圣诞节快乐

Celebrating Christmas away from friends and family can be a heartbreaking experience or it can be an opportunity to learn and experience new things.  We spent a cold dreary day yesterday touring the wonderful gardens in Suzhou village (population 5 million).  Wow.  The gardens were amazing each aspect of Chinese garden art was present in glorious and unique fashion.  There was water, vegetation, architecture and rocks…amazing rocks painstakingly harvested from nearby lake beds.  Each rock was unique in its nooks and crannies, form and imagery.  

A Christmas Eve feast followed the gardens tours with countless dishes brought to the tables steaming hot.  There was sweet and sour pork, whole fried fish, tender beef with mushrooms, steamed cabbage, shrimp, dumpling soup and I’m-not-sure-what-I-just-ate-but-it-might-have-been-cartilage.  The students had arranged a “white elephant” gift exchange and we had a great time fighting over hotel slippers and Winnie-the-Pooh candy canes.

Not knowing whether it would be appropriate to conduct and informal worship service in our side rooms of the restaurant we chose to retire to our hotel room for stories and carols.  Perhaps it was the emotion of the being away but I felt a very strong connection to the story of the Disciples hiding in an upper room away from prying eyes and Roman soldiers.  It was humbling to know that 2000 years later we were still “hiding” the practice of our faith and the experience gave me a sense of sympathy for all those who are teased and stared at as they bow to Mecca or wear a Yarmulke as part of their daily devotion.

Christmas morning came with the predicted enthusiasm from the children.  We opened the gifts from one another, called family and watched the sunrise through the smog of Shanghai.  One of the Muth family traditions is to have an open house brunch on Christmas day.  While we were a little short on the open house part we did rock the brunch in a big way.  Wandering across the street from the University we discovered friendly street vendors hawking banana pancakes, egg-spinach-crepe things and these doughy bread pockets filled with veg and spicy pulled pork (I had two!)

Before arriving in Shanghai we received a tip from a family friend to visit Zotter’s Chocolate Theater for an educational experience in all things chocolate.  What a treat this was!  Every type and flavor combination of chocolate in multiple samples with hand painted porcelain spoons.  We all channeled our inner Augustus Gloob as we tried white chocolate, dark chocolate, rice chocolate, chocolate with fruit, candy, liquor, chili, masala, fish and nuts.  We drank chocolate, ate chocolate, smelled chocolate and even watched a movie about chocolate.  There were chocolate fountains, chocolate on conveyor belts, chocolate served hot, chocolate in bars and chips and the gift shop!

Whew.  In many ways our Christmas was typical.  We were all together.  We exchanged gifts and read the familiar stories of our shared faith.  We ate excellent food and made new friends.  In many ways it was the most remarkable of days but if I’m not mistaken, Christmas began with a pretty remarkable day too.  Blessings to all.