Christmas – 2007
Growing up in the South Central part of Texas, our most familiar and fondest memories of a White Christmas are those expressed by Bing Crosby. So it was really exciting to wake up on the 24th of December and find everything hiding under a soft and gentle covering of powdery snow. We always celebrate Christmas on the 24th due to various school conflicts with some of the children so for all practical purposes we had snow on Christmas day! Since Christmas is relatively new to the children they had no clue why everyone was so excited about snow on Christmas day but very soon it caught on. (In the picture above Moses Xiong En and Ruthie Xiong Shan are enjoying a walk in the snow on Christmas [eve] morning)
While the kitchen staff was busy preparing the large Christmas (Chinese Style) dinner, in other parts of the Home of Hope little groups were gathered together practicing their various performances for the Christmas get-to-gether to be held after dinner.
In the picture to the left, Nathan is working with Sam and Rena on their part in the skit “Life House Everything” being performed by the HOH university students. In the skit Sam plays God and Rena is one of God’s new creations. A film clip of the skit will be posted on this page as soon as possible. Meantime, if you are not familiar with the skit “Life House Everything” you can see it being performed by another group at YouTube. The Home of Hope college students did it just about perfect.
In mid afternoon we went to check on how the Christmas dinner preparations were coming along and found the dining room all decorated and ready.
For those interested in what a Chinese style Christmas Dinner is like, here are some of the menu items…… Sweet and Sour Fish, Goat-Ke-Bobs, Baked Chicken, Steamed Beef, Pickled Cucumber, Green Beans, Steamed Garlic Stems, Ba Bao Zhou (a sweet soup made with eight different fruits, Sweet Rice, Peanuts, Green Peppers stuffed with chopped Pork and boiled tree fungus, to name a few.
At about 5:30 the cooks called everyone in to eat. All in all including all the children, staff and guests we had more than eighty people for dinner.
Jay and Cindy Sockel, friends from California came to be with us over Christmas. We asked Jay to lead us in prayer before the meal and when he was finished everyone dove in. What a meal!
Even though everyone really enjoyed the dinner and most everyone was stuffed when it was over, there was a sense of high anticipation for the events that were to follow.
When dinner was about over, Nathan asked for volunteers to help clean up the dining hall and the kitchen so we could move on to our annual Christmas Social. So many people volunteered that the entire place was cleaned in no time.
Everyone moved to what is normally used as our children’s study hall but for Christmas it had been decorated and was beautiful.
The nursery babies with their individual Nannies sat in the front as well as the toddler aged children. The tables were all covered with organges, apples, walnuts, peanuts, candies and other goodies.
After everyone was seated to open the program, Cindy Sockel gave a talk about the true meaning of Christmas. What she told the children was very sincere and moving.
Mathew and Vincent gave a skit they developed on their own; the kindergarten children gave a skit on “It’s better to give than to receive” and they did an awesome job. As mentioned earlier, the University Students, Sam, Hank, Julie, Holly, Logan and David along with Rena (still in High School) did their program.
As soon as possible we will have two film clips added to this page… both the kindergarten children and the university students skits. We hope you come back to view them.
There were songs and games and other festivities and then it was time to exchange gifts. Jay Sockel did us the honor of playing Santa Clause and several of the older children helped him hand out the gifts. There was something for everyone!
We wish to close this segment with a large Thank You to those wonderful people who made it possible for each child at the Home of Hope to have a new winter coat. To all those who sent gifts and cards to the children and everyone who helped make Christmas 2007 one of the best ever!…………… THANK YOU!
Blessings!
The following video clip was taken at our Christmas Party and was a performance by the Home of Hope kindergarten children. The actors are, “Little Beggar Boy” – Isaac Ma Shi Hao, “First Girl in group” (with the white boots) – Ruthie Xiong Shan, “Boy in group” – Moses Xiong En, “Second Girl in group” (with the yellow coat) – Rose Xiong Ai and “Third Girl in group” – Autumn Xiong Duo.We have added English subtitles in hope that you will understand what the skit is teaching. We will be adding another clip in the next couple of days which was done by the University Students while they were home for Christmas. Just click on the little white arrow in the center of the screen above and the film will start. You do have to have Flash Player installed on your system to be able to play the video.
As promised we have added a clip of the skit the older children did while they were home from college at Christmas. This skit is a little longer than normal but well worth the download time.The idea of this skit came from the Life House posting on YouTube. It was very interesting to watch the people in the audience not knowing what was going on at first then quickly grasping the meaning of the presentation.We hope you enjoy. Just click on the little white arrow in the center of the screen above and the film will start. You do have to have Flash Player installed on your system to be able to play the video.
Posted: December 27th, 2007 under Christmas, Our Children, Special Activities, Visitors.