Island Christmas

We had our first Christmas here on this island. And it was entirely different from anything we've ever done before, and entirely good.

Chris and I agreed long ago that, if we were staying here for Christmas Day, we didn't want to spend it with another family. We wanted to have our own Christmas. In a lot of ways, we did that, although we've spent the past two days with so many others.

Yesterday, after church, we spent the day with another couple from my department, and four Asian exchange students. In all, three of us there were born in Canada, three were born in Japan (including our friend's wife), and two in China. We had an absolute blast. We had all the traditional Christmas dishes -- the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes -- along with Chinese red bean cookies and all kinds of Japanese appetizers. And everyone took turns taking pictures of each other pretending to carve the turkey, and discussed how strange it is to learn new languages. None of us were from here, and none of us had family here, and so we were all glad to spend this time with each other.

This morning, a woman from our church named Mary came over and spent the whole day with us. First, we drove to the marina, to try to find some seals. Then, we walked to Willows Beach and walked all the way down the walkway. After we wore ourselves out, we dropped in on our friend Marilyn's open house, where we ate quiches and cheese ball among random church people and artists. At the end, we packed up a plate of food and went to drop in on our friend Carol, who has pneumonia and was spending Christmas alone. Then we came home, made a big chicken dinner and called my extended family during their big Christmas dinner.

And it was all perfect. So what if, other than the phone call, I didn't spend this time catching up with family members. I'll get to do that next week. So what if we haven't been able to afford extravagent presents this year. This was the best Christmas we had in a long time: we gathered together all the "strays" that we know, all those who would have spent this day alone if we hadn't all decided to gather together, and give the gift of our love, our friendship, and our company. My heart, it overflows.

(And now I have to madly pack and then go to sleep early, because my plane for Saskatchewan leaves at 7:00 tomorrow morning! See you in another time zone.)