A Multicultural Christmas

Abigail loves to dance. We discovered this after she went to the ballet last week. She was enthralled by the ballet and has dipped into her big box of dress up clothing for some strap-on wings and a baton with streamers at each end. She will use these props when she dances around the kitchen.

A friend of ours came over last night. This person is a missionary to China and has lived in China for several years and so knows the language. He talked with Abigail for quite a while last night. Or, rather, she talked to him. She has a way of dominating the conversation.

One of the things he gave us was a CD of some Christmas music, all sung in Chinese. Deb put it in the player today while she and Abigail were washing the dinner dishes. Abigail perked right up when the music started and immediately asked Deb to make it "bigger" (louder). So they did the dishes to a choir singing well known Christmas music in Chinese, loudly. I could hear it quite well from downstairs where I was building the fire.

When the dishes were done, Abigail began to dance. Soon the Clifford-the-big-red-dog slippers came off and the baton and wings came out and she was choreographing all kinds of moves to such favorites as O Come All Ye Faithful and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.

She took a short break to call me upstairs and ordered me to participate in the dancing. So I danced, and Deb grabbed the video camera. Not a good combination. But it's all on video anyway, this big Dutch guy and a little Chinese girl dancing the Virginia Reel to Christmas Choir music sung in Chinese. Deb was laughing so hard that she couldn't hold the camera still.

She finally stopped at track 13, sweating and complaining that she was hot.

So if you want to experience a different way of celebrating Christmas, come on over, and Abigail will show you how. And this time, I will be holding the video camera.