A Very Chinese Christmas

A Merry Christmas to everyone reading this!
How does one celebrate this holiday in China? If this question has been nagging you since the day you were born, never fear for I have the answer. You celebrate with other foreigners and your good Chinese friends.
My contact teacher, Turner, is fantastic. He organized a Christmas outing for the English teachers on Tuesday afternoon. We went bowling and ate Japanese food. If you forgot, I live in Xili, which is very close to the Baoan border. Baoan is one of the outer districts of Shenzhen, with factories and such. However, Xili is still being developed, so we went to Baoan.
This outing made the day special. Even though I was rusty at bowling, I had a lot of fun. The Japanese food was to die for. The waiters greeted us all in Japanese (with Chinese accents). Our tables were the traditional Japanese style where you take your shoes off and sit on pillows. Dinner was a combination of sushi, sashimi, tempura, and any other kind of Japanese food you can think of. All at the school's expense I might add. We even drank hot sake, which the Chinese teachers did not care much for. It does not taste like baijiu (a Chinese wine close to turpentine), but it is still strong alcohol. Ben and I were the only ones at dinner that celebrate Christmas, so we brought presents for the English teachers. I continued a family tradition of giving oranges. If I could not spend Christmas with family, I could at least do something to remind me of home.
That brings us to Wednesday, Christmas Eve. Some of my students gave me presents, which was totally unexpected. I thought my students did not like me enough to give me a gift. One class gave me a card that every students wrote in. How sweet! I taught in the morning, and in the afternoon our foreign teacher group held a Christmas party at a hotel resort. We got goody bags and Santa hats. It was great spending a Western holiday with Westerners who understand what Christmas is all about. I would have had more fun with family, but my friends made the holiday special. After dinner and the Christmas performance, we Xili folk took a cab back home. Instead of spending the night at the hotel like most of the other foriegn teachers, AnnaRae, Ashlee, Ben, Alaina, and I returned to Xili. Our Christmas involved spending time together like a family. Christmas morning, we ate homemade pancakes. The mix said panjacks, but they did not taste any different. They tasted wonderful. We do live in China, but we wanted an American breakfast. No offense to the family in "A Christmas Story" that eats Peiking duck. We also opened presents. I could not have asked for a better first Chinese Christmas. My parents also visit in a few days, which is a great present.