Each person in the med group gets a whole week off before or after Christmas without having to use his leave days. I think they gave these free days to help boost morale at this small base in the middle of the ocean where nobody has extended family. I was happy to have Denver home the whole week before Christmas. Monday he had to go in to work for a 1/2 day because a DV (distinguished visitor) came to speak to all the airmen. I think the head of the AirForce was the DV that came. After that, he got the rest of the week off.
Our goal this Christmas was to forget ourselves and help others by serving our giving. We had a lot of opportunities to do that this week and it felt good. There are a lot of needy families on this island. The Branch President of the Portuguese branch had a list of families that needed a little something extra (whatever the giver wanted to give). We chose a single parent family with 4 kids. It was great to work as a family and decide how to help this family. The kids were able to get involved and we could see the joy it brought to them.
We were also able to do some more service and help for others this year. Doing these acts of service made this Christmas one of our favorites. We forgot ourselves and remembered Christ and his birth, life, and example.
With all the time Denver had off, we had plenty of time to do a lot.
We baked all day on Tuesday. We made 5 different kind of goodies and the kids helped for all but 2. Denver was the designated dishes washer and picture taker so we could continue to bake without running out of utensils and so we could journal the day.
Maelie was trying to show her dirty hands, but she's too far away.
Kids of all ages got involved. Cole thought it was great to push the cookie cutters in. I'm thinking I need to make him some playdoh because you can't buy it here (I looked to get him some for Christmas).
And then we 'decorated' one our goodies- sugar cookies.
We ended up with 9 finished plates to give away. We didn't want to keep very many cookies around the house so away they went. We sang a carol to each family we gave a plate to.
Throughout the week we stayed busy doing a lot of fun family activities (playing basketball, bike riding, etc) but didn't take any pictures.Christmas Eve we invited Denver's assistant/tech over for dinner and our evening traditions. He's not married and his family is all in the states, so he technically had no one to spend Christmas Eve with. He has some friends, but they were all working that evening. We had a delicious dinner (once again, no pictures). After dinner we acted out our nativity scene. Denver's assistant/tech also participated and acted as all 3 wise men. He was a sport and wore a towel on his head, but no pictures! Sterling was the shepherds.
Maelie was Mary, Garrett was Joseph, Dad was the narrator and I was the piano player and the angel. When Colson was around he was the sheep, but he wandered in and out so we didn't plan on him.
After our nativity, each of the kids get to open one present-a pair of PJs.
They were all very happy. We couldn't let Matt (that's his name) go without a present so...we got him a box full of goodies, soda, popcorn and a movie.
After the kids went to bed, we played some wii with Matt and then Denver took him home. The next morning the kids saw that Santa visited...
Because we had church at 10:30 we decided to save our special breakfast for lunch. We opened presents and played before church.
This game we got Sterling was a hoot. It's angry birds. You build and then break. So funny.
Church was wonderful. We had a Christmas program. When you're in a small branch, the whole branch is pretty much the choir. So we all sang the hymns in the congregation. I played a piano solo and played the piano for half of the program. Someone else played a solo and another sang a solo. It was nice to go to church on Christmas day and feel the Spirit as we sang about Christ's birth.After church we came home and made our delicious Christmas breakfast.
The rest of the day was very low key as we spent time playing with the kids and their new toys.
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