Hey friends! Merry Christmas and happy new year from Taiwan! I’ve got some hot cocoa and mint chocolate cookies on the table for you. Grab some and let’s settle in by the Christmas tree. =)

This year I caved and bought a few things that I have been desiring ~ one of this was a large Christmas tree. My apartment is feeling Christmas-y and homey! I also bought a 5′ tree for my classroom which the Cubbies decorated with handmade ornaments. A Bible story craft about God’s Good Rules turned into a cute little decoration. (Remember ~ you can click on the pictures to enlarge them!)

As Christmas was on a Friday, the Polar Bear class got to celebrate Christmas together. The first class was a music class in which we sang Christmas and praise songs. Our second class was story time where we learned about the birth of Christ. The final class was our gift exchange. I am very proud of these kiddos! They exchanged gifts with maturity beyond their years. They showed a thankful face to their friends, even when they got a gift they weren’t happy with. They helped clean up and took delight in their friend’s gifts. Even when a gift went missing, everyone jumped in to help find it.

My Christmas gifts this year were homemade. Here in Taiwan, bakeries make something called “snack boxes”. They are boxes filled with  little goodies ~ cookies, cakes, scones, little bread loaves, etc. As these are fun to receive and I love to bake, I thought it would be an interesting opportunity for me to give it a try. These boxes were filled with mini pumpkin pies, chocolate pumpkin muffins, sugar cookies, “Thin Mints”, handmade chocolates, and snickerdoodles.

As we were decorating our classroom for Christmas, I realized that I have never shared with you what the classroom looks like. As such, I welcome you to the Polar Bear classroom!

On Saturday I was invited to a local friend’s house for a Christmas dinner hosted by her Taiwanese parents. There was lots of Taiwanese food (including my favorite egg and radish dish!), lots of Taiwanese people (my co-worker and I were the only foreigners), and lots of laughter. I got to practice my Chinese and celebrate with friends. My friend’s mom wanted to make sure my co-worker and I had something American to eat for Christmas, so she made us a turkey. Which we ate with chopsticks. =) On Sunday I was invited to a Christmas dinner hosted by an American family. There were mostly foreigners at this dinner with one Taiwanese friend. We ate a massive dinner, played games, and exchanged gifts. It was fantastic!

It is hard to believe that it was only five months ago that the Polar Bears first came to JacksonFive. These children are fully verbal, expressing their thoughts, desires, frustrations, and learning at an avid rate. Each day there is an encouraging conversation, sweet moment, funny joke, or a cause for amazement. One of these amazing moments came yesterday when I was doing corrections at my desk during lunchtime. A student took her assignment to write a letter to a friend, “Dear friend. (draw a picture). Love, _____” and turned it into a masterpiece. Please keep in mind that this child is a first grader who’s native language is Chinese. I showed this letter to another teacher (who has been teaching for 9 years) and the response was, “This is as good as or better than something my year three’s would write.” I am staggered at this little girl’s grasp of the English language, her writing skills, and her detail oriented nature. Her picture is essentially a comic strip that she has detailed as 1.) swim 2.) run 3.) talk 4.) jump and 5.) God. The first picture is of a girl saying she can sing and swim. The second is of a running race with one person encouraging another by saying, “Go, go, go!”. The third is a detailed picture of a conversation while the fourth seems to be merged with the fifth. It appears to take place at a church with one person talking in front of lots of (detailed) people.

What an amazing letter!

New Years Eve was spent in bed while New Years Day was spent baking and celebrating with friends. While out with friends, I came across this striking sight.

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and have enjoyed ushering in the new year. May 2016 be a year of growth, a dependency on God, and full of love and laughter.

Please let me know how I can pray for you! May God bless you and keep you,
Tr. Ruth