The next best thing

For those of you who know me well at all you know I LOVE Christmas!!  Christmas has always been such a special time of family and tradition as we celebrate our savior's birth.  Not being home for Christmas was one of the things that worried me most about moving to Africa with our family.  This is the first year in 33 years that I have been away from family for Christmas.  This is only the second time in 33 years that I have been away from Colorado for Christmas. I knew this time would be hard and I have been praying that God would allow our time on the ship to be a special one during the holidays.  I feel so thankful for the little ways he has answered our prayers.  It started in mid November when the Christmas planning committee met.  I thought if I could have some say in all that went on maybe it would feel a little more like home.  I soon found out that the ship already knows how to do Christmas really well!   I joined the group gathered in midships complete with Christmas cookies and hot cider on the table to set the mood.  Already I felt a little closer to home.  After the meeting I was so excited about all the different events going on onboard the ship throughout the month of December and I realized that I would be sad to miss them.  Not that I wouldn’t love to be with family, but the Lord has allowed us to really be excited about being here and being involved in this community for the holiday season.  The next best thing to being home is being here to enjoy Africa Mercy style Christmas!

Packed-full calendar of Christmas events

Festivities began with Decking of the Halls on December 1.  The ship looks really great with all the Christmas trees, wreaths, snowflakes and lights.

 

The Christmas Book.  The place to find all about all the Christmas events.



Adalynn LOVES all the lights everywhere.



Snow!!

 

I made a fireplace for our room :)

So far we have had three really special Christmas events that really give testimony to the tight community in which we live.

Next, on December 5 the Dutch crew celebrate Sinterklass' (St. Nicholas') birthday!  Read more about Sinterklass here. It is different than our story of Santa Claus.  They put on an amazing night for the kids complete with individual gifts from Sinterklaas himself!

Adalynn in her Black Peter hat (which she now insists on wearing everywhere we go :) )



The kids made shoes to be filled with yummy dutch treats



We all ran up to Deck 7 to watch Sinterklaas arive



Sinterklaas boarding the ship and his "black pete's" doing tricks.



The kids were totally captivated.  (You can see Adalynn on the floor in the striped shirt.)



All the elementary school kids got gifts.  The crew from Holland that put the event on put in a lot of thought into the gifts and prepared ahead for them to be sent.  Each kid got a very age and gender appropriate gift.  Adalynn got play-doh!



Adalynn's shoe filled with anise biscuits

 

This weekend we had our own little Nutcracker performance from the children's ballet classes (led by our good friend Gretchen who was in our Texas training group).  It was such a cute performance and the kids did so great.  Adalynn just sat mesmerized through the entire thing.



Dance of the sugarplum fairy



Clara in the middle holding the nutcracker.



Battle of Mouse King



All the dancers

And last night we had our Winter Wonderland.  Anyone who signs up can have a booth to sell homemade Christmas gifts or goodies (think: eggnog, ornaments, jewelry, homemade icecream cones, chai, etc).   There were also  face painting and gingerbread house making booths.  I made Toffee to sell (thanks Mindy J ).  It was a really fun night and I was totally amazed at the hidden talents of many of our crewmates. 



Mmmm. Toffee.  I sold nearly all of it!



I look like a giant next to my tiny table.



It seemed most of the crew made it out to mill around.



Adalynn got her face painted (Cora was already in bed)

So, though it is difficult to be away from those we love during this Christmas season, we are so thankful to be here and to have the opportunity to participate in all these great events.  The Bible talks about how God puts the orphans in homes. Though we are not orphans, we feel that he has given us a stand-in family while we are away and we are so greatful that he cares for us in such personal ways!