Christmas in Asia

December was a fun month for us. We had some friends lend us great Christmas decorations since they returned to the U.S. for the month. It was exciting to see our plain white apartment transform into a Christmas wonderland. Brennan loved the decorations and we even made some fun decorations together.

We traced Brennan to make this fun gingerbread man!

This was Brennan's special tree that he decorated by himself

with foam stickers and bottlecaps.

Notice the ornaments at the top.
He really wanted them in a straight line.

One day I caught him playing with the manger scene. When I asked what he was doing he replied, “Jesus is riding the donkey.” I was wondering how much he was really tracking with the story of Christmas so I pointed at the Mary and asked, “Who is this?” Brennan said, “Mary.” Then I pointed to Joseph, “Who is this?” Brennan replied, “daddy.” So then I said, “Yes, he is the daddy, but what is his name?” In a strong, somewhat stern voice Brennan said, “Moses.” Funny thing this Joseph was not youthful, he had a full head of gray hair and a white beard. He actually looked like Moses! Well, we of course corrected Brennan about Joseph and then moved on to ask him about baby Jesus.

Our makeshift mantle above the TV.

Kitchen table centerpiece

Shelves by the front door

Celebrating Christmas here was obviously different, but there were a few things that surprised us. In this country it was just another day. The stores were open, people were outside doing everyday stuff: playing on the play ground, playing badminton, and watering the plants. Although many stores decorated with “Merry Christmas” signs and Christmas trees it seems that most Asians have no idea what this day is really about.

Although we dearly missed our families we still had a great time. We began our celebrations by having dinner with all the families on our team. We enjoyed good food (basically a repeat of our Thanksgiving Feast). I cooked two dishes of Sweet Potato Casserole– Marty’s Mom’s recipe and my Aunt Shannon’s recipe– as well as some homemade yeast rolls (blog coming soon with my cooking adventures). Of course the kids enjoyed getting more play time together as well. Marty also led us in singing Christmas Carols. Before bed that night we read Brennan a book about the meaning of Christmas and tried to talk a little about Jesus. Later that night Marty and I watched “Elf” as we wrapped the last of Brennan’s presents.

Kids playing with the Manger Scene

Christmas morning started pretty low-key (we know this will change as soon as next year). Brennan slept in until about 8 am. He ate light breakfast. Then we talked more about Jesus being born on Christmas Day. We let him open the 3 presents from us first. We were blessed to do a video phone call over Skype, and our families were able to watch Brennan open the presents they mailed him. He especially enjoyed the matchbox cars and the drums!

Around 11 am we had a wonderful brunch with all the families again. Then we exchanged presents with them. It was surprisingly peaceful as we opened our gifts one-by-one. We headed back home for nap time. While Brennan and I rested Marty headed back to the post office for the 4th day in a row to try to track down some missing packages (yes, the post office is open on Christmas here). He returned with one from my mom (2 are still missing). The rest of the weekend we enjoyed spending time together and watching Brennan play with his new toys.