How do i describe it?

So, I feel like I should describe Christmas in Uganda a bit... and I'm not describing the cultural reality of Christmas for Ugandans, but the reality of Christmas for the Bartels family residing in Uganda... what does that end up looking like?

Christmas "atmosphere" (my construction of it):
1. Decorations: My family advent calendar (a felt tree with ornaments you snap on, made by my grandmother)--our girls haven't figured out that they should be begging to have a turn of snapping things on.  On Christmas, Daniel did bark at Rachel for putting all the decorations back into the pockets.  He then got in trouble for distracting the sick 2.5 year old from a quiet occupying activity that would translate into another quiet occupying activity--daniel putting the ornaments back on the tree.  Other decorations include an artificial tree, lights in various places, various nativity sets, and other small cool elements---Mom, did you know you left the wooden christmas tree (swedish?); if you wanted it back, remind me because I think you might appreciate it anew...

2. Food: Christmas cookies.  After round two of that activity, Mary looked at the remaining dough and said, do we have to keep making these?  Hmm, maybe not quite age appropriate activity yet. And i need to get some cooler decorating items for next year.  Only so many white snow-men with colored sprinkles before it does get a bit boring.  One thing I make for Mark during Christmas only is buck-eyes---those peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate that hardens.  Our friend Cissy brought us a gorgeous cake and cinnamon rolls which we've eaten and shared.  I definitely have visions of more hosting when the kids are older (and they and I are not sick).  But then again, maybe I won't quite have my mom's hostess-with-the-mostess energies... we'll have to see.

3. Music: Mark's gift to me was some christmas music which I downloaded this year and music is definitely a part of the Christmas season that spurs me towards reflection, peace, hope, and the promise of God with us.

4. Activities: Obviously growing up in cold climates, I think of Christmas with many cold-weather activities and warm, tasty treats to compensate for the cold-weather activities.  However I would say that our "Christmas activities" look a bit more like this in Uganda:

Hockey at our Canadian neighbors house

Slip and slide on an old advertising banner

5. Church: Due to illness and length of service (and sermon), only Mark and Daniel went to church this year.  And Mark said the service was nice, but all in all, the church celebration of liturgical holidays is much lower-church than Mark and I grew up with and therefore feels a little bit lacking.   But with young children, I tell myself that no matter where I lived, it would be few and far between that I'd be raptured away in some church service while my children were also being taught the lessons of God in a meaningful way. That said, this is definitely an area of life that I hope to be intentional about when we decide where we are moving and what kind of church life we'll pursue...

Family: 
1. Our nuclear family: Mark and I had a lovely two-night away trip the week before Christmas.  This is a trip that I don't think would be as easy to do were we living in the U.S.  I don't take for granted the loving, faithful help we've had with our children.  Mark and I have had a richer life as a couple of young children than most American families due to this reality of life in Uganda.   Our children have good friends who live around the green hilly campus and mostly don't end up pent-up and bored; I'm grateful for this.  The one thing that I think is harder here is fun, predictable activities that we can enjoy with our children.

2. Our far-away family:

My family at my mom's home having Christmas dinner

My parents with Sarah and Angella--one year ago Sarah was a new mother with Angella at our house!

My brother Patrick with all his Uncle-child-magic at work!

Bartels family under-represented in photos... I searched facebook, I promise! :) But a Bartels story was a lesson learned... we skyped with them Christmas Eve in Uganda (morning for them in the US).  Daniel had the bright idea that we could open their gifts from Gramma Kay and Papa while talking to them via video skype.. This quickly turned into Daniel bouncing around the living room with his nerf football and the girls beginning to do their puzzles and not quite the focused holiday greeting that two families can try to have with modern technology!  If I had a picture of the whole scene it might be comical at this point.

2. Our neighborhood family:

Our girls in the middle with two of their friends, a green oasis above prior-shot of hockey match

My friend Christine and her son Kadin, painting on the porch with our girls

Thematic thoughts on Christmas:   There is a tension in being a foreigner while celebrating Christmas.  Much of what we associate as the joy of Christmas includes various material, relational, foody, weathery, festivey aspects of Christmas that are often rooted in memories with family or in our homeland.   In an ex-patriate community, there are people who can go and be part of the Christmas traditions that they grew up with-- and I say, more power to them! Maybe one of these years....

However, I have also found there is a simplicity and a forced reflection on the meaning of Christmas when the material things are somewhat stripped away.  There is a part of me that more honestly identifies with the origins of the Christmas story that centers on a couple who is away from their home, away from their family, away from the familiar means of provision, away from the "comforts" of the known, the cozy, the aesthetically pleasing, and totally reliant on a provision of another sort, the fulfillment of promise.

But I think we often think we'll replace human "joy" with spiritual "joy" and yet maybe we're also being asked to accept our displacement (Nouwen), accept that brokenness and weakness and sadness and loneliness and discomfort and the unknown are all parts of God becoming like us, and us becoming like God.