carver, I'm sorry to hear about your situation and hope you and your wife can find your way through it in a good way. Traveling to distant points always wears an air of challenge and adventure, but it can be isolating and difficult. You and your wife have to talk about this, in some caring and accepting way, to navigate it. Part of deciding to go to an entirely different culture is accepting that your old habits and pleasures won't be readily available. The reality of that is a lot harder than simply saying okay as you plan to relocate. If the two of you can use the unique surroundings and situation to have a special first Chinese Christmas, it might go a long way. I wish you all the best, and for the New Year. The Chinese do one hell of a New Year (a little later than the one in the West) that might make you both feel happier. But please, both, stop expecting Christmas at home. You're "not in Kansas" anymore. As a young sailor off a minesweeper during the Vietnam War, on a rest stop in Hong Kong, I wandered to the boat pier, took a boat to Kowloon, and by shear luck wandered over to the New Years parade. Vast crowd, longest parade I've ever seen, dragons, bands, acrobats, fireworks, you name it. I was stone sober and it was intensely psychedelic. I rode that experience through another patrol off the DMZ/Cue Viet River, and back across the Pacific. I didn't go looking for it; it came looking for me.
