Almost Christmas

Until this week the weather has been so warm that I haven't needed much more than a sweater while riding my bike to school. This week has turned cold and I've had to pull out all of my ski gear just to ride my bike, although there is still no snow yet for Christmas

For Christmas we are planning to go out for Italian food with some of the English teachers from my school. It's will be nothing like Christmas dinner at home but turkey is hard to find here and, well we wouldn't know what to do with a turkey anyway. The food will be different but at least we will be able to spend the day with friends. This will be only the second time in my life that I have not been with my family at Christmas, the other being a Christmas in Japan but even there I had good friends and turkey dinner.

We were very happy to receive a package from Canada this week. We can hardly wait to open it...ok well we have opened it but are waiting for Christmas to open the individual gifts.

We visited my wife's extended family last weekend. For me it was the first time meeting them so I was quite worried about it. I was welcomed with warmth and even some English that they memorized before I came. It was very touching when my wife's grandfather, who is in poor health but improving, took my hand and said, "How are you?" He had asked his daughter how to say it in English before we arrived. He is 88 years old and very conservative so we were worried about his reaction to his granddaugher marrying a foreigner. His welcoming was warmer than I expected and the rest of the family welcomed me also. We were very happy with how the weekend went and their reaction to me.