Yes, SongWon, There is a Santa Claus!

Tonight we went to the White Winter Wonderland... 

We were the only guests, with another family and 2 students.

Let it be said that safety is not a big concern in Korea. 

We are doing Korean ice skating, where you kneel on a small wooden sled and use two sticks with nails in them to poke the ice and then pull yourself along on the sled... it's not as fun as it sounds...

Roan is making some progress :)

Lily is asking if she can just be pulled along by the rope... that was way more fun!

They built a hill up out of sand, and then hosed it down so it was nice and icy, then they push you down as fast as they can.  The safety standards are very lax.  Since we were the only guests of the night all of the staff went home except the guard at the gate.  We pretty much did whatever we wanted because even if they tried to tell us not to do something we had no idea what they were saying!

Ice skating... no zamboni...

Roan and Lily with Santa's elves...

Roan and Lily with Santa.  Roan told Santa that we would be in Beijing for Christmas. 

The kids were writing letters to Santa, as he looked on.  Lily wrote, "Hope you have a good time flying, I love the reindeer!"  Roan wrote, "Merry Christmas Santa!"  Then Roan said, "I think we were the only ones that wrote in English."

Yes, SongWon, there is a Santa Claus! He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.

Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus.
It would be as dreary as if there were no SongWons.

There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

A thousand years from now, SongWon, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now,
he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.