Merry Christmas! Well… kinda. As I write this it’s January 10th. But! Ethiopia celebrates Christmas on the 8th, so the Christmas festivities haven’t really ended here quite yet. Before I left for the race I was most worried about missing Christmas. Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. I love seeing my entire family- because I am obsessed with my family. I love going to Christmas Eve service with everyone. I love seeing Grammy in her Christmas sweaters. She’s the cutest woman alive. I love watching Gigi and Baba walk up to my front door with gifts in their hands on Christmas morning. I love that we all take turns opening our gifts. I love watching James and Jane open gifts. It is very cute. I love holding babies on Christmas- but I’m sure June was passed around plenty on Christmas. I love hanging out with my cousins on my dads side of the family. I love seeing Toby because she is the cousin closest in age to me. I love that we can have conversations together. I love the ski trip with Aunt Lacy and Uncle David. I love all the places we go to in Crested Butte. I just love Christmas time. And I was so so so worried about missing it. I’m unable to tell you what my family did on Christmas this year, but I can tell you how I celebrated in Africa.
Before I left I was very sad about missing Christmas, but as Christmas got closer I figured I would be okay. I thought “I’ll be there next year”. So I really wasn’t expecting to be as sad as I was. On Christmas Eve we had an open mic night. My team decided to do a dance. It was more funny than it was good. If you’d like to see it just let me know. I am not going to post it because I don’t need that on the internet forever. So Christmas Eve was fun. But when I woke up on Christmas Eve, my emotions hit me like a train.
I walked into the guest house and the tables were set up and decorated and we had donuts and bananas for breakfast. After that I decided I didn’t want to be sad on Christmas. Christmas is not a sad time. I’m celebrating Christmas in Africa. How many people can say they did that? So I decided to choose joy (small reference to my choosing joy blog). At the breakfast table my team decided to exchange our secret Santa gifts. I had Alana. I gave her fuzzy socks, bath and body works lotion, chapstick, and rolos. Maegan had me. She absolutely nailed it. She gave me a headband, earrings, perfume and chocolate. All things I desperately wanted. So secret Santa was a big hit.
Before Christmas we all hung a sock in the living room for our friends to stuff notes in. So after breakfast we got our socks and read our notes. After opening our “stockings”, we did white elephant. I ended up with some pilot G-2 pens… which have become a necessity on our squad. And I really needed some black pens for my journal, so I was very satisfied. After all the morning activities we had a powderpuff football game. The boys were the coaches and the girls were the players- if you are unaware of what powderpuff is. I opted out of playing and chose to “coach” with my friend mason. Mason was an amazing coach but when I say I was the “Co Coach”… I use that term loosely. Bottom line, It was very fun and apparently we won. It was a good time with the kids. The kids loved watching.
That night we watched a Christmas movie. And as I went to sleep I realized my family was probably just waking up and starting their Christmas Day. That was a hard thing to think about. I am definitely jealous. But! I did it. I got through Christmas without my family. And I never have to do that again.
350 days until next Christmas! And I will definitely be there.
