As the official Christmas Day celebrations come to an end, I'm reminded that this is the first time I've been away from home on Christmas. I won't lie, it's been difficult but there have been a lot of wonderful things that have happened. For Christmas Eve, we got dressed up and had dinner as a team. Afterwards, we went to join a Crossroads team for some of their Christmas traditions. One family is from Norway and led us in carols around a Christmas tree and a game of finding the hidden almond in porridge. We even had the opportunity to go to a Christmas Eve service in the oldest Anglican Church in Southeast Asia! They talked about dreaming of a white Christmas, although the priest was misinformed that Michael Buble was the original artist.  We sang Feliz Navidad and "We want to wish you a blessed Christmas." It was entertaining and wonderful.

For Christmas morning my team and I exchanged gifts with Jess and Tina surprising us by stuffing our stockings. We read from Luke 2, did some Christmas fact finding, and watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone with a true Englishman.  Apparently they call it the Philosopher Stone but regardless, "Happy Christmas, Harry!"

I've been thinking about being away from home and had a realization. Yes, technically Jesus was not born on Christmas but just go with me on this. By being born into this world as a human, His birth was His first Christmas away from home as well. Something about that idea has been a comfort. One of my teammates read a devotional that reminded us that Jesus was the only person to ever choose to be born.  How crazy is that?

Seriously. Jesus, knowing everything that would happen, chose to be separated from His father in heaven to be born on Earth to ultimately die to save our sins. If that isn't a good Christmas gift I don't know what is!

So, as you celebrate with your loved ones and friends, hug each other extra tight for me. Use "I love you" more than you normally would and soak up all of the Christmas traditions. Have a Merry, Harry (we heard someone say that in Malaysia), Happy Christmas. Love you all!