Coming from the Philippines and my husband Rob coming from Canada, We will combine our families traditions from both our countries in celebration of this year's Christmas in China although we will be missing some traditions:

Chinese Food for Christmas Eve dinner! This is what Rob's family usually does in Canada, but since we live in China, we decided that this is one tradition that we will pass this year. Luckily for us, friends are hosting a Christmas Eve dinner for a big group of people from Rob's Workplace!

Waking up at twelve midnight on Christmas Eve to share a humble feast! This is what my family usually does in the Philippines but we think waking up our almost three-year-old daughter and almost two-year-old son in the middle of the night is not healthy for them.

Maybe in a few years time when the kids are older, we can follow this tradition by heart. But for now, we will start Christmas day with a breakfast of bacon and omelette cooked to perfection by Rob. Then we will have the traditional gift opening that everyone looks forward to.

Our daughter Lara and our son Dylan had started opening the gifts under the Christmas tree two weeks ago and after a long process of negotiation. We finally were able co convince the kids to leave the gifts alone until Christmas day.

Rob and I have been married for over six years and celebrated six Christmas together. The first four were spent when there were just the two of us and the last two when we were blessed with two beautiful children. Having our own kids to celebrate Christmas with is a totally wonderful experience. They make us feel young-getting excited decorating the Christmas tree, happy wrapping gifts, having fun hanging the wreath at the door, totally delirious dancing to Jingle Bells and even believing in Santa again!

For lunch, we will treat ourselves to Peking duck. After lunch£¬it will be Church time for us. We will visit the Catholic Church at Shigu Lu and say a prayer for forgiveness, another prayer of thanks and another to strengthen our bond with God. And for dinner, we will have lechon, which is a whole roast pig as the main course. Lechon has always been a traditional part of any Filipino celebration.

At the end of day, we will bow our heads and give thanks again for this very special day and every-thing that it means.