The formula for a merry Christmas

By Ken McManus ( aaa ) Updated: 2007-01-12 21:43:57

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It was Dan Brown Does Christmas and my first one in Beijing. The numbers in my very un-Fibonacci sequence 16, 4, 2, 10, 2 seemed to be the guiding force of my holiday.

The 16 was the number of people who participated in a "white elephant" gift exchange at my friends Erik and Carol's Christmas party on Saturday.

What? You've never heard of a white elephant?

Everyone brought a small gift of some kind. OK, I forgot this part, so I ran next door and looked for something. I took three pieces of the best chocolates I can find in China by Leonidas, a Belgian company and wrapped them in tissue paper.

We all drew numbers out of Santa's hat, and starting with No 1, we chose presents, except for this one twist: You could choose a present or "steal" someone else's and force that person to choose again.

Now, my Chinese colleagues all were having fun, but in a restrained kind of way. One by one, the first six people all properly took a present from underneath the tree.

I was No 7 and the first to break the ice by stealing someone's gift. JT, who was No 4, had to pick again.

Four stood for the number of times JT's present was stolen. By the fourth time, it was hilarious, people were laughing so hard.

And yet, it had a happy ending. I had a nice souvenir from Tibet, and JT ended up with a book about stamps. He doesn't collect them, but his wife does. ("Look what I brought from the party, honey.")

We also played a variation on an old American party game; ours was called Pin the Nose on Rudolph. If we had been strict about the rules, one guy would have had to leave his nose on the curtain a meter away.

We ate, drank and were merry some merrier than others, depending on how much they drank.

The next day, my Chinese best friends, Eric and Cathy, came over. With Erik and Carol, the five of us went out to a buffet lunch. Cathy discovered the wonderful world of lobster tails. We returned and played cards all except Erik, who had something to do for work. (Remember JT? That's Erik's boss. We now call him Scrooge.)

The first two is the number of Chinese people who I taught to play canasta. They enjoy the game.

Ten represents the number of seasons of the American TV comedy Friends I gave my Chinese friends. All 10 seasons. Eric likes the show, but Cathy was ecstatic.

We ended the evening with bowls of chili and watching that Jimmy Stewart classic movie It's a Wonderful Life. This is the DVD I bought on eBay for $2.50, and it cost $14 to express-mail it from Hong Kong.

It was worth it, though. Eric and Cathy got another glimpse of Christmas and loved the movie.

The final two stands for the number of Chinese friends who now own It's a Wonderful Life. I had to give it to them. It was Christmas.

The solution: The square root of 16 is 4. The square root of 4 is 2. How does 2 become 10? Multiply by 5, the same factor by which 10 becomes 2. So the secret to my celebration is 5, which was the number of meals I had for Christmas.

Well, it makes sense to me.

(China Daily 01/12/2007 page20)