christmas 2014.

We celebrated Christmas this past weekend because we'll be in Cambodia(!) for the actual holiday. So our "Christmas Eve" was Saturday, the 13th, and "Christmas Day" was Sunday, the 14th.

Last year, for some reason I don't remember, we decided to make dumplings on "Christmas Eve." (We celebrated early last year too, because I went to Vietnam for the holiday.) I remember saying to Tony, "Hey! If we stay together, this could become a tradition! Making our own dumplings every Christmas Eve, maybe someday with our kids!" That was the plan this year, because if we did it two years in a row, that would make it a tradition, right?

Well, we didn't make dumplings because we were really lazy Saturday morning... and Saturday afternoon... and by the time we were ready to go grocery shopping, we decided it would make more sense to just go to our favourite dumpling restaurant and well, eat dumplings. (So maybe our Christmas Eve tradition will just be to eat dumplings?? But really, I hope it will become a tradition that we make them and then eat them.)

After eating so many dumplings—and broccoli, and beans, and some tofu/lotus root/bamboo/noodle dish—we came home to drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies. (Correction: I drank hot chocolate; Tony ate chicken feet. Hashtag cross-cultural couple.)

The movies we watched? It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story. The former, I had never seen; the latter, I've seen a million times, mostly because TBS used to play it on repeat for 24 hours on Christmas Day. Ah, memories. (Confession: I fell asleep during both.)

Sunday morning, "Christmas Day," I woke Tony up at 8:30 so we could open presents. My favourite gifts were probably new pajamas from my mom (a Christmas tradition) and a Beats Pill speaker from Tony. I considered Christmas morning a success when Tony opened Jenga and asked, "Can we play!?" (We played and laughed and he'd probably like you to know that I was the one who knocked it over.)

After presents, we cooked Tony cooked breakfast. (I made the toast!) And after we devoured our eggs and bacon, we watched Jingle All the Way. (Other movies we watched this holiday season: Christmas with the Kranks, Ernest Saves Christmas, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.)

Unfortunately, Tony had to work most of Sunday, but he was able to come home for a bit late in the afternoon for "Christmas dinner." We had planned on chicken, potatoes, etc., but decided we'd rather have Indian food. We ordered from our favourite Indian restaurant, Ganges. Untraditional, but delicious. I wouldn't mind if it became a tradition, too.

Later in the evening, we had friends over for Häagen-Dazs ice cream cake, hot chocolate, and mulled wine. We lit candles, played Christmas music, and it felt Christmas-y. No small thing here in China.

Christmas 2014, you were a good one.

we have a christmas tree!

The branches are few, it doesn't have that heavenly pine tree scent, and the lights aren't as bright as I'd like, but it's a Christmas tree!

Sunday afternoon, after spending time at a Christmas bazaar, and shopping for decorations and wrapping paper at a makeshift Christmas market (behind? on top of? at? a place called Dirty Nellie's—as you can see, there's some confusion here, which explains why we spent a small amount of time wandering around outside while a freezing cold wind blew), we set up the tree that a fellow teacher sold me last year for 100RMB.

Tony wanted to nap after we put together the tree (my first fake, not including the paper tree we used last year), but once it was up and I said he could sleep for awhile before we decorated it, he practically shouted, "No! I'm into it now! I'm excited!"

And it was while he was stringing the lights that I realized, "Tony! Is this your first time decorating a Christmas tree?!"

His reponse, a look that pretty much said, "Duh! What do you think?" made me even more excited. Not only our first Christmas tree together, but his first Christmas tree, ever (again, not including the paper tree we had last year).

So, with Christmas songs playing on Songza, and while I drank hot chocolate with a candy cane (shout out to my Nan!), we decorated our Christmas tree.

We bought ribbon to put on the tree, but Tony wanted to use the garland a teacher gave us last year. Childhood me was happy.

It's really hard to take a good selfie with a Christmas tree!

We got this ornament made on our vacation in Dalian last year. 

I bought a set of handmade, Chinese character ornaments at the Christmas bazaar my first year here. So happy to finally be hanging them on a tree (and now that I'm marrying a Chinese man, I won't need the paper that tells me what they mean! :) This one means "blessing."

We bought this at the Christmas bazaar on Sunday.

Presents under the tree, mostly courtesy of my momma. (Tony, if you're reading this, you better start shopping!)

P.S. I wrote this while drinking eggnog tea. It almost, almost, feels like home.

P.P.S. The paper Christmas tree we used last year was a digital download from Caravan Shoppe. I used it at home and in my preschool class; it was so much fun! (And it's on sale right now for only $3!)