Christmas morning we decided not to start out with quiche and cinnamon rolls, since usually the kids are hungry/grumpy by the time everything is ready. So this year we had Honey Cheerios, pumpkin bread, and scrambled eggs for breakfast and had the cinnamon rolls and quiche for lunch. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, my yeast was going bad, so the cinnamon rolls did not turn out as well as I had hoped.

After breakfast Isaiah and Anna performed separate Christmas plays. It’s Becca’s tradition to do a Christmas pageant every Christmas evening with Little People. She spends weeks preparing. The younger kids did not want to be left out, so we watched their programs in the morning.

Afterwards the kids passed out gifts. We put a big emphasis on the kids giving things to others for Christmas. They get really excited about buying and/or making gifts for everyone in the family. It’s so much fun to watch their delight in giving. As Becca says what makes Christmas really special is that we don’t just get gifts, but we get to give gifts too. Becca spent a lot of time making special gifts for each family members. One thing she did was to make paper frame backgrounds for each family member and had a picture of her and that family member printed to put on each one.

After lunch we had a rest time and then played games for the rest of the afternoon. Then we had a supper of Indian Buffalo roast.  After supper we finished up the gifts. We gave the kids their gifts. The theme was art supplies and they were so excited. I love seeing them so excited about simple things…they each also got their own magnifying glass. Becca finished passing out her gifts to Josh and me. She spent hours writing and illustrating original stories for each of us.

Our last event was watching Becca performed her Christmas Pageant. She basically quotes the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew. It gets better and better every year. What a blessing to watch.

So that was our Christmas. Thankfully there were no funerals nearby like in past years and we enjoyed a semi quiet day. Thankful for the time we had together. Thankful for the traditions we can keep even though we live in Cambodia. Thankful for the birth of Christ!