Christmas

I've had my very serious post about Christmas up for a while, so I think I'll finally follow up with the sequel: Christmas Day. As I said in a previous post, I almost didn't want to be at home for Christmas this year as last year's Christmas was a bit depressing. Last year, we sort of celebrated by ourselves. We got up, went to church, ordered out lunch with a friend going through cancer treatment, hung around the house all day together, then went to the orphanage in the evening. These were all fine things to do, but it didn't feel like Christmas. It just sort of felt like any other Sunday. Good friends of ours (the Holts) had the same experience. They decided to have a family-only Christmas last year as well and they described it as "a bit sad". We decided not to repeat last year. The Holts and we decided on a time and restaurant to go to Christmas lunch and invited a bunch of people. We also were invited to Christmas dinner with our neighbors who have become a bit like family. I think it was just about right for a Christmas without extended family. Without any cooking to do, the day was pretty relaxing and we had the morning just to be together. At lunch there were lots of kids of all ages for Gabe to play with and friends for us to enjoy. Afterward we went back to the Holts' house to chat for a bit. Then back home for a bit of a rest then over to the neighbors' house for a relaxed meal and jigsaw puzzles. It was nothing too particularly original, but it had what the previous year lacked-celebration. I suppose it depends on your personality, but without others to celebrate with, we sort of fell too much into our family routines and failed to really get into the celebratory spirit of the day. As we chatted with the Holts, we all realized we'd had a bit of a hard year and had felt a bit under seige. As I talked about in my previous blog, it seemed like the darkness was growing darker and being a light was a struggle. As my Christmas Eve reading (see previous blog) prepared me for thankfulness for the Light of the World, I (and I think our friends) felt the need to truly celebrate the coming of our Saviour. Planning to celebrate, taking time out from the routine and just being together with others who share the same joy made all the difference this year and I can truly say that it was our best Christmas overseas so far. Of course, my first choice would be to celebrate with extended family, but I hope that no matter where we are, every Christmas will have as much joy as this year did. I hope I'll never again make the same mistake of not planning enough celebration for the spring of our hope.