The Day After Christmas – 2008
Our hopes were high for a White Christmas here in Gongyi but it never developed. We had a very small amount of snow flurries on the 23rd which added to our anticipation of snow to enhance this beautiful day but…… So we thought we would attempt to take a night shot.. “time exposure” of part of the Home of Hope at night.
We have four large Fir trees which each year we cover with lights as well as stringing Christmas lights along the tops of all of our buildings.
Anyway, this is what the children come home to every evening when they return from school during the Christmas Season. Of course everyone thinks our Home is just beautiful!
It has become a tradition each year at the Home of Hope for us to celebrate Christmas on the afternoon and evening of the 24th. We were so worried this year that our college students would not be able to be here for Christmas since Christmas is not a Chinese Holiday, but everyone came home with Esther and Paul (their schools are the furtherest away) both traveling by train for over ten hours to get here for the warmth of the celebration.
This year we decided to check on the cost factor between taking all the children out to a local restaurant for the Christmas dinner as opposed to preparing it here in our own kitchen. As it turned out it was less expensive to go out for dinner so that is what we did with our plans being to return and have our Christmas Social event at the Home of Hope as soon as dinner was over.
Finally all the children were home from school and before we loaded up our bus and our vans we attempted a group picture. Most all of the children are included with the exception of the Nursery babies.
Next we loaded up the bus and vans and headed to “Zhou Zi Liu” a place that specializes in Roast Pork. Everyone was really excited.
We all arrived at the restaurant and they had arranged one of their meeting rooms for us to use and had strung Christmas decorations everywhere (we didn’t even ask for that) and earlier in the day Hank, Holly and Hai Tao had taken the Christmas tree from the Nursery and set it up in the restaurant to add more of a “Christmas Touch” to the atmosphere.
As soon as we all were seated the waitresses began to bring in the food.
The fare was quite delicious by Chinese standards… of course there was no Turkey or Dressings… mashed potatoes or gravy… but we had Roast Leg of Pork, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Fried Fish, Spicy Noodles, Squid steamed in pepper sauce, Fried Bread with Goat Meat, HongShao FuZhu (a tofu dish) Peanut Chicken and several steamed vegetables and soup to name some of the items.
The table above is just partially full. By the time all the various dishes were served there was hardly enough room on the “Lazy Susan” to accommodate everything.
Everyone was quite full at the end of the meal and we loaded the vehicles back up and headed home for our evening’s Christmas activities.
Earlier in the day, Ben and Michelle Godard (the family here in internship to administer the third Home of Hope when we get it open) took all the smaller children to their house for their own little Christmas party. The children drew names and each child was given 2 Yuan (about thirty cents) to buy a small gift for his/her person… Ben took them out shopping on the 23rd and they were all excited about their own little party.
Ben and Michelle planned this because at times the little ones get lost in the shuffle of all the excitement at the big party.
Above are (left to right, front row) Tyler Godard, Mary, Caleb, Gracie, Eli Godard, Isaac, (back row) Autumn, Mosie, Ruthie, Ron, Jaxin Godard, Rose and Abby Joy.
They had their Christmas Party snacks…… (Gracie on the left and Abby Joy on the right)
Did their “Gift Exchange”….. (What a riot!… )
And then they played games. They really liked the “Pin the Nose on the Santa” (Top – Rose on the left and again Abby Joy on the right.) – (Bottom – Ruthie on the left, Isaac on the right.)
Everyone arrived back at the Home of Hope and we had the Rec room and the tables and stools ready by 7:00 PM so people started gathering in.
We had our tables covered with Red, Green and Gold and the room was decorated really nice. The tree was the most beautiful we have had in the nine years we have been doing this… This year Hank Cao Hai Kui and Holly Hou San Juan were in charge of all the decorating and planning of the event and they did a great and fantastic job!
The social started at 7:00 PM and lasted quite beyond 10:00 PM.
Sam and Esther MCd the event with Esther speaking in Chinese and Sam translating into English for our visiting American friends and non Chinese speaking guests. They did an excellent job.
We had entertainment from just about every age group… from the little ones all the way up to the university students and even our visiting foreign friends.
Above left is the Home of Hope Kindergarten performing their little “Train Follow the Engine” routine and on the right are Rachel and her nursery buddies.
We had skits…. above left are Mathew, Adam and Vincent showing their acting skills and on the right is Mathew again showing his diversity.
The High School age children gave us a beautiful song with Mime type Signing… it was really moving (above left) and Peter and Joseph gave us a skit following an old Irish Christmas story. (above right)
Ben and Michelle Godard blessed us with a lovely song (above left) as did our American visitors (Pat and Karen) from Louisiana (above right).
Tim, Luke, Joseph, Peter and Michael gave us a modern dance… and the Home of Hope choir blessed us with several songs… above right they are singing Silent Night
Normally at the end of our Christmas programs each year and just prior to the giving of gifts, Nathan gives a talk to everyone about the meaning and origin of Christmas.
This year as that time drew near, Sam called Nathan to the front and Hank came and said the children had a gift for Ye Ye and Nai Nai.
As it turned out, the children had done two things which were the most moving and unusual we have ever seen.
First of all they presented us with a 4′ X 3′ Mosaic picture of Ye Ye and Nai Nai developed with over 2,000 pictures of the children and Home of Hope memories spanning the period from January 2000 to October 2008. A reproduction of the Mosaic is shown below…
And about the time the amazement of this awesome Mosaic was about to settle in, the children then presented a book they had produced themselves (with the help of Ben and Michelle Godard). Each child had written about one occurrence in their life which had taken place during the years they had been at the Home of Hope and that held the most significance and impact in his or her memory. There were many accompanying photographs in each child’s chapter and even the younger children who could not write had their own chapter with their photographs and hand prints…
Such an awesome gift and great memento! Nathan did give a short talk but it was rather difficult to do after the quite emotional impact of scanning through the book, seeing what the children had written….
Finally, it was time for the giving of gifts… and it was quite a time indeed.
We asked our visiting American friends Pat and Karen to play Santa Clause and they did a Yeoman’s job of handing out the gifts to the children.
This year was rather skimpy compared to previous years as funds are not very plentiful right now and what does come in does not go as far as it used to due to inflation in China. Normally the children get new coats and at least one toy or other item but this year they just received a pair of Long Jon’s or a thermos to keep their drinking water warm or for those who needed them, a new pair of warm shoes…. even so… there was no disappointment and everyone ended their day with a thankful heart full of Love and Joy!
Autumn (left) and Caleb (right) patiently wait their turn to receive their gift.
Above Left – Bruce and Michael open their gifts… in this case they made or bought a small thing to give each other… we are always happy to see this develop…
Above Right – Tony, Peter, Luke and Bruce check out their new thermos bottles.
Tony and Joseph (with Calvin in the back ground) share some interesting tidbit during the opening of the gifts (above left) and Zak and John also seem to be enjoying the evening… as the program winds down for another year.
We hope you have enjoyed our Christmas 2008 report and wish to take this time to Thank You for your love, support and for remembering us here in China as we work to bring happiness and hope to the lives of these lovely and deserving children.
We close this post by offering you a small glimpse of our Children’s Choir singing Silent Night.
Posted: December 26th, 2008 under Christmas, Special Activities, Visitors.