Christmas In The Immerqi Family| 2 min read

As lunch time rolled around, there was a knock at the office door as the pizza man arrived with the Christmas lunch feast. The lovely smell of melted cheese, tomato sauce, cooked meat and vegetables wafted from the break room into all corners of the office, announcing the ImmerQi Christmas lunch had started. As each dedicated member of staff tore themselves from work, we eventually had everyone around the table completely filled with food.

After some speeches, mainly consisting of “Merry Christmas! Let’s eat,” we all dug in. Though pizza and pasta are not quite the traditional foods associated with a Christmas lunch or meal, that is the great fun of China, we create our own traditions and customs with a mixture of all different cultures. Once everyone had quite stuffed themselves with as much pizza as they could, making a good dent in the quantity, we all shuffled back to our desks to finish out the rest of the day.

Just as the quiet sounds of typing, phone calling and paper shuffling was almost settled in, Santa Clause showed up to play a game. Again we all found our way from the desks to the small tree at the door where a present from each staff member lay neatly and rather beautifully underneath.

The game of Secret Santa (often known as Dirty Santa) began. Presents were picked, opened, unopened, stolen and traded. A few gifts were stolen many times, especially the one shaped like a wine bottle! In the spirit of Christmas Peter even passed up his chance at stealing from Jasmine (who had stolen his gift two years in a row), and settled for a packet of assorted Hershey’s chocolates.

There were many laughs, cheers, oohs and ahhs. Then we all finally and happily returned to our tasks. Though only a little time was taken out of the day, we can all certainly feel the excitement growing for the holiday season!