Christmas time's a comin'...

...though this photo might explain why it's a teeny bit harder to get into the Christmas spirit here. Foggy, damp, and quite chilly in the morning, though sometimes the sun burns through by mid-afternoon. Though you might get the impression from the blog that I've been around all the while, most of what you've been reading lately was (gasp!) posted in advance, back in early December when I had a bit more time.

I've been out of town the last two weekends. First, on more a business trip to the town of Guang'an in Eastern Sichuan, where I got a chance to observe a few projects that my organization, MCC, is sponsoring there, in order to write about them for our American and Canadian publications in the next couple of months. Then, last weekend, a winter retreat for all of us to Beijing, which meant a chance to get together with colleagues, share thoughts and inspiration, and yes, even a quick afternoon trip to the Great Wall. Both short trips were eventful in their own ways, and you may hear more if time permits.

In the meantime, I'm wrapping up finals in all of my classes, filling out rubrics and plowing through student notebooks. The big news is that we're also preparing for a big trip - to Indonesia and Thailand! Thailand, because that's where our organization holds its winter training sessions, and Indonesia because we have the chance to visit some MCC friends there as well. All lots of work and disruptions to our routines, balanced out, of course, by the fact that we are incredibly fortunate to be able to do what we're doing.

Oh, and then Christmas is coming up in the midst of all this. So yeah, things have been a bit busy as of late. Because we'll be traveling, we're not going huge on the presents this year, but we want to make sure we don't ignore Christmas, either. I've been reading Dr. Suess's How the Grinch Stole Christmas to a couple of my classes that have finished with their finals, which, in addition to the pleasure of reading the phrase "Cindy-Lou Who, who was no more than two" to my students, has been a gentle reminder to not get too Grinchy myself...