{"id":3283,"date":"2014-12-26T18:58:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-26T18:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/?p=3283"},"modified":"2014-12-26T19:59:36","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T19:59:36","slug":"three-christmases-in-africa-and-how-the-holidays-looked-for-us-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/?p=3283","title":{"rendered":"Three Christmases in Africa – and how the holidays looked for us here-"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I gave away most of our Christmas decorations in favor of a “packing light” approach to international travel I didn’t have any idea that they would travel with us through four different countries and be set up in three different countries after leaving our passport state. Very few of the items survived the many transitions but I was surprised and blessed to see how, despite so many locational holiday changes so many of our advent blessings and traditions have remained the same.<\/p>\n

I think this is how it ought to be, Advent is a season marked in deepest gratitude for the gift of our Savior and the rhythms of our family are so special to us as they prepare our hearts for the season- this year I’ve been blessed to see how these remembrances aren’t reliant on cookie cutters, or ornaments, or even xmas wrapping paper but hearts that are prepared to receive and remember the gift we’ve been given.<\/p>\n

We “decorated” for the holidays with my parents on November 28th, which was also when we celebrated Thanksgiving (due to scheduled protests that had us housebound).\u00a0 It was so special because since we were all “housebound” it was a great day to cook and decorate. I must confess to feeling a bit sad. The carefully selected meaningful tree ornaments, the Christmas lights, the window clings, and of course tree were all in a box in South Sudan. We had a few things we’d gotten out but as I looked at our scraggly houseplant I wondered how it would turn out. The results were amazing. We had such fun creating paper ornaments, and popcorn chains. An amazing care package came with an ornament making kit and snowflake window clings, and we had Christmas music playing. The memories were built in the creation as much as the decorating and we had such such fun.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This entire post is one to remember all the good things in the holidays this year – much different then a holiday in our passport country, or marked by denied visas, or by an evacuation though each is beautiful in its right. I am learning that holidays are marked by people, and tradition, and remembrance of why we celebrate more then events. I am praying wherever this finds you that the true reason we celebrate, the gift given to us through Jesus you will know with the joy we do as we remember each year- wherever you may find us.<\/p>\n

\"Appetizers<\/a>
Appetizers while we\u00a0 decorate – local snacks my family has grown to love…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Creating<\/a>
Creating a paper snowflake top<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lovely<\/a>
Lovely window clings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"It<\/a>
It is so beautiful (really!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our family stockings which have hung in four different countries the past 3 years \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our Jesse Tree Advent (also been to 4 countries in three years!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A special treat this year was making gingerbread houses. We’ve done sugar cookie decorating the last two years but all our cookie cutters were in South Sudan so we found this cute idea to make gingerbread houses using paper to trace around. We loved it! This is bumping the sugar cookie tradition for sure!<\/p>\n

\"Gingerbread<\/a>
Gingerbread house making. Day 1-making batter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gingerbread<\/a>
Gingerbread house making Day #2- cutting out dough<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gingerbread<\/a>
Gingerbread making Day #3 – assembling houses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Day<\/a>
Day #4- Decorating was the most fun day…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"...especially<\/a>
…especially when we lost power!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"the<\/a>
the boys creation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The girls creation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We went to a fun holiday party (a rarity here as it is not widely celebrated) and had such fun!<\/p>\n

\"Riding<\/a>
Riding the public metro to a christmas party<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Games<\/a>
Games at the party<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a<\/a>
a Holiday party made lovely because it was spent with friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We also celebrated someone turning seven! Poor little dear was soo soo sick! But she put on a smile anyway!<\/p>\n

\"flowergirl-biday\"<\/a>
Flower girl-bday bday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Inspired<\/a>
Inspired by our friends the Faders we decided to build our own nativity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Of<\/a>
Of course ours has a camel … we do live in North Africa! (lovely quilt sent by a dear prayer warrior to add holiday cheer to our home)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of my favorite memories of the holiday will be that I was able to help my dear friend Bev as she hosted for many so no one would spend Christmas alone. We spent two days before Christmas baking away together and I loved it! One day I got sick (our whole family did) but she let me help anyway as I gave chopping instructions for dishes while sitting down – and fed me turkey soup \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The highlight of the season was cooking…no really!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not pictured at all was Christmas Eve where our dear friends L,S and her sister C came over to join us. We loved it! I was sick and spent most of the time in my room but knowing they were there warmed my heart to no end and my husband did a great job hosting and sharing our traditional nacho Christmas eve dinner.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Christmas day I woke up realizing that I had forgotten to take the Christmas cinnamon rolls out of the freezer (another tradition for us) so we took advantage of living here and ordered in doughnuts – not a bad substitute for my sick induced forgetfulness.<\/p>\n

\"Deliver<\/a>
Delivery doughnuts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"our<\/a>
our tree Christmas morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"J--<\/a>
J– led us in Christmas carols that sweet morning…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"...<\/a>
… and we enjoyed another tradition that lasted through four countries- homemade eggnog while listening to the Christmas story<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>
We opened a few gifts before heading to church…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We enjoyed a lovely service with friends at our church (by we I mean the girls and I as the boys were under the weather at this point) and then headed over to enjoy the food we’d prepared over the week with others. There were over 30 in attendance. It was a sweet time with dear friends.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The food spread (table 1\/2~)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The food spread…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sweet<\/a>
Sweet time visiting with friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Proof<\/a>
Proof that we really were under the weather this holiday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Some<\/a>
Some of our dearest friends here. A friendship that began in Melut and has journeyed with us. We love these guys beyond our words ability to express. Such joy to be with them on Christmas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"From<\/a>
From our family to yours merry Christmas!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I gave away most of our Christmas decorations in favor of a “packing light” approach to international travel I didn’t have any idea that they would travel with us through four different countries and be set up in three<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3331,"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions\/3331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gospelwater.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}