Our First Merry(ed) Christmas Abroad

Our first Christmas married abroad wasn’t like I expected it to be. It wasn’t depressing or sad or lonely. I didn’t event cry–which I have done plenty of since we arrived. I don’t know if I can even claim to not be “a crier” anymore. Christmas was surprisingly wonderful, cheery, bright, and beautiful.

Leading up to Christmas, we tried to do all the fun advent calendar things. I made ours a few years ago and it makes the whole month festive, even in a place where most people don’t celebrate Christmas. Here are a few of the adventy things we do each year:

• Make a living room fort and watch a Christmas movie

 

• Make homemade eggnog  (now this is our only choice if we actually want it)

 

• Read  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
• Begin Advent

 

• Christmas FaceTime call (This was a given this year. They are simply wonderful)

So, the decision finally needed to be made. Where would we celebrate Christmas this year? Our first year overseas as a married couple.

We went back and forth between the decision to …

A) drive to a bigger city a few hours away (which is a feat in and of itself just to make it there) and spend Christmas with a couple we met one time — only once) or

B) stay in our 47 degree Fahrenheit house and spend Christmas with just the two of us

We opted for option A and it was simply perfect! The couple took us in like family. The fellowship was just what we needed. We made cinnamon rolls, drank homemade eggnog, and hung lights on every wall in the living room. The stockings from Hobby Lobby were hung (since my thick World Market ones didn’t make the cut for our 7 trunks from the States). We read Christmas books, sang worship songs, watched Christmas classics, and laid around in our pajamas.

Even though I missed my family and the holiday cheer that is usually in all the stores, on every commercial, playing over the radio, and even exuding from doors decorated with festive wreaths, I was reminded of the simplicity that the first Christmas truly was.

Hay

Manger

Cloth

Animals

Shepherds

The wise men didn’t come the night Jesus was born so he didn’t even have gifts. No extended family. No decorations. No Christmas dinner party.

On Christmas morning we passed around the Bible and read the story in Luke 2 of how Jesus came into the world. We talked about the humility of Christ and the shock of the story which we often take for granted. He was a king who came as a baby to show us how to live and pay the price of sin. How often do we elevate ourselves, complain, or feel entitled when in reality the King who loves us and owns us came as a baby surrounded by cow dung and a cave.

I’m thankful that being away from the hustle and bustle brought me back to the simple and life changing story of Christ.