Christmas Dinner
Our Christmas dinner was different this year. Of course, for us, that’s normal—it would be hard to find two Christmases in our highly mobile lives that were more than slightly similar! But this one was different in even more ways than usual; we are living on a different continent, neither of our girls was with us, and we had no home-made decorations. 
What we did have, though, was a warm and festive Christmas dinner together with our landlord’s family. We made roasted mutton with potatoes and bell peppers and a mushroom gravy, with fresh mushrooms! We brought the food downstairs and laid a festive “tablecloth” on the floor of their apartment. Everyone enjoyed the food and conversation in two languages.
What do we really need in order to celebrate Christmas? Many people celebrate from year to year without ever asking themselves this question, but we’ve had to answer it numerous times. Our answers: we need music; my husband has his guitar and chord sheets, and our favorite CDs are recorded on our computer. We need candles, and thankfully they are available in almost every corner shop, due to constant electricity cuts! We need the Scriptures, to remind us of the timeless incarnation story and its meaning in our lives.
And food—if turkey or ham aren’t available, mutton will do! But what makes holiday meals memorable are the family and friends we share it with. 
Our landlord and his wife, two teenaged daughters, and toddler son are the closest thing we have to family here in our new community. After dinner we played some games together until we had room for dessert– pumpkin pie, and an apple pie made by one of the girls (in our oven). No one was surprised when our landlord’s little son asked for seconds and thirds of whipped cream on his pie! On days when I feel like the light of my candle isn’t brilliant enough to drive away all the world’s darkness, I’ll remember his happy whipped-cream smile. It just might be bright enough!
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Christmas by Lisa