Merry Christmas!

Christmas this year was a completely new experience for me. It was really hard to be away from my family, but it was also a great day. It started out with me waking up at 6 o'clock, partially because the call to prayer has been waking me up in the morning and partially because I always wake up early on Christmas. (I blame this on the fact that my youngest sister is 8 years younger than me so I've always been around a kid who is excited to wake up on Christmas morning and I never had to grow out of that stage!) I'm not even sure what my excitement was about this year. There wasn't anything that I was desperately hoping was under the tree, in fact, I wasn't even really expecting any gifts, but I was just excited for the day based on ritual, I guess! It was still dark out, and I was pretty sure that when my friend told me to come over "whenever" in the morning that she didn't mean 6am before any of them were up! So, I decided to finish slicing the potatoes I was making for dinner. This was the first year that I was fully in charge of a dish for the Christmas meal- thus began my Christmas feeling like an adult. However, that feeling fell to the floor with my Christmas tree when I knocked it off the coffee table, whoops! Maybe I am still part kid!

When it was finally a decent time, I went over to spend the morning with my surrogate family. And really, not much can beat spending Christmas with a three year old. Especially this little boy.

H was so excited to open his presents, and after each item he would ask, "Can we open it and play with it?"  He probably would have been just as happy with one present that he could have played with immediately!

Little N, who is almost 1, was just her cute self and was much more into her bottle that the presents around her!

The day seemed to last such a long time. In fact, Christmas day almost always feels like the longest day of the year to me, which of course is a wonderful thing! I'm glad that didn't change as I've grown into an adult :) Later on, I went to complete my potatoes and put them in the oven and popped over to the store to buy a drink for the evening. Yep, the stores were all open here! It was kind of a holiday, but most things were business as usual. Most who even celebrate Christmas celebrate the Coptic Christmas on January 7th. Waiting for the potatoes to finish, another family came over to exchange gifts. I think it's a sign of growing up when you are super excited about getting an oven mitt and sharp knife for Christmas like I was!

We then headed to a get together with more friends where we had an amazing dinner (my favorite dish was probably the broccoli salad!) and wonderful time with friends.

And as I sit here reflecting on the last few days and eating my cornflakes (a Christmas present!) I realize that although most of the things I did had adult job descriptions that I still saw a lot of it through child-like eyes, and I hope that I can continue to live life like that, because, as Jesus said, we must be like children in order to enter His Kingdom.

Reflections on Thanksgiving

I had an epiphany about Thanksgiving this year. It is only an American holiday (well, and maybe Canadian, but it's not even on the same day). In fact, I had to explain what Thanksgiving was to my Egyptian roommate. I didn't do a very good job of that. What's Thanksgiving about again? Oh yeah, the Pilgrims and Indians- wait, no, the Native Americans and thanking God for making it through the winter. But then why do we celebrate in the fall? So much for knowing my American history- Ms. Langford must have not taught that part, or else I would have some little song or ditty to remind me about it!

Anyways, when you're overseas you feel that every white person you see comes from the same culture as you. And it's partially true. They usually speak good English, even if it's not their native tongue, celebrate Christian holidays and think it's hot here. So it seemed really strange that many of the white people that I met thought that Thursday was just a normal day and weren't going to be preparing food for a Thanksgiving meal. It makes me so thankful to be American. Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season and without it how would we know that it was time to begin decorating and having Christmas parties. Seriously, the holiday season wouldn't be half as great if it didn't start with Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving overseas was really different, but good! The day was a pretty normal day until the evening. Then we headed over to an American family's home. And here's the great thing- I didn't even know this family, or most of the people there either. But that's what happens when you're part of a small minority. Simply because you're part of the minority means you are part of the family. It's great. We had almost all the traditional food and had a wonderful time. There were a few things I missed about Thanksgiving in the states though. Like family (obviously) and watching the football and eating pie at half-time. We had pie, we were just eating it with the call to prayer in the background instead of commercials for black Friday deals chattering away. Despite it all, I had a wonderful time meeting new friends and enjoying a tradition- even if I don't quite know what we're celebrating :)