Holidays!

Written by Jadon

 The first week back at school, we ask many of our students about their holidays. Whether they told us stories about the family visiting their “cottage” (a second, smaller, more rural, vacation home of sorts), or stories of multiple Christmas celebrations due to parents being split-up, or just stories of spending Christmas at a grandparent’s house; family was almost always mentioned in their holiday events.

As I look back on my pre-holiday season mindset, I remember thinking that the upcoming holidays might be difficult, not only because we had to teach regular classes on Thanksgiving, but also because the holidays wouldn’t be the same. Thanksgiving and Christmas are holidays full of traditions—Yahtzee and Loopin’ Louie duels, opening Christmas stocking on Christmas Eve, Christmas parties/gift exchanges with friends, to name a few of ours—all of which are meaningful not because of what you are doing, but because of who you do them with. And this year, 4500 miles from home, we would be missing out on all those meaningful moments.

Or so I thought.

Not only were we able to Skype (a wonderful invention for people in our situation) with sixteen of my family member on Thanksgiving Day, we also “attended” a Christmas party of friends (pictured below), and got to have other various Skype meetings with family and friends around the holidays. But best of all, family came to visit! Brittany’s family made the long flight over here to Prague, and we were able to spend Christmas, Christmas Eve, and many other days with them. And, of course, we probably started some new traditions too.

Skyping with friends back in Bourbonnais! 3am our time/8pm their time

 

New Christmas tradition: fish & potato salad for dinner

 All in all, it was a much better holiday season that I was expecting. Yes, it was different, but it was good. And despite the distance, being with family made it so.

Praises:

- We received lots of Christmas cards! Thank you. It was really a blessing.

- We recently rediscovered a devotional book, which had gotten a back seat during our move from the States. We were in the middle of it, and are really enjoying getting back into it together.

- We have a working oven!! We got it just before Christmas, and it has been an exciting and timely addition to our kitchen.

Prayer Requests:

- We are the heads of the English Drama Club at our school, and we have now cast our upcoming play! There is a lot we have a lot to accomplish in the next few months.

- Dealing with occasional homesickness, while still remaining focused here.

- Continued good health