I am happy to report that the Christmas mood has hit me at last. Interestingly, it came while sitting late at night under the lights of our tiny Christmas tree, which we finally put up on the day that I wrote my last post.
For some reason, Christmas trees really speak to me. I think it is the way they are a link to so many memories. Matt and I enjoyed recollecting the story of each little ornament--all of which we've bought on European travels or recieved as special gifts since we arrived here. This kind of story-telling is one of the reasons why ornaments are my favorite souvenir to buy while traveling. They have the advantage that they can be something a little kitsch while still be useful--and I'm guaranteed to actually get them out and look at them at least once a year.
Ever year in Advent I also try to think more deeply about the person of Jesus and let him meet me in a new way. Truthfully, that has been hard this year because I feel so distracted by all the things we've got to do in the course of a day. But I am trying to be open and have a posture of listening. I'm pleased because my book group which reads the works of Henri Nouwen (one of my favorite spiritual writers) may be reading a book about Jesus as our next text. It was written by Nouwen to his 19 year old nephew who was struggling with what it meant to follow Christ in a very secular world. I am looking forward to reading Nouwen's thoughts and discussing with this group of wonderful, reflective women. Monday nights are one of my favorite times of the week. :-)
Well, that's all for now...
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
First Christmas
I don't know about you, but everyone I've been talking to around here lately has felt that Christmas came way too early this year. Maybe global weather patterns are changing or there's some other good explanation, but somehow the holidays are just here sooner than they feel like they should be and it's kind of bumming me out.
We spent Thanksgiving, as we do every year in the Czech Republic, at the Thanksgiving Retreat put on by our missions organization, TeachOverseas. It was a strange experience in a lot of ways because it was our first time travelling with Anna so we were in very new territory. We ended up bringing our car just because of all the baby gear we needed to lug along so as not to disrupt Her Royal Highness's routine too much (thus leading to less sleep on the part of the lowly peon parents... our true motivations emerge. :-)
Although it was a good retreat, the Thanksgiving meal itself left a lot to be desired. It was prepared by the Czech hotel's restaurant staff and it just wasn't like mom would make (it was basically just turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy). So, we were relieved to learn that we were invited to a "round 2" Thanksgiving feast the following Saturday with several of the TeachOverseas folks. This time, it was exquisitely American and felt like a proper feast. Anna loved everything and fell asleep that night with a glowing, contented smile as if saying, "Something pleasant has just happened to me and I hope it happens again."
So, two Thanksgivings under our belt, you might expect it would feel like it's about time for Christmas. To be fair, it does feel more that way than after the first one (at which point I felt physically ill at the sight of the Tesco mega mall all dolled up for Christmas). The day after Thanksgiving #2, we headed to the home of some friends from church for a Christmas carol sing-a-long, complete with a wide variety of familiar cookies and a genuine, homemade cheeseball (yippeeee!!!) This put us in the holiday mood, though the strange lack of snow this December (Prague is generally very white in the winter) has left us wondering what to expect.
I still feel a lingering "let down" feeling about this Christmas season, though, and I'm not sure why. Somehow it just seems that it's not time yet and to have Christmas now is gratuitous and extravagant. Didn't we just do all this a few months ago?
One way I'm trying to recapture the joy of Christmas is looking at it through Anna's eyes. Though this is not her first Christmas, she is a lot more aware of her surroundings now than she was at 10 months of age. I had fun the other day buying her some musical instruments (her main present from us) and it's been great receiving gifts for her from friends and family around the world. I am excited to watch her soak up the beautiful Christmas hymns and read the tiny board book we have about the Baby Jesus. Though I know she doesn't completely understand about him yet, she has learned to recognize his name. (The other day I said, "Ani, let's read about Jesus." and she went to the bookshelf, scanned the books, picked out her Baby's First Bible and brought it back to me with a big smile. I also tell her about him every night and how much he loves her and she pleasantly agrees, "Yeah... Mm hmmm..." as if to say, "Of course he does, Mom, what's not to love?")
Although I am glad to be able to share this holiday with her and I know I can focus on God's coming in my life (in gratitude for his Son's birth and in openness to the new ways he wants to come into my life), can it be that I am already hitting that point where Christmas has lost its magic? I hope that this is primarily the result of the general slightly-overwhelmed-and-tired- most-of-the-time-ness of being a new parent. Maybe once our teaching is done at the end of next week (and we have several weeks of vacation to enjoy--my favorite perk of being a teacher!) I will feel different.
We spent Thanksgiving, as we do every year in the Czech Republic, at the Thanksgiving Retreat put on by our missions organization, TeachOverseas. It was a strange experience in a lot of ways because it was our first time travelling with Anna so we were in very new territory. We ended up bringing our car just because of all the baby gear we needed to lug along so as not to disrupt Her Royal Highness's routine too much (thus leading to less sleep on the part of the lowly peon parents... our true motivations emerge. :-)
Although it was a good retreat, the Thanksgiving meal itself left a lot to be desired. It was prepared by the Czech hotel's restaurant staff and it just wasn't like mom would make (it was basically just turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy). So, we were relieved to learn that we were invited to a "round 2" Thanksgiving feast the following Saturday with several of the TeachOverseas folks. This time, it was exquisitely American and felt like a proper feast. Anna loved everything and fell asleep that night with a glowing, contented smile as if saying, "Something pleasant has just happened to me and I hope it happens again."
So, two Thanksgivings under our belt, you might expect it would feel like it's about time for Christmas. To be fair, it does feel more that way than after the first one (at which point I felt physically ill at the sight of the Tesco mega mall all dolled up for Christmas). The day after Thanksgiving #2, we headed to the home of some friends from church for a Christmas carol sing-a-long, complete with a wide variety of familiar cookies and a genuine, homemade cheeseball (yippeeee!!!) This put us in the holiday mood, though the strange lack of snow this December (Prague is generally very white in the winter) has left us wondering what to expect.
I still feel a lingering "let down" feeling about this Christmas season, though, and I'm not sure why. Somehow it just seems that it's not time yet and to have Christmas now is gratuitous and extravagant. Didn't we just do all this a few months ago?
One way I'm trying to recapture the joy of Christmas is looking at it through Anna's eyes. Though this is not her first Christmas, she is a lot more aware of her surroundings now than she was at 10 months of age. I had fun the other day buying her some musical instruments (her main present from us) and it's been great receiving gifts for her from friends and family around the world. I am excited to watch her soak up the beautiful Christmas hymns and read the tiny board book we have about the Baby Jesus. Though I know she doesn't completely understand about him yet, she has learned to recognize his name. (The other day I said, "Ani, let's read about Jesus." and she went to the bookshelf, scanned the books, picked out her Baby's First Bible and brought it back to me with a big smile. I also tell her about him every night and how much he loves her and she pleasantly agrees, "Yeah... Mm hmmm..." as if to say, "Of course he does, Mom, what's not to love?")
Although I am glad to be able to share this holiday with her and I know I can focus on God's coming in my life (in gratitude for his Son's birth and in openness to the new ways he wants to come into my life), can it be that I am already hitting that point where Christmas has lost its magic? I hope that this is primarily the result of the general slightly-overwhelmed-and-tired- most-of-the-time-ness of being a new parent. Maybe once our teaching is done at the end of next week (and we have several weeks of vacation to enjoy--my favorite perk of being a teacher!) I will feel different.
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