Let’s start with Christmas Eve. That was my first busy day of this holiday season. I’d been taking it easy and watching lots of Gilmore Girls up until this point when I realized I needed to crack down and get something done. My to do list (because I always have one) included these items: Do laundry, make Christmas cookies, clean out fridge, feed and worm cats, pick up bus tickets to Bali, go to market and get apples and aluminum foil, repot plants, bake an apple pie, wrap gifts.
Laundry went well. Our ghetto washing machine (which I’m thankful for because it was free and we don’t have to wash all our laundry by hand anymore) didn’t clog up or ruin or lose any clothes. I even got about 30 minutes of sunshine to let the clothes hang out in before it started monsoon-ing. I had my sister send me mom’s recipe for Christmas cookies since I haven’t had those for four years by now. I whipped it all up and tasted the dough (just like mom always used to let us), and it tasted so much like Christmases of my childhood! So I rolled the dough out and was getting ready to cut out shaped when I remembered – I don’t own a single cookie cutter. So I tried cutting some shapes out by hand, but that was getting messy, so I improvised. These became my cookie cutters for the day:
But I still love my hand carved Christmas tree!
But the red food coloring I bought was actually kind of maroon. Sadness…
While the cookies were baking, I cleaned out the fridge, gave all meat items to the cats, and repotted some pepper and cilantro plants I had planted a few weeks back. They were getting big enough that they each needed their own separate pot.
And I also wormed my cats as they were having a rare moment of tranquility.
Aswan ended up going to pick up the bus tickets and buy the things from market while I was at my friends’ house wrapping presents. They both are living here studying language, and this is their first Christmas away from home. We had all gotten packages from our parents in the mail, so we all traded boxes, locked ourselves up in separate rooms of their giant house, and wrapped the contents of the boxes so that we could all open up actual presents on Christmas morning, not just USPS flat rate shipping packages. I left all my presents there because Aswan and I were already planning on spending Christmas with them – our little family. We didn’t get a chance to make that apple pie, but we did stay up til 11 watching Rudolph (the oooold Burl Ives one), which Aswan was less than thrilled about.
So skip ahead to Christmas morning. Our friends wanted to experience the town Natalan (Christmas celebration) which is an annual sunrise service on Christmas morning. So after going to bed at midnight, we all woke up at 3:45ish and walked to the Pancasila, the field at the town center. When I first woke up, I had to pee as always, but I wasn’t ready for the florescent lights to be on yet, so I didn’t bother turning any on. I did my business and went back to my room to get dressed. Then I went BACK to the bathroom to brush my teeth and put my hair up. For that I did turn the lights on. And when I did, I found a surprise on the floor right in front of me:
He then tried to hide by forcing his way under the sink.
“Merry Christmas to me” was my first thought. Then my second was, “WAIT A MINUTE! I was in here with no lights on earlier! How did I not step on this?!” I call it my Christmas miracle that God kept me safe in the dark that morning…
Anyways, we eventually made it to Natalan where it was really cold and damp.
We sang Christmas carols by candlelight and marveled at the beautiful Christmas tree they had set up. The marvel ended when the sun rose and we realized it was made out of corn husks…
Can you say classy? Anyways, after all that was finished, we went back to our own homes to rest and freshen up. Aswan and I made that apple pie we didn’t get to the day before. We made one for his mom last year for Christmas, which was the first time I ever met his family. She’d been hinting lately about how much she enjoyed it. She’d never had one before. Indonesians don’t really do pie. So I really wanted to make her another one this year. After we finished that, Aswan went home and I got to sleep another 2 hours before we headed over to our friends’ house to open presents. They had made crepes and a breakfast casserole. Silly me didn’t bring a camera, but here’s a really rough phone picture of the tree (which is actually a potted plant from their back yard) that we spent the last week making decorations for.
Beautiful, no? It’s way more fun to open presents like that than from a box! I hope that these particular friends are super dumb so that they will still be here studying language during Christmas next year!! Hehe…
After Christmas there, we left to go spend Christmas evening with Aswan’s family in Semarang. For part of the trip, we followed this truck, which I was super happy about!
Christmas with Aswan’s family was really nice. We all went to church together. The singing was a bit crazy with jumping and screaming and eardrums nearly bursting. But the sermon followed the national Christmas theme of being light. The pastor spent quite awhile talking about darkness and light and the world’s need for light. He even made the point that a tiny flame can make a huge difference in a dark room. And it was at about that time that all the electricity went out in town. So we all lit up the tea candles that we had been saving for singing Silent Night at the end. I was a little worried that the church was gonna burn down with all those candles lit, but it ended up being a great illustration and a very peaceful Christmas service. I enjoyed it immensely.
I forgot to mention one more thing I did this weekend – I started packing!
I’m leaving later this afternoon and will spend the next 10 days in Bali! Aswan says I’m bringing way too much stuff for 10 days, but I say that as long as it all fits in the bag, I’m doing OK! : )
Merry Christmas and happy New Year everyone!!
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