Monday Missions entry

Hello, this is my entry to Qurator’s Monday Missions entry. This week’s theme is Christmas.
I want to share two of my Xmas stories. It has a little bit traditions and unusual gifts.
I was born into a Chinese Roman Catholic family. My dad had never baptized me for some reason; however, I have been taught bible and Catholicism. My first English book was the new testament, even though I could not read in either Chinese or English back when I was two.
My Christmas eve normally included decorating a small pine tree inside flowerpot, eating potato salad, Russian red cabbage soup and dumplings (yes, together) and spending the night at the Christmas mass. Yes, there are churches in China, and they spoke Latin during masses. At least that was the tradition when I was a kid, and still living over there.
The first Christmas mass I could remember is when I was five. The ceremony was long, and I could not understand a single word they were singing. An old grandpa on the right side of me sung the prayer as loud as possible with his eyes closed. If it was ten/twenty years later than that days, I would understand and describe that gentleman as a guy, who does not know how to sing, but still controls the karaoke microphone. I do admire his passion. The five years old of me really don’t know anything about religion.
Anyway, the mass was amazing. I thoroughly enjoy it until somebody passed a bucket to us. My dad was on my left side, he passed some Chinese dollar bills and the bucket to me. He instructed me to put the money inside the bucket. Again, the five years old of me did not understand donations. Dollar bills equals candy. That little brain of mine was spinning quickly and having decided my own action. I put the dollars bills in my pocket as fast as I could and take out a couple of quarters I had with me before. That sound of metal hit another metal was really loud…
I guess that could be the reason why I was never baptized. My dad probably thought my sin could never be forgiven.

There were no traditions, decorations, even Christmas trees in Iraq. I have spent three Christmases in my Army career. We had a nice dinner in chow hall then went back to work or played video games depending on missions.
It was my second Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) tour around 2008. We have stayed in a small Forward Operating Base (FOB). Situation has calmed, and we allowed the locals to get on base. They came in to sell bootleg movies, or fake Rolex, etc.
Christmas eve, we received an intel that insurgents have planted a bomb inside our FOB. The source was not credible, but we must treat as a threat. Therefore, a crazy decision was made. No lock down the FOB, but we would have military dogs and squads of soldiers search the unknown explosive.
“Hope they are in stockings, at least we will get some gift.”
“Yeah, keep the traditions going!”
Soldiers joked around. Guess this is also traditions that solider kidding around when we were in a ridiculous situation.
Since the base was not on the lockdown. There were lots of soldiers, male or female wearing physical training (PT) uniforms, or in flipflops, towels, ready for showers; while we, in full battle rattle combat gear, with dogs, in a tactical formatting, sniffing bombs throughout the entire compound…
We did not have Christmas music, or church. We had a blackout. Darkness consumed the whole night.
The next day, we did not find any bombs. No explosive gifts in stockings, under Christmas tree. It was a false alarm. However, we did have a safety briefing.
Sargent Major stated with the most serious face I have ever known him, “I know it was blackout, we cannot see when we top off our truck. But you should not use a lighter to check whether you have finished fueling the tank!! Fireworks is not part of Christmas…”