Christmas Morning!

 The Hastings also are celebrating their first Christmas together! 

Yah! Got a new game for Christmas! 

Special Christmas day lunch insisted of Greek salad, hummus, and lamb of leg! 

Playing Curses! A great game to play with friends! 

Christmas in Xi'an

We decided to go back to Xi'an and celebrate Christmas with our dear friends there! It was such a trip that David and I had really been looking forward to!

We had lunch with Jessie and her new husband

Old stomping grounds

We went from being from 58' in Xiamen to -7' in Xi'an! 

Christmas Eve dinner included: meat chili, southwest chicken chili, minestrone soup, and lots of cookies!

Our activities began in the early afternoon with watching movies, dinner, singing, games, communion, and reading the Christmas story.

Was so happy to be back together with friends

It was so good for my soul to be back with these ladies catching up and talking 

Celebrating our frist Christmas together as Mr. & Mrs. Ridenour! 

Christmas Party!

We've been getting to know some friends on Sunday morning and they had a 'English Corner' Christmas Party! 

80+ people came to celebrate! There were games, singing, sharing the Christmas story, and lots of cookies! 

My very tall husband!

My friends and I! 

Happy Birthday Jesus Cake!  

Showing off Christmas cookies that they made! 

David coming in for a kiss! Tradition in their home is that all the married couples kiss under the mistletoe 

Our friends also following the tradition! 

Christmas Party at the Ridenours!

Its been a little bit since I last updated our blog so I wanna start with Christmas photos and some more recent things that have been going on.

David took me out on a special date to celebrate the end of my first semester of grad school!  

Barrington Christmas Party At Our Home! 

Yep, he cooked that fish in my kitchen! It was really good too! 

Thats one of our Christmas ornaments in his hand that he took home! One thing we learned this year was to have ornaments ready to give away. The kiddos loved taking them off our tree and carrying as many as they could out the door. 

We had a total of 27 people fit in our little home 

Potluck dinner!  

White elephant exchange- the daughter stealing a gift from her mom! 

Our friend Michael and his family came along to celebrate! 

Kiddos having fun with the white elephant exchange 

US Trek: Lafayette and Evansville

Flight from Xiamen to Shanghai (2 hrs), to Washington DC (14hrs), to Indianapolis (2hrs), drive to West Lafayette (30 minutes).  We we're so glad to see Sharon and Travis in the airport and pumped to see the rest of the family the next morning!

We spent a week in Lafayette, Indiana with family (everyone joked that we arrived earlier for Sharon's wedding to help with preparations than we did with our own wedding earlier in January).

Here are some of our highlights from our time there: 

Lunch date with family at Olive Garden! 

Playing with the foxtail ball in the park
 This shows our height different... just remember we're standing on a hill :)  

Thank you Travis and Sharon for introducing us to the card game "Curses!"  My new favorite game!  The game that made me laugh so hard I was crying.

Travis, my new brother-in-law, grilled out and made a huge dinner for  all of us

Took Debbie out for her birthday (enjoying our first US hamburgers while being back)

Loved getting to go on a walk and explore more around Lafayette with Debbie 

Family hangout time in the park 

Picnic in the park! 

That week was a really special time for me to get to spend time with David's family, getting to know them more and hanging out where they all grew up.   

Travis & Sharon's wedding! 

Getting to know David's extended family

David was a groomsmen at his sister, Sharon's wedding

Family time together! 

We then drove to Evansville to visit David's grandparents

We're so thankful for the time we got to have with family in Lafayette and getting to visit David's grandparents in Evansville