Presents both Big and Small

Christmas season is a time when people give a lot of gifts and I've received my fair share even over in China. My parents and my grandparents sent me packages with some nice stuff including a really funny Onion book from my parents and a Yankee world championship t-shirt from my grandparents. Last night on Christmas day we did a big white elephant gift exchange with all the foreign teachers as well as a bunch of Chinese friends. A white elephant gift exchange seems to basically involve everyone buying some odd gift and then swapping them around a lot. I bought a pair of Christmas colored lightsabers that Steve ended up with. I ended up with an odd 1000 piece Japanese puzzle that Ken bought. Some of the most popular gifts were a mug with the symbol for the Shanghai expo on it, the rip off of Gumby, and a belt and wallet with the Playboy logo on them, though again I'm sure Playboy isn't seeing any money on this. Besides these gifts Sarah's parents sent all the teachers here stockings with some candy and some home made games in them. I want to extend a special shout out to David and Deb for there really thoughtful gift and the nice Yahtzee game I got. The holiday season is still going here though as we have a New Years banquet next Thursday on the 31st.