When we put up our tree and hang up the ornaments, I am carried back to the reasons we put those ornaments on the tree.  My mother loved putting up her ornaments, and was always adding more. She had so many more that she gave ornaments to me and my brothers – and she could buy more. I love this Red, White and Blue ornament that my mother, and then I, have been hanging the red, white and blue since 1940!  It is hanging in front of one of the many birds that I have hung on the tree over the years.

This lovely angel was given to me, as have many other ornaments. She is very sweet and elegant, and above her, to the right, is a crocheted white angel, another gift. In addition you can see, to the left, the hand carved yellow bird made by a man at my church, He gave me, and many others, sweet little birds for our Christmas trees. To the right is a feathery blue bird that I bought years ago.

Here is a large feathery bird, a better look at the crocheted angel, and the little Chinese couple that we bought during our first year spent in China and having many adventures there, first in 1989 with the Tiananmen Square massacres. We had just flown into Beijing and my working unit was  there to drive us to our new home. We heard the chanting of  the students who were sorrowing over the loss of their Hu Yoabang. Our next trip to Beijin, in 1995 when the The United Nations convened Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing also changed what we expected.· Our timing to work in Beijing was again surprising. This time we learned that a group of Chinese business men visited a spring meeting in Sweden. When they got off their plane they were greeted by hundreds of bare-breasted women shouting against the Chinese plans.  The Chinese men were stunned and horrified.

The Chinese did not cancel the September conference, but they tried to eliminate many of the women who applied. They also set their workers to finish construction of a building an hour from Beijing. The intent was that most of the women could not stay in Beijing, but many did not obey. This intent did not work very well, but the program did continue daily in the new set up.

During one year in Beijing we learned about Money King. We did not read Journey to the West written at 1592 ourselves but we did buy children’s  books that tells the tale of Monkey King otherwise known as Sun Wukong. Monkey King is travelling with a young priest Tripitaka, Pigsy, and Friar Sand. We visited one American couple who were working in Beijing and their six year old was not only reading about Monkey King, he recited many pages! He loved the Monkey King and his adventures.

What Christmas memories do you have?