Shining the Light during the Season of Light

Now that Christmas and New Year's is officially over, I can breathe a sigh of relief.  Not because I had a harried time shopping.  Not because I had dozens of relatives to cook for.  Not because the traffic was just awful at the mall.  And not because I've gained five pounds from eating too many Christmas goodies (not a problem here!).  No, none of those things are the reasons for holiday stress in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.  For me, I was dreading the possibility of the stress of being away from family for the holidays.  This was the second year we were in Ulaanbaatar instead of with our families in the U.S.  It's what I have dubbed as "One of the Top Five Difficulties of Living in Mongolia."

Last year, I remember going into the kitchen to have a little 5-minute cry session by myself in the kitchen.  I felt the pain of being away from our kids and parents, and I really didn't want to be a downer to Kevin.  This year, I had tugs of difficult feelings, but I also was rejoicing at the many opportunities to share the real reason for Christmas with many of our friends.  So, that's my sigh of relief...that the emotional pain was less than last year, even though it was there.

One of our first gatherings was a couple weeks before Christmas.  We showed "The Nativity", a professional movie depicting the historical story of the first Christmas.  Seven friends came, and here's a picture of the ones remaining at picture time (which was also game time)....





Our friends include a young man I met while leading an English club at a university as well as a high school guy who has been coming to our home for over a year and a half now.  A young man we met through another American summer teacher also came.  Two friends were new additions this evening, coming along with their friends.

Christine, our director's daughter, decorates cookies with Kevin, at our organization's Christmas party.  It was good to fellowship with friends within our organization.

What better way to celebrate Christmas Eve than to have all our teachers who take our English workshop over to view The Nativity together.  We teach 40 teachers.  Twenty three attended the party at our apartment.  EVERYBODY wears boots, and here's the pile before a few latecomers arrived!

Here, Joseph and Mary are discussing the news they've been told via our movie projector.  We enjoyed sharing the true, historical beginning of Christmas with our teachers.  Many of them celebrate "Christmas" and "New Year's" as one holiday.  Perhaps this has clarified the meaning of Christmas for some of them.

Here's some of our "spread" for the teachers.  Some of these items would rarely be part of a Christmas snack table in America...such as boiled eggs and mandarin oranges.  Then, other items like fudge, peanuts and crackers just might make an American table!

I will post more pictures soon of Christmas and New Year's celebrations.  We are thankful we were here this season!