The Vanderfords: Grinch

Not a Grinch.

This year I’m not a Grinch at all. Normally this is the time of year when I’m getting ready to throw out all the Christmas music in the world and stomp on it so it can never come back, throw all the twinkling lights out the window and rip the batteries out of everything that sings, “ho ho ho”’s or jingle bells.

My friend wrote a post about how this year is a “Naked Christmas” because it doesn’t really feel like Christmas. It has been stripped of all of the traditions that make it feel like the holiday season. Instead, we’re left with our own responsibility to focus on Jesus. Just like in the States where you have the responsibility to focus on Jesus in spite of the crazy hubbub, here we’re trying to focus on Jesus without it. I immensely prefer the latter. We also have several friends who’ve tried in the past to recreate Christmas from the states. In all cases it just flops and is a big disappointment. For our little family, we’re testing the waters in what Christmastime spent in a third world equatorial country looks like.

Last night was the Christmas concert for the 3rd grade through 12 grades. They did a fantastic job singing songs and doing dramas. Normally I wouldn’t been bored to tears at such an event. This one, though, I enjoyed way more than I anticipated, mostly because I know many children in every class. It makes everything much more entertaining when you know almost everyone involved, although it was tough to sit with a straight face when one of the class clowns was solemnly portraying Jesus.

All in all it was a fantastic day. I spent a lot of it finishing up my grading (DONE!) and doing review games with the kids. During one game they were on teams, one member was at the board (where answers were written) and the first to circle the correct answer won a point for their team. Kids were throwing elbows for the sake of competitive chemistry. There might have been a few minor injuries. It warmed my heart. After school the kids played on campus while I got some of my stuff from this past semester and next semester organized. Right before the concert I skyped with the parents. A happy day. I’ll have to write more about my reflects on this semester. How the past 4+ months have sped by and yet seem like forever. For now, I’ll just leave you with the knowledge that I’m not being a Grinch this year.

(The next 4 pictures are from the Christmas Tree trimming we went to last week. The last 2 pictures are from the Christmas play this morning-- we had a little Wise Man and a sweet little Angel.)