Christmas in Cambodia - 2009

Christmas in Cambodia - 2009

I'm trying to get my kids to blog about our holiday time in Thailand, but they are slow, so I’ll write about our Christmas celebration first. Christmas is not a holiday in this Buddhist country, so while MCC gave us the day off, most people here were working on December 25.

I worked until noon on Christmas Eve – I couldn’t bear doing more than that with the kids home, and the holiday upon us. We spent most of the afternoon and evening playing card games together - something we do often these days. We also went to Ron’s work place – a youth drop in center run by Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia – Kingdom Equipped Youth. They threw a Christmas party for any youth who wanted to drop by. There was a band, several soloists and Ron gave a sermon through an interpreter about the tradition of the Christmas tree and what it means to Christians. Everyone got a number when they arrived, and door prizes were given. My challenge was to hold all five of our numbers and be able to recognize them in Khmer should they be called. (I guess I’m the best with my Khmer numbers…) Well – we didn’t win any prizes – or I didn’t recognize our numbers if they were called! That evening we enjoyed more cards, and managed to put together a plate of three kinds of cookies: no bakes, snickerdoodles and Russian teacakes. No match for Ron’s Mom, but it was a start.

Christmas morning did not see us up bright and early – nothing new there. After breakfast we celebrated our Christmas. Austin accompanied us to the singing of Christmas carols – one chosen by each person (a Kroeker tradition – although it lasts much longer in that context). Ron read the Christmas story and then we opened gifts. Our tree was a live plant, decorated with white LED lights, and cheap stars that we found here. Unable to easily find wrapping paper, Ron put a Cambodian twist on the stocking tradition and basted together Kramas as gift bags. Most everything was in these bags. Acacia received some colored paper, balloons, two play animals and a fish bag from my family (our shopping). Janaya received a fish bag and a silk purse from my family. Austin plans to golf for his gift. Janaya found in her bag a can of Pringos, some Thai candy, a package of Oreo cookies, a gift card for some personal ice cream and had a case of pop / soda under the tree. Austin found in his bag a can of Pringos, some Thai candy, a package of Oreos… Acacia found in her bag a can of Pringos, some Thai candy… You get the picture. Pretty easy Christmas for us. Really, there wasn’t much here that the kids wanted, so this worked out fine. Janaya also got a new set of ear buds, Austin got more pencil lead and pencils, Acacia got a DS game - things they asked for. I got a can of smoked almonds. Ron a jar of blueberry jam. Simple pleasures.

From there we went to our church for a Christmas service. This was the only service on Christmas day in town so many people were there. We came home from church and prepared our Christmas dinner: duck (the New Year’s tradition from the Sachs family – although these were really small ducks), fresh green beans in garlic and mashed potatoes. We also had pumpkin pie and more cookies! First Christmas meal we have eaten together in shorts and bare feet – every one of us. Later that afternoon Ron through a Christmas party for his English class – since it was a normal day for most of them.

We did have a good Christmas together. Later, we skyped with both some of my family, and Ron’s parents – we missed seeing them in person this year. But we didn’t miss the snowy cross-country drive. A different, and simple Christmas this year – celebrating our Lord’s birth.