This holiday season I’ll try to reach out to as many friends as I can and ask a simple thing – some photos of their home town Christmas lights. For the readers it would be an opportunity to have a look around different corners of the Earth. For me – it would be a chance to catch up with everyone I know. Some of these people I keep in touch with almost on a daily basis. Some of them I follow on Facebook and occasionally have a chat with. And some I haven’t heard from for ages, so this was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect! I’ll be posting here from now on and until the 7th of January, Orthodox Christmas. Wishing you all very happy holidays, whichever those might be!

I’ll start with Shanghai not because it was a part of our journey, we lived there for about a year and I already posted about our holidays there, but because my parents and my sister call this city their hometown for now.

I’ve recently wrote how grateful I am for internet, helping me stay in touch with my family. I rarely feel far away from them as they very often send me photos of practically anything of interest that they see around. Actually, the idea of making this catching up series by means of sending some photos came from this family photo stream :) So here’re my postcards from Shanghai:

It seems like this year it’s all about Paddington Bear! Did you know that it’s his 65th anniversary this year? I didn’t till I Googled. Have no idea how I missed that vital information, so I’m passing it on to you.

Here’s something for the knitting enthusiasts (Amy, close ups for you):

And, of course, one of the most beautiful parts of the town, the Bund, as seen from Pudong side, all lit up for Christmas, even though it’s not officially celebrated.