traditions and decorations

We're finding that one of the more important aspects of healthy living in community is intentionally maintaining our identity as a family....

Sometimes that looks like making (and enjoying!) familiar foods - french toast, poppyseed chicken, brownies... (all of which have varying degrees of easiness depending on what ingredients are available!)

Sometimes it looks like continuing old traditions and creating new ones.  

Tradition...what a word (it's best if you sing it the way Tevya does in "Fiddler on the Roof")(the dance must be included as well). 

Often it looks like taking traditions from our life in Columbus and adapting them to work here on the Africa Mercy.  We had the chance to do that this past week.  

When we lived in Columbus, one of our Christmas traditions was to ride around and look at Christmas lights.  The fact is that if we checked out a Landrover and rode around Pointe-Noire, we wouldn't see many Christmas lights (though we have seen a few!).  So we decided to "drive around the ship" and look at lights -- though  since lights were fairly scarce, "decorations" would be the appropriate word (it's mainly doors that were decorated - in light of the "door decorating contest" hosted by Social Activities).  

So we bundled up (ish)....turned on some Christmas music (an ipod in Nick's pocket)...made some hot chocolate...and away we went. 

All the way down to Deck 2...and back up again!   Here are some of the fun, creative & festive things we saw...

The tree outside of Emma's classroom

Tom's Juggling Snowman

Snowmen on Deck 3 that resemble the Cash Kids...kind of

The picture doesn't do it justice....this was a favorite. The sweet ladies that live here also wrote lovely Christmas poems (near the top of the door).

The door to the OR...it had pictures of all of the OR staff participating in various winter activities....and dreaming of a white Christmas.

Eli's tree on the Reception Desk (it's the one right above his head....Caroline's is the cute tiny one in the far right bottom corner)

The ever versatile magnets on the HR Team's door

Coloring Contest entries on the ship shop windows

These 2 doors (this one and the one below) are side by side and are a complete advent calendar...every circle has scripture on the back and a cut-out picture of some sort of the front.  Can't even imagine how many hours were put into decorating this door!

The scenes at the bottom are also cut outs...

Hospitality's door...made of a table cloth and doilies.  Good use of resources!

Mid-tour game of Foosball (just prior to stopping by the gas station (ie ship shop) for a snack

The Rothwell's nativity scene

Grade 2's door.  Inside each present the students wrote about a gift that would be giving this Christmas.

Ms. Robinson's (High School teacher) Classroom door.

One of the fun jokes on the Schwind's cabin door

Miss Sarah Dunn's door (she's also the captain of the ukelele club!)

Grade 1's door.  This was another favorite...Miss Shea had her students write different names of God on the stars.

And the last stop on our tour ('cause it's the closest to our home!), Eli's Classroom door.   They had fun with the interactive nativity.

Definitely a tradition that will be repeated next year (isn't that what makes a tradition a tradition?!).

It's a joy and honor to celebrate our Savior's birth -- what wondrous Love...that He would come and BE with us.  Emmanuel...God is with us.  Take a second (or 60) and sit with that.

HE is with us.
He IS with us.
He is WITH us.
He is with US.

Thank you, God, for Christmas.

Surely there will be more to come.