Well, January certainly got away from me! Luckily, I'm just in time to wish you a Happy New Year! Chinese New Year, that is. Today is New Year's Eve, which means that we won't be getting a whole lot of sleep tonight. This is our first ChunJie (Spring Festival) spent entirely in Chengdu, so we're looking forward to finding what the city has to offer. The first three days of vacation found us out of bed before 7am for various reasons, but we made up for that these past two days.

Saturday, we spent some time out in the country. There's a local foundation that provides scholarships, food and clothing to some of the poorest families in Sichuan. Our school gave some money to this foundation, and in return, we were invited to represent the school at their annual New Year's banquet. It was quite the spread for these kids! We enjoyed getting to know some of the students and their families.

We plan to spend a few days next week in downtown Chengdu. We've been encouraged to check out WuHou Temple and People's Park, as they both have greatly discounted entrance fees and are decked out for the holiday. I'll try and get some pictures up if we indeed go.

I guess the biggest news from January is our decision to leave Chengdu. We'll be moving to Dallas, TX once school dismisses in June. The plan is to attend Dallas Theological Seminary in the fall. Strange to think of leaving this place that has been our home for three years, and the only home that Dan & I have known as a married couple. It will be a little scary going back "home," but we're looking forward to it.

Happy Year of the Rat!

We had some local friends over for a Christmas dinner party this afternoon/evening. It was fun to have friends from outside our school community this year. We've gotten to know two families in XiPu pretty well. One runs a local massage and acupressure shop, and the other a "western" fast food restaurant - like a KFC - down the street. I've been teaching their two middle-schoolers English on the weekends. It's been a real joy to build friendship with both families. This was the first time they had been to our home, so it was fun to host them for a change.
My good friend, Lily, just interviewed at CDIS for an office position that will be open after the holidays. Funny enough, the gal leaving is going to grad school at Rutgers - where Dan's brother is in law school. The chances of them crossing paths are slim, as she'll be on a different campus, but it was fun to make that connection.
Only two more Christmas-related events left, and we can kick back and enjoy a few days off!
We're heading to Hainan (China's version of Hawaii) on Wednesday for a few days, but are looking forward to spending some down time at home, trying to keep warm and enjoying our seven-foot tree!

Merry Christmas to you all!!
To our families, we wish we could share the holiday with you - could you hop on a flight to China tomorrow?!!