Happy Christmas

The English say “Happy Christmas” not “Merry Christmas”. Merry means drunk.

(Dawn on Christmas morning in China.)

An English Christmas in China

We are living in China for a year so it was Denny and my first Christmas away from family. It was this Christmas that God truly showed us love through the body of Christ. A family kindly invited us to have lunch with them Christmas day. We have only met the couple, Daryl and Maureen three times but they invited us to their intimate gathering while their children we’re visiting from England. This couple illustrated love to us, the same love that the Lord gave us over 2,000 years ago, Jesus.  (Thank you Daryl and Maureen. )

Maureen prepared a huge English Christmas spread. There was: wine, juice, stuffed turkey, sausages, bacon wraps, mixed vegetables, steamed carrots, Chinese green beans, roasted potatoes, brown gravy, mashed sweet potatoes and carrots and cranberry sauce. My favorite was the mashed sweet potatoes and mashed carrots with butter. Mash those vegetables and then bake it in the oven for a few minutes. Yum.

Maureen and Daryl introduced to us for the first time an English tradition, Christmas crackers. Have you ever heard of them before? It’s a custom in the United Kingdom to have a cracker placed on your placemat. People before the meal cross their arms and hold their end and another end of a person’s cracker. Then everyone pulls the end…BOOM. The crackers make a pop sound and objects go flying every-which-way like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. In each cracker there was a gift, joke and crown. Daryln explained to us that they explain the Christmas story.

A gift: The three wise men brought gifts to Jesus

A joke: To enjoy life. (Yeah! In Jesus we’re free from bondage!)

A crown: It represent Jesus the king being sent to earth. 

Click here to learn more about the Christmas cracker. My joke was: “What lies in a pram and wobbles?”… “a jelly baby”

Translated:

pram: the word for a stroller in England

jelly baby: a gummy that looks like a baby instead of a bear. (The English eat babies and the Americans eat bears. =))

We all wore our crowns. It felt like an awesome Jesus Birthday party. 

The meal reminded me of when Harry Potter arrived to Hogwarts and sat down for his first meal. There was so much delicious food. My eyes felt like they were going to bug out. (China what are you doing to me?) Maureen worked so hard in the kitchen. Denny and I thank you for all your planning and craft in the kitchen. 

Their son’s childhood friends.

Daryl and Maureen’s sons.

My husband with lots of Christmas joy. =)

English Christmas desserts

What Christmas desserts did you have? What desserts are a part of your culture? The Christmas pudding made me so giddy like a school girl on her first day of class. They lit the fruity cake on fire.

This was made from English chocolate. 

From China, we wish you a Merry Christmas!

and, to my mother-in-law …

I hope and pray your 2012 Christmas holiday was excellent and that you felt loved.

Friends and readers during holidays ask people what they are doing. If they have no plans or place to go invite them over to your place. I promised they will feel loved being a part of your family. LOVE, isn’t that what Christmas is all about?