four day Christmas Vacation!!! The college gave us Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off without penalty and we are celebrating Christmas over the next four days with the college, each other and some of our wonderful friends here in Nanning who have adopted us for this Christmas away from you. We will keep you posted on our celebration festivities and hope that you are continuing to prepare your heart to celebrate Christmas, too. Talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
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