Christmas Past

3 of them.This year this will mark my fourth Christmas spent abroad. It’s always a bit strange to be anywhere other than home for the holidays. It’s especially weird if you are in a country where Christmas is just any other regular day of the year. Happily, Australia closes down for Christmas (just like home!), but it will probably be a scorcher and not the traditional wet weather I’m accustomed to.

Here’s what Christmas has looked like for me over the past 3 years.

2009 – United Arab Emirates

2009 was my first year spending Christmas away from my family. In the days leading up to it, I was pretty nervous. I didn’t know what it would feel like to be on my own. Of course, I wasn’t really on my own because I had Molly there with me and she’s just about as close to family as you can get.

We had to work on Christmas Eve (which is super weird if you’re a teacher) but thankfully Christmas day fell on the weekend. We spent the evening of Christmas Eve making macaroni and cheese (my family tradition) and cinnamon rolls (her family tradition). I accidentally used vanilla soy milk for the mac and cheese. So disgusting.

Christmas morning we opened presents and celebrated at breakfast with Hannah and Jen before driving out to Frannie’s place in the desert. We ate a delicious meal and chatted with our families via Skype.

2009 was also the year that launched our annual Christmas video greetings.

2010 – Jordan

I thought I might go home for Christmas in 2010, but instead I ended up in Jordan with Molly and her sister. We spent Christmas Day driving around trying to find a certain church in Madaba. It was probably one of the most frustrating driving experiences I’ve ever had, but we perserved and made it there in the end.

Later in the day we stopped at the Dead Sea for a swim where Molly performed some Christmas themed synconized swimming. That evening we talked our way into the business center at a fancy hotel so we could get in touch with our families. Unfortunately, not all of the microphones or speakers were functioning so it made it pretty tricky.

After dark we struggled to find our hotel for the night until a police officer jumped in our car and had his police officer buddies escort us in their jeep. This is still hilarious to me and one of Molly’s greatest travel feats. (She asked for help, and she got it!)

We toasted the holiday with some Mickey Mouse sparkling cider and fell fast asleep.

2011 – Vietnam

Last year Mike and I spent both Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Hanoi. We didn’t plan it purposefully that way, but it worked out great both times. Our hotel was across the street from a church so everything was quite festive and merry.

Christmas this year could be characterized by “searching.” Christmas Eve we searched for the perfect meal, and Christmas Day we searched for Skype with webcams. (Having families in different time zones is not ideal.) Luckily, we found both! We also treated ourselves to a famous water puppet show.

I’m looking forward to celebrating Christmas 2012 with Mike in Australia. We’re planning to stuff ourselves and relax by the pool.

xo, jill