God is sitting on his throne looking down on us from heaven...and laughing.

We enjoy board games. They're a good way to pass the time with each other rather than watching TV or something else of that sort. Needless to say, we can't really play them in China. We didn't bring any of ours and they don't really seem to play anything here besides cards and Mahjong. We spent the first 2 months playing cards, as that was all we had. Then we found a puzzle in the toy section at the grocery store. We finished that in a week then went back to cards. A few weeks ago, we were looking around again and to my great delight, found the game Reversi, also called Othello. It's a simple game, probably less complex than checkers, but also provides ample opportunity for complex strategizing, so I think it's quite fun. As kids, we would always play it with grandpa so it's also a game of fond memories.

Anyway, tonight we decided to pull out our Chinese version of Othello, folded paper board & all, and enjoy a quick game after supper. In the middle of the game, Liz got a bit antsy at having played the same 2 games for 3 months and suggested we peek at the present we had gotten from her parents that we suspected to be a board game. Feeling devious, I agreed. We could just open a corner and see if it might be something different we could play for a few weeks before wrapping it up again to open on Christmas. So Liz grabbed the gift from under our sad little tree and began to carefully peel back the tape on one end.

"Ohh, you've got to be kidding!" she said, laughing in disbelief. In the midst of playing the 1 game we have been able to buy here in China, we had received the very same game, which I had put on my Christmas list a month earlier. At least now we have the real board and not just a folded piece of paper!

Now if that isn't God having a little bit of fun at our expense, I don't know what is. We got a really good laugh out of it. I mean, we've had the presents under our tree for a good week now, and the one time we cave and decide to peak at one was while we were playing the same and only game we can get in China. Ah, cruel, humorous fate.

In other news, we've posted some more pictures. On a few different occasions when we've taught for each other while they were sick, we've had the students write get-well cards. They are quite humorous. Here they are in full.