Twas the month after Christmas

~post by Brin

I really intended to write a blog starting with Merry Christmas! And then I had to push it back to Happy New Year. I give up.

Christmas tends to be a popular time for expats to be homesick. I think it is the no drinking of eggnog with family and ugly sweater parties unattended and Mia who every year informs us that she has never seen snow that makes it hard. To take the edge of our nostalgia we were able to spend Christmas with our friends who actually are unrelated family.

   Allison & Cleide and Haley

And we did the same things your family probably did.

We ooohed and ahhhhed over the newest addition, Haley, 10 months. We studied the geography of her face, pointing out what she pulls from her dad, but unsure of what she got from her mother until she roared at the dinner table and we concluded she got her mother's fiery spirit.

We attended a Christmas Pageant.  We arrived an hour and half early and sat on very hard benches to see "Un Sonho de Natal," an elaborate Christmas presentation put on by a big Baptist church in the city. I would have sat on concrete to see it, which those who only arrived 30 minutes early had to do.  Also, Cleide and the girls put on their own play. Not the Nutcracker nor A Christmas Carol, just lots of dancing and (lip) singing. Talent might have been lacking, but everyone in the family applauded their enthusiasm. 

We cooked together. Donuts, fish, but not at the same meal.

We fixed something together. Our fridge has been frustrating for a while, Allison's expertise helped solve some problems. Although not all of them, so as I suggested earlier, a pretty accurate family Christmas. 

We shared traditions. We taught them our family's (and every other American's) tradition of stockings. 

We took a little outing.  Josh, Allison and Gabriella jumped on Pastor Benny's float plane for a day of fishing in the middle of nowhere. Besides fish, they came home with a broken part off Benny's kerosene refrigerator to repair. I think they brought it home just to secure a "second date."

We played out in the snow. Or at least our tropical version of snow which is copious amounts of rain. We taught Allison and Cleide how to kneeboard and waterski. Isn't that what you all did on Christmas day too?

We put up with each others prickliness. It seems, painfully, the closer I live life to others, the more aware I am of my own prickles.

We reminisced, exchanging stories and memories about our old life in Altamira. I introduced Cleide to my friends in Manaus, making a point of telling them she showed up at my house my 2nd day in Brazil. And never left my heart.  

And we were thankful. Thankful that God brought us together for Christmas, that He has put dreams and hopes in each of our hearts, and maybe someday we will live closer to each other.

When we became missionaries, pretty much everything changed, including our traditions.  Donut making has become our ritual and this years donuts were the best so far. We also tend to have themes of sickness (Josh's dengue bout and this Christmas Mia had the stomach flu) and also kneeboarding. None of them planned, over the 6 Christmas' we have had in Brazil, they just evolved.

Another tradition starting: Nova Batista's production of "A Christmas Dream." 

 One evening our kitchen cabinet said goodbye to it's wall called it quits. It raucously crashed to the ground and gave us a momentary fright. I was thankful for 2 things, that even if I lost all my eggs, sugar, coconut milk, and broke the few glass dishes I own, little Haley was nowhere near. And thankful that it occurred 40 minutes before we lost electricity so that we could clean up the mess before the ants showed up. And of course, the next morning Allison and Josh had another project. Because that is what families do.

Cute as can be and happily taking 5 baths a day in a little plastic  bowl. My bathroom was always a wet mess but somehow it was a more pleasant mess when Haley made it.

Ava had an extra stocking that matched her stuffed animal and she could not wait to give it to Haley. Nothing sounds sweeter than to think of Haley growing up with that each year. 

Josh, Ella, and Allison with their haul.

Can you relate to our Christmas?  I bet you can. Did you have moments where you were deeply grateful for family, but a minute later wanted to run into the jungle for some peace? Were you disappointed in yourself that in the hustle and glitter of Christmas, you might have missed the sacredness of God becoming man. To be honest I don't have glitter, my version of tinsel is an abundance of mold, cobwebs and bug carcasses on my windowsills that distract me from giving time to God. I am thankful that Christmas here is stripped of it's commercialism.  My kids did not see a single flier or commercial  and have no idea what toys they are missing out on. That is until our next furlough, which is quite a ways off but that did not keep us from dreaming of a white Christmas 2014.

Since I didn't send out any Christmas cards,  I will use my blog to thank our Father for allowing us to participate in what He is doing in the Amazon. And what we do takes a team of people, doing a variety of different things and if you reading this and are on that team, please know, I give God thanks for you.  

Also, on a side note.... I may be late in giving a Christmas update. But so are all of you! I have not received a single Christmas card yet, so I guess I will get to celebrate a little of Christmas in February. Because you all sent one, right?