Christmas Day | Traditions Old and New

This actually wasn't our first Christmas in Albania (#4 for me, #2 for Nathan and Ellie), but it was our first with out other family with us... As we have entered this new phase in life where much of our life is characterized by transition, I've come to realize the importance of creating family traditions for our children to create at least a sense of predictability. We anticipated that it would be a day to start new traditions for our family, incorporating the old where we could.

Abby made us a cinnamon roll for breakfast (one of her family traditions) then we headed to the village for the Christmas production put on by the youth.

Arjan wrote a script that was sort of a modern day version of the Christmas story.

Imagine my surprise when Mary walked into the room wearing one of my old dresses (from the late 90s)!

We had a full house, but sadly not a single parent -- one of my expectations blown out of the water.  Pray with us about turning this around for next year!  We gleaned a little insight later when we learned that Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes have been distributed after this program in the past.  That also explained all of the new faces in the room (and shows us that there are many more that we could be reaching on Saturday mornings).

In the drama, the hotel owners had numerous individuals knock at their doors and ask for shelter, including, unbeknownst to them, Mary and Joseph.  Nathan challenged everyone to consider Revelation 3:20 (Behold I stand at the door and knock...) to listen for Jesus knocking at the door of their hearts and to welcome Him in.

Following the production, the cast served refreshments and soft drinks.

(Below) here we are with Pastor Genti and Shpresa...

We came home and enjoyed a yummy Christmas dinner of roast (I am SO thankful for having a wonderful crockpot here -- these haven't always been available for purchase in this country!), mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, rolls, and green beans.

Here we are doing our 'gezuars' (cheers) with peach iced tea (from the States).  So happy to have our neighbor "Teta" (aunt) Vera with us (she doesn't have any immediate family and fills a place in our hearts for another generation present at our table).

Ellie read the Christmas story from our Albanian/English children's Bible (a tradition from Nathan's family -- to have the youngest reader in the family read

On the last day of school, we gave the children some cash to spend on Christmas gifts.  It was a hoot to see what they picked out for us.  I think you can guess which photo will be going in this frame...

Teta Vera knows our girl Ellie.  She gifted her with a fake dove.  Ellie went wild over a 'new friend' for Squanto (her cockatiel)

On the 23rd we put together cookie boxes for our friends, including our neighbors in our stairwell.  On Christmas Day, after opening our gifts, we marched up and down the stairs singing 'We wish you a Merry Christmas" (the only carol we knew in Albanian) and delivered cookies to our five sets of neighbors!  We got three invitations to come inside, but in the interest of time only took up 1 of those invites.  One neighbor gave us a chocolate bar in return (in spite of our protests).  All in all, it was a success!

And thus ended our Christmas celebrations!  Going to bed a few days later the kids asked, "How many more sleeps til Christmas comes again?"

Until this Christmas, we had always woken up on Christmas morning at either my or Nathan's parents, so we never had need for stockings.  In January of last year, knowing we were headed here, I ordered these from a woman on Etsy.  It was fun to see Ellie and Reni's eyes when they spotted their personalized stockings.  I look forward to using these every year from now on!