Merry Christmas!

I’ve never understood the notion of going on vacation for Christmas. The very premise of Home Alone, one of the best Christmas movies ever made, doesn’t make sense to me. Why would you go to France for Christmas?! The idea of packing wrapped gifts into a suitcase to sleep elsewhere on Christmas Eve—no thank you.

We had an excellent Christmas last Christmas. We spent the holiday with our closest friends in Bahir Dar: Christmas on the lake complete with palm trees, seafood, a swimming resort, renting out a movie theatre, and writing and recording a Christmas rap among friends. It was a lovely and memorable Christmas.

But packing up our gifts to each other, and from our parents, to head to the Axum airport, felt so odd. Christmas, to me and my hands gripping to tradition, is for home, not travel.

And when home is thousands of miles and dollars away, your second home is the second best thing.

I’m so excited to spend Christmas in Adwa this December 25^th. To wake up to our toilet-paper-roll Christmas tree, exchange gifts with each other, stay in our pj’s all day, watching Frosty the Snowman and The Christmas Story, playing games and eating pumpkin pie and coffee cake.

Christmas is for home, and Christmas is for family. And while we’d obviously love to be with our families this Christmas, we’re making the most of this: our once-in-a-lifetime chance to celebrate just the two of us. A quiet Christmas for our family of two, one we’ll look back on with joy.

Exhausted after making a lavish Thanksgiving feast with and for friends, a neighbor volunteer asked us our Christmas plans, if we planned to host a Christmas dinner or party of some sort. Wiping the sweat from my brow (or was it Daniel wiping chicken blood from his shorts?), apologizing, we said, “We’re looking forward to a quiet Christmas, just the two of us. Because when else will we have that chance?”

No one says, “We want to spend Christmas alone this year!” But now that we’ve been dealt that very thing, we are embracing it. What a romantic, peaceful opportunity: a husband and wife Christmasing together, alone.

And I still feel like a kid, anticipating the approaching magic. Tiptoeing into our living room to sneak goodies into Daniel’s stocking, to leave cookies & milk powder out for Santa, and to make a single snowball from our “Snow In A Can.”

Merry Christmas from Adwa!

When in Ethiopia.