Christmas in Kiwiland

12/25/13

            It’s Christmas here in Kiwiland.  Last night, Michelle, Kellogg, and I attended the Christmas Eve service at the local church.  It was probably the simplest church I’ve ever been in, but it was perfect in its simplicity.  One small room comprised the entire church.  The walls of the room were white, and it was lined with basic wooden pews and vases full of flowers all along each side under the windows.  Much like the church, the service itself was very straightforward.  There were only about twenty people in attendance, and a lone minister presided over the entire liturgy.  There was no program outlining the schedule of the service, and the minister led us in what usually appeared to be impromptu prayer, and, of course, Christmas hymns.  She spoke often of how we all live in a messy yet concurrently perfect world, how God never seems to run out of surprises for us, and how fortunate we are that the horrors of other places never make an appearance here in New Zealand.  She also asked one member of each family present to come up and light a Christmas candle in homage to the lord Jesus, and at the end of the service different family members were invited to the front of the church to extinguish the candle.  It was really cool to see the reverend getting members of the congregation involved in the ceremony, even with such a small audience.  The service only lasted about fifty minutes, and at its conclusion the minister made time to chat with each family on their way out and wish us all a merry Christmas, exemplifying the very friendly Kiwi nature.  When we returned home, I silently thanked God for my good fortune in having the opportunity to spend a year in this wonderful place, settled in to bed to start a new book, and was quickly asleep.

            I woke up on Christmas day at exactly six o’clock a.m.  I was the first one awake, so I sat down to read quietly as I waited for everyone else to wake up.  We had a breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, and New Zealand style beans, and we all exchanged Merry Christmases as we settled around the table.  After breakfast, the Christmas routine followed much the same as that in America, all of us sitting around the tree exchanging gifts and then turning on the traditional assortment of classic Christmas movies immediately thereafter.  Michelle’s father and two brothers arrived as we were lounging about, and lunch was shortly on the table.  The Christmas lunch we had here was almost exactly like an American Thanksgiving, featuring turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, a carved up ham, and an assortment of vegetables.  The only big difference was kumara—which is probably most similar to a sweet potato.  Everyone was stuffed after lunch, but Michelle wasn’t done yet; she had prepared a pavlova on Christmas Eve, and she served it up with custard and home-whipped cream for dessert.

            After lunch, I went out back to toss the lacrosse ball around with the Czech girl Alena.  I was shocked to learn that they had even heard of lacrosse in the Czech Republic, let alone played it, and it was really fun to shake the rust off and play catch again.  When we were done, Lizzie (Graham and Michelle’s daughter) and her fiancé invited me back to their place to hang out and have a drink or two.  They also have near unlimited internet, and I was really psyched for the chance to get these seven pages of blog posts out of this word document I’ve been writing them in and onto the internet.  As I sit here writing this, though, the internet is totally down and I keep checking it anxiously to get connected as soon as possible.  I did upload my recent pictures onto my hard drive, so I’ll be sure to share some of those when I’m finally able to post (check the entry about wine country and Lake Taupo). 

            It’s been great having a Kiwi Christmas all the way over here on the other side of the world, but I did also really miss all the people I usually get to spend time with over the Holidays.  Life over here is definitely not the same without you Richardsons and the Halsey Moore clan that I love so much, and I was doubly bummed to hear that I also missed out this year on the company of the Careys, the Harrises, and the Reynolds family (there’s a shout-out for all you mates!)  One good piece of news I have for all of you back in the States…the sun is surely going to rise on this Christmas Day, I’ve seen it happen myself.  I miss you all, but am so glad you’re reading!

Wishing you all another Merry Christmas from Kiwiland on the other side of the world,

Jack