Day 9: Christmas Eve

This holiday season is the first for me to spend away from my family, but although I'm away from them, I've been accepted into the Lowenberg's family while here :) It's difficult for it to even feel like Christmas here. For example, I almost can't dissociate the idea of the holiday from cold weather. Looking outside and seeing palm trees, beautiful sunshine, and having the windows open almosts seems hypocritical to the season. Yet everyone here still has their trees up in the living room, the Christmas baking going, and tunes blaring from their stereos wherever you go.

So, yesterday was Christmas Eve. We got up at a fairly decent time and got ready for the day. I experienced another first at breakfast - passion juice freshly squeezed from the fruit. Yum! After breakfast, I sat outside in the sun for a while and read. I must confess that I've never tried to work on my tan on a Christmas Eve before this year :)

The Lowenbergs celebrate Christmas Eve with a large lunch and presents in the evening, so that's what we did. Mama Lowenberg prepared a feast for a later lunch, and then the family proceeded to finish wrapping presents. It was so fun because her dad with in his room, her mom in the office, and Julia and Ruthie in a bedroom wrapping away. I was in with the sisters sitting on the bed hanging out while they wrapped gifts on the floor on either side so they couldn't see each other. Apparently it's tradition. Haha!

Everyone just finished wrapping the gifts, took them downstairs, and we started the evening. Papa Lowenberg lead in Christmas carols on the guitar and then he read the Christmas story according to Matthew. We then discussed what we found interesting in the story and had a mini-hermeneutical discussion - only with a doctor in theology :)

The gift unwrapping was splendid. I hadn't expected any gifts and hadn't brought any myself for anyone else. But I was included in the evening with several. It was one of the most unique Christmases I have ever experienced because it was so international. There were gifts given from Sudan, the US, London, and Kenya. Some were even imported from Israel (made in China though). All of the gifts were so meaningful and it was a blessing they had all made it through customs.

We finished off the evening as a family by having tea and homemade strawberry pie, which is a big deal here because strawberries are difficult to find. Ruthie, Julia, and I stayed up to watch one of the movies given to Ruthie for Christmas. The funny story with the movies is that they were all pirated which in the US would be somewhat questionable to some, but here is completely normal - it's pretty much the only thing you can get.

All in all, the day was wonderful. It definitely was different from anything I've ever done before. Although I have enjoyed myself here, it is also a little hard not being at home; doing some of the traditional things my family does. But I'm loving the new experiences and getting to share in another family's way of celebrating halfway across the world.