Emerging from the Christmas Bliss.

Hi! I’m emerging from the beautiful haze of Christmas to write about it, after a week of preparation and then the days themselves: our Christmas Eve event at Shekina Garden, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day, ( which is a day of rest at my house.)

For Christmas Eve this year, we cooked a lot of food and served it, prepared music and words that were sort of stories and sort of poems, put together activity bags for the kids, decorated the garden in lights, danced and ate desserts and watched the sky darken and the stars come out.

We were done after midnight, sending the last, reluctant-to-leave guests home simply because we could not keep our eyes open anymore, and the next morning was for stockings and wrapping because I never get it done before Christmas Day.

I love it. I love it all so much, our strange Christmases with so many people who have never celebrated before (we always have many Israeli travelers showing up for Christmas at the garden) or have mainly celebrated with us for the last seven years, or who have sad memories from childhood and are letting their memories be remade, or who have good memories but are finding new ways to celebrate in Thailand.

I love the simplicity, the outdoors, the music, and the chance to talk about the incarnation, to gush about the ‘why’ of our community, the ‘why’ of this celebration. I love the feeling of happy tiredness, the expectation of a week of rest, and the leftover cookies. I love video calls with family (still have more of those that need to happen!)

We also had a last-minute surprise this year when our friend Taran (who is like family) made his way back to Thailand for a visit. He stayed with us over Christmas and it was so great, such a lift to the spirits.

This week between Christmas and New Year is one of my favorite things, as I think about what I want to bring into the new year, let myself dream, and try to make sure to treat myself. (As happy as it makes me, Christmas is a truly extraordinary effort.) Trips to the pool, games, puzzles, snacks, walks in the evening, maybe a massage. 

I pray that where you are, you are feeling the love that surrounds you. You are the reason the incarnation happened. God wanted to draw close to you, desires it always. How beloved you are, like art, like a sunset, like light through leaves. 

Cookie factory

Some of the words I read during the words and songs part of the evening.

Leafy is stoked about his gel sleep mask.

Isaac was so proud of the present he got for Kenya.

More joy.

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