After a wonderful German Christmas Eve dinner with our friends last night, I woke up early and heard the sound of bells jingling. Could it be???? I threw open the balcony door and looked out into the foggy dawn — no snow glistening in this lane — to see the recycling man with cardboard piled on his cart, clanging away on his bell. I went back to bed.
At 8:00 the phone rang. Family calling with greetings? No, it was the yogurt delivery lady. It may be Christmas, but it’s still Friday, and we had forgotten all about her. (Apparently she had been ringing the doorbell for some time.) John zipped down and collected the week’s supply of jars of the world’s best yogurt. Yum, Christmas breakfast!
It’s a good thing I remembered to cancel the drycleaning delivery, or there wouldn’t be peace at all in our house today, let alone on earth!
9:30 — time to go downstairs and see if the adult youngsters are stirring.Wait! The doorbell is ringing again! It’s a woman I’ve never seen before, and she is waving her knitting project at me. It seems she needs more yarn to finish it… okay let’s traipse up to the tinzijian to see if I can match her color. Ok now, I am going to wake Alex and Christopher. It’s time to open our gifts and go to the Filipino Catholic English-language service and then pick up the rest of the fixings to make Christmas dinner.
To our family and friends far and wide, best wishes from Shanghai for a very Merry Christmas!
Tags: Christmas and New Year