First Christmas in Wamena

A few days ago we celebrated our first Christmas in Wamena! We forgot to take a cute family photo in front of the Christmas tree, but here are the kids:

Ariella enjoying homemade peppermint stick ice cream.

Zoe eating it too! A friend brought us candy canes from the US to put in it!

I forgot to take a picture of Zach eating ice cream. Here he is with his hands in bandages and socks with thumb-holes (for sucking). I'll explain in a bit why his hands were bandaged...

A note about firsts...
I have had "first" Christmases for quite a few years now:
2015 First Christmas in Nampa, Idaho, waiting for Zechariah to be born.
2014 First Christmas in Nashville, TN, waiting for my nephew David to be born and then actually being present for his birth.
2013 First Christmas in Nabire, Papua, Indonesia, in our new home there with 1-month-old Ariella.
2012 First Christmas in Sentani, Papua, Indonesia, where we were living temporarily. 1-year-old Zoe was oh-so-cute that year. Earlier that month I miscarried her younger sibling.
2011 First Christmas in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia while we were in language school. This was Zoe's first Christmas and I made cookies to bring to our neighbors and went to the city-wide sunrise service.
2010 First Christmas in Apple Creek, OH (not Daniel's first Christmas there, but mine). We celebrated with Daniel's family and had so much fun picking out a tree from a Christmas tree farm while it was snowing!
2009 First Christmas in St. Louis, Missouri. We were there preparing to volunteer at Urbana. This was also our first Christmas married.
So I have to go back to 2008, when Daniel and I were newly dating, to have a Christmas in New England. Time is just flying by! Every year since getting married I have celebrated Christmas in a different place!

And back to this year...

We had a quiet Christmas, mostly at home, after poor Zach burned his hands on the oven door on Christmas Eve (when we had friends over for dinner, of course). He was doing so well that we did venture out of out house to the afternoon Christmas service in the little building on our housing complex. Here is a photo I took after church...we have 6 babies (age 1 and younger) in our expat community right now. Zach is the 3rd oldest, the biggest/heaviest, one of 4 boys, and one of 2 Americans. Here they are with their dads:

babies from L to R: Marie, Melody, Marc, Brett, Zechariah, Jesse.

Christmas morning I enjoyed re-reading the Christmas story from the Jesus Storybook Bible, opening gifts (especially watching the girls open their gifts), and FaceTime with extended family. And we played with new games and started reading new books. It is easy for me to romanticize the Christmases of my childhood, and long for the excitement that I felt about Christmas as a child (and having other people do all of the cooking, cleaning, present-buying and wrapping, etc). Now at Christmastime I think a lot about how Mary may have felt, as Jesus' mom. And I think of the fear and awe that the shepherds felt and how truly good the news was that the angels proclaimed.

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you; You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. ...Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." -from Luke 2:10-14

Christmas is about so much more than my family, my community, and the place where and ways that I celebrate. I need this good news of great job more and more each year. And this Savior is for all people! He is for me and for you, for the people who are easy for me to love, and the people who I struggle to get along with, for those who are generous and those who take advantage of others... He is for all the people. And I am grateful and filled with awe that God chose to enter my world-our world- as a poor and helpless baby.

Zoe's first Christmas play

Zoe was an angel in her first-ever Christmas play tonight! Kindergartners and other homeschoolers were invited to participate in the play (even though the school here is grades 1-8). This meant that Zoe got to attend rehearsals for the last couple of weeks. She was so excited to be a part of the play—I wish I had a video of her smiles and giggles. And she swayed/danced to the music during most of the songs. It reminded me of how I bobbed my head to the beat during school music performances at Zoe’s age. Ariella and I sat in the front row right in front of Zoe. Ariella enjoyed watching and being bounced on my lap during the songs. Daniel, Zach, and some of the other babies were in the back and the nearby hallway. I think this was a great introduction for Zoe to the school where she will attend starting in August! We had lots of yummy food to eat outside afterwards, and the neighbors even set off some fireworks. What a fun night!

All ready to start!

Program

Singing!

Zach is on the right, friends Brett on the left and Marc in the middle.

Baby fun area

I love my girls! :)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

...or maybe it isn't feeling much like Christmas at all.

How will we celebrate our first Christmas here in Indonesia?

Right now I am empathizing with the Whoos in Whoville after the Grinch stole their Christmas stuff.  Is it still Christmastime when we don't have any snow, real Christmas trees, cool weather, and red or green clothing?  Can we celebrate without an abundance of decorations and presents?  How do we celebrate Christmas without a Christmas eve candlelight service at church (my favorite church service of the entire year)?  It is hard to even find the ingredients to make the foods that we usually enjoy this time of year (molasses for cookies, roast beef, etc.).

In town searching for baking ingredients.

The parallel between my first Christmas here and The Grinch that Stole Christmas is not a perfect one.  I think that the point of that story was that, for the Whoos, Christmas was not about stuff (decorations, toys, food) but was about people.  I don't have the stuff or most of the people who are important to me.  My Christmas traditions have always centered around spending time with family.  Now I live half a world away from these people who I love.  How can we celebrate Christmas without being able to be with our parents, siblings, and extended family?

Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth over 2,000 years ago.
"Joy to the world, the Lord is come.  Let earth receive her King.  Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing..."

Jesus wasn't born into a snowy climate.  There were no Christmas trees, and the presents came from the wise men about 2 years later.  Jesus didn't get to meet his grandparents and aunts and uncles when he was born.  His parents had traveled far from home.  Yet, his birth was celebrated by angels and shepherds.  "Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11).  The point of Christmas is that Jesus left his beautiful home in Heaven and became human, was born as a baby, so that He could be the Savior for all people.  I have also left my home and moved far away.  I am obviously not the Savior, but I am here to be a blessing to people and to hopefully point towards the Giver of Life.

So I am hoping this Christmas that, while I know I will miss my family, friends, food, decorations, and traditions, I will also have a new understanding of the real meaning of Christmas.  I will post later about our search for Christmas decorations and the Christmasy things that we do get to participate in.  But for now I am encouraged to think about how Christmas is about the Incarnation...God becoming like us.  And by trying to live a different culture I am in a small way participating in a God-activity right here and now.


Please teach me the meaning of Christmas, Jesus, and help me not to be sad about what I am missing but to be thankful for the joy that you bring to the world...