Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas we had!  I know I keep saying that about everything, but when you tend to spend Christmas in a very hot place, with very few shops to choose gifts from, with a very limited budget, and very far away from family, an American Christmas is like a bonanza.  And I’m not talking about gifts, but about choices, cheer, and beauty.

Kevin’s parents put up a beautiful 8-foot fresh-cut tree (which we helped choose and haul off the hillside) and we enjoyed decorating it, looking at it, and smelling it.  Christmas-cookie making was a fun activity for the kids, their cousins, and their grammie.  There was a Christmas pagent at the church, and Toby was  a shepherd while Ben was adorable as an angel.  We also went to visit “The Christmas House”, which is a local house that has hundreds of thousands of lights, displays, and animatronic Christmas stuff.  We saw the parade that brought Santa into town and to his Christmas workshop (though my kids don’t believe in Santa; we are not opposed to that, but it just doesn’t work when you live where we live).

We had fun shopping for Daddy, and then for Mommy, and making Christmas crafts to send out.  The Christmas Eve service at church had us lighting the advent wreath as a family, and had real lit candles for the boys to hold.  They thought that was the coolest.  Christmas morning, gifts were opened with much rejoicing, then I went off to the airport to pick up my younger sister, flying in from LA.  We had a great Christmas dinner with a wonderful turkey Kevin’s mom had cooked, with all the fixin’s, and then a gingerbread house building competition in the afternoon with Kevin’s older brother’s family.

The day after Christmas, a big storm brought in 8-12″ of snow, and we had a good time playing in it for awhile.  The kids had been outfitted by their grandparents in all manner of boots, hats, mittens and snowpants, and had a great time in their “first” big snowfall (the first they remember!)

We have many happy memories and are thankful for the good times spent with Kevin’s family and my sister.  Next year when we are in Malawi, sweating it out, we will look back this traditional Christmas with a lot of nostalgia. 🙂  Of course, there is something to be said for a tropical Christmas as well, but somehow it just feels more “real” when you have the snow and all the other traditional things associated with Christmas.  After being away for a few years, the commercialism of Christmas was a little overwhelming (the constant pressure from advertising to buy, Buy, BUY!!!), but all the other aspects were great. – C