What has Christmas looked like this year?
Well, it is a little different. I was thinking about it this year. How many of my traditions were I going to bring here? Would I try to recreate the holiday minus cold weather, family, and dairy? Would I discover the Eastern African version of monkey bread without butter, canned biscuits, or brown sugar? Would we decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving, listen to Christmas music, and watch movies? Or like Thanksgiving, would I let the holiday almost slip passed unnoticed until the day of, say a quick huzzah, wish all well and merry, and move on? How much would I keep or try to recreate? How much would I change or not do?
And the answer is half-half. Some things we did the same. Some things we didn't do. Other things we did a little different.
My roommate and I decorated the house after Thanksgiving. We created a lot of paper decorations of stars and snowflakes, stockings and trees. It took us a while over a couple of days, but during the time we listened to Christmas music and watched movies. It was fun and it made it begin to feel like Christmas even though the weather is still in the 80s.
We had to explain to our other roommate what we were doing. Coming from Kenya, she has slightly different traditions from our American traditions. It was fun to explain Advent and the different symbols for each candle each week and difficult to explain stockings and what their purpose really was. She has decided a lot of our ideas are interesting, but she says it in such a sweet and kind way, I am inclined to believe her and not assume she using it as my family often does.
We have hung up the Advent calendar that my mom gave me when I left for college made out of felt, old cards, and glitter glue. We also have a small Nativity made out of straw and wires from Uganda. It is probably my favorite decoration of them all.
At the school we have also been decorating and celebrating. The librarian decorated every classroom with tinsel and lights and stars. My room has a Christmas tree standing in the front. At the school we have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with many of the students. We have been showing a BBC mini-series on the nativity story and having discussions afterwards with the students about the characters: their fears, hopes, struggles, and dreams. I appreciate such freedom to have these conversations and share truth. The Christmas party was on the 22nd of December right before we closed for break. We showed another Christmas movie, this time an animated version called "The Star".
After the movie and discussion, some of the girls who come to our conversation class gave myself and the other teacher a gift. It was very kind of them. Better than the gift itself was the realization of the impact the conversations have on the women. I love conversation classes and often times I get to learn more about the culture or how the people think. Sometimes we have opportunities to share truth, but I am never sure how much they hear or remember. With the Nativity show, they had a lot of questions about JC and who he was and how all that worked with the Father. I loved getting to answer those questions and talk about the power of forgiveness and how he has chosen us and loves us.
With other brothers and sisters in the country, we get to have a Christmas Eve service with songs and preaching and a children's program although much of it is in a different language. On Christmas day we get to celebrate altogether as a team and with other friends and roommates. We are hosting the lunch at our house and planning for 20 or so people. For me, this feels the most like Christmas: singing Christmas songs the night before, having a ton of people in the house, food and togetherness.
I am grateful for this Christmas season that is a little different. A little warmer. A little scraped together. And a little bit more focus on the child born so many years ago.