Traditions

Although there are many hard things about living in a country that is 99.9% Muslim, there are also a few blessings, too.  Christmastime is sort of weird around here, because although it is one of the most special days of the year for us, it is just an ordinary day for everyone around us.  The kids have school, Justin has work, and hardly anyone even knows about the hustle and bustle of celebrations going on around the world.

So, we get to do everything OUR way.  We celebrate just how we want.  The kids get to play hooky from school.  Justin stays home from work and we have one very special day where it is just us- celebrating Jesus and enjoying each other.

Because there are no social cues here to help make Christmas special we have had to get creative.  For about the last 8 years we've celebrated advent.  It has been a nice way to spread out the Christmas celebration and build up to Christmas Day.  This year we are using Ann Voskamp's Jesse Tree Advent Devotional and love it.

I must confess, I couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving to start the Christmas music.  I was in the kitchen so much preparing for Thanksgiving, and I just couldn't resist turing it on.  It has been on non-stop ever since.  You ought to hear Lucy sing Feliz Navidad!  HA!

We sent an extra little something to our precious Compassion Child, Mohammed.

Last Saturday we put up our [piece of junk IKEA] Christmas tree, while watching Mickey's Christmas.

I used yarn to tie up our stockings to the hand rail.  We put out some red candles, our Little People Nativity, and a few other small decorations.  Just a little- enough to make the flat feel special, but not enough to offend our neighbors.

Sunday night after Justin left for London, but the kids and I had a Family Movie Night.  We watched Elf and had Elf-inspired super ooey-gooey caramel popcorn.  To wash it down I made hot chocolate and even dropped in a few marshmallows from my sacred stash.  It was so fun to cuddle up together and laugh!

For the final two Sundays in Advent we are going to peruse through the Compassion Catalog and pick out something to give as a family to those in need.

A friend and I are planning our company's annual Christmas Party.  We are all really looking forward to that.

I am not sure exactly what we will do for Christmas Eve.  Last year we met as a team, but this year our new team is meeting on Christmas Day.

Other ideas I have are:

Christmas movie night every weekend

Christmas Cookie Decorating Extravaganza (with no fuss from me about the mess) -I got this idea from a sweet comment left on my blog

Playing telephone with phrases from the Christmas Story from Luke 2

reading the Christmas Story in each of the versions and languages of the Bible that we have together at night

taking the kids shopping for their dad and each other

surprising the kids with a late night doughnut run in their jammies

a big Christmas breakfast- Justin is in London and I gave him strict orders to bring back cheddar cheese and some type of breakfast pork for our Christmas breakfast!- and I always make Gorilla Bread (which you absolutely must try!)

Skyping with our family



So... those are our traditions.  Any fun or special ideas you can add to our list?