Keeping Traditions

If any of you have read very many of my blog posts you know I often struggle with missing one country or another. Not really knowing how to answer the question, "where are you from?". Those typical MK (missionary kid) issues.

Holidays, specifically Christmas, always shine a spot light on this oh-so-familiar feeling. I was driving alone for an extended amount of time (a rarity in the life of a mother) and was thinking about the Christmas traditions our family has picked up through the years. How some we can keep and some simply remain with the locations we celebrated in.

Right now my house is full of Nativities from so many nations. I have Christmas wall-hangings made by Thai tribes and an Advent Calendar from Vietnam. I have Nutcrackers, Clara and Sugar Plum Fairies hanging on my tree and White Christmas is playing on Netflix even as I type.

But I miss the things I've left behind. I miss Christmas in Manila. The over-the-top Christmas decorations in every shopping mall. The Christmas music that plays from September till January on every speaker. I miss that our family would buy bags of rice and small toys to pass out to Christmas-time beggars on every street corner. I miss the carolers that came to our gate. The ever so funny phrase, "Merry Chreesmas! Where's da money?" from the children that would ring the bell and run. Funny thing...to miss beggars. But more so I miss giving to them, seeing the delight in their eyes when we did. I miss my parents house, where my children each spent their first Christmas.

I miss small-town Christmas in Indiana. Candlelit services in tiny churches. Singing hymns. Watching the local church's kids Christmas Program. Family baking days. What was once a simpler way of life.

Dallas Christmases. Back in my days in the corporate world. Operas, ballets, fancy parties. Taking in the breath-taking decorations of the Turtle Creek Mansions. Going from one mall to the next in the fun frenzy of holiday shopping.

The Christmas we spent in Florida when one of the family was too sick to travel but we did every free local event possible. The full-scale city of Bethlehem we'd go to every Christmas with Belle. The Boat Parade and the party with all of our local missionaries.

These are the things I miss. These are the things I can't re-create in the place I'm living. And sometimes that's a hard reality. To miss something you no longer have. I think most people experience these feelings. You don't have to be an MK to have a place (and time) you wish you could get back to.

I'm glad I understand that importance of traditions and am passing the love of them down to my children. So I'm thankful for the memories I've made and that I'm all the richer because of them.

And I'm looking forward to those yet to be made...