Every year my Christmas is a little different. Last year at this time I was on the Mekong Delta in Vietnam enjoying a Christmas getaway with some friends. This is only the second time that I have stayed put here at the Bay for Christmas. Normally I travel to Manila to be with friends before our annual meetings. So this year was different that I was alone (not staying with friends). I was feeling homesick and hadn’t had time to bake much and it wasn’t quite feeling like Christmas.
Christmas Eve morning I made myself chocolate chip pancakes and sat down with a cup of coffee to read my devotions. I was on Psalm 136. It was God’s perfect timing reminding me of His love for me and that I am not alone. (this is the chapter that reflects on the Israelites’ history and repeats “His faithful love endures forever” after each line.
After this nice breakfast and reminder that I am dearly loved, I started baking a few essentials like peanut butter blossoms (those cookies with the Hershey kisses in the middle) and the cupcakes with the cream cheese filling. I handed out some baked goods to neighbors (a great time to meet some of them) and headed off to my team leader’s house for dinner. We enjoyed a snack of cookies and homemade fudge! Yum! and were about to play some games on Wii when the power went out. So we opted to play Apples to Apples by candlelight. Finally the electricity came back on only to go off about 10 minutes later. We got the candles back out and finished the game. We had a wonderful feast complete with pickled hearing (not my choice but Craig and the kids loved it). I loved that cheese ball with the nuts (good cheese is a rarity here). After relaxing some and having some home-made peppermint ice cream. I headed back to my house.
The roads were mostly bare it was almost 11pm. I went to the neighbors house to celebrate Noche Buena. I ate once again (I was so stuffed but didn’t want to hurt their feelings). Their cousins were there playing games and filling the porch with laughter. At midnight, we exchanged gifts and heard the many fireworks going off in the background. Around 1am I said goodbye and headed back home. It is so common for Filipinos to stay up until midnight to bring in Christmas. Christmas day is spent sleeping or with family.
This morning I was able to watch the Christmas Eve Service at my home church! It was so neat to watch and greet everyone.
I then headed over to my old house to have Christmas breakfast with my new teammates. As we were washing dishes the room began to shake. At first we thought we were dizzy only to realize it was an earthquake. CNN said it was a 6.2 magnitude and the epicenter was only 35 miles away from us. Thankfully everyone is okay and no damage done that we know of.
Christmas here is always different. This year there were power outages, tons of fireworks, an earthquake and the neighbors constant loud singing on their rented Karaoke machine, but God always provides other families for me to celebrate with and an enjoyable time.
Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas!
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