Oh my, I cannot believe November is over! I see the decorations for Advent and it makes me really excited to anticipate the birth of Jesus. I am excited about the real meaning of Christmas and not just the presents which has been the "exciting" part for many years before. It's so easy to get caught up in the shopping, buying, giving, receiving, decorating, and all that and forget about the real meaning of Christmas. All these years I have been counting down the seconds till midnight when it goes from the 24th to the 25th to rip open my presents. Why do we open our presents on the 25th? Jesus didn't receive his gifts from the Three Kings till January 6th. Are we (people who open presents on the 25th) that impatient? I'm sure if I was anywhere but here I wouldn't be talking like this. But truth is, being here is giving me a different perspective on Christmas and I'm enjoying every piece of it.
The Sisters here, celebrate Christmas but they also celebrate Three Kings Day. Some of the Sisters have told me that Three Kings Day is a bigger celebration than Christmas! I'm excited to see that happen. As of now, all I know is that we are having a Christmas dinner here that will be followed by lots of singing. I don't know any of the small details but I'll be sure to include them when the time comes.
Thanksgiving was a very unique experience; non like before. First off, if I were with my family for Thanksgiving the day would have gone something like this: work in my sister's restaurant till 6 p.m., leave the restaurant by 7:30-ish p.m., go home and get ready, then all my siblings and family friends would meet at my parents house to begin our Thanksgiving celebration at about 9 p.m. Later on in the evening we would probably begin to put up the Christmas tree if we weren't too tired. Yup, exhausting. In the monastery, we had noon prayers and a Thanksgiving lunch. We were done around 2:30 p.m. and had the rest of the day to ourselves. I felt a bit strange because I'm usually busy till evening so being done at 2:30 p.m. made my day feel really long. However, it worked out perfect because later on that evening I was able to Skype with my sisters, brother, nieces and nephews. It was so nice to see all of their faces excited because they could see me and because they were about to eat. I also received some great news about my new born niece and she will hopefully join the family by Christmas. Then on Saturday, Ashley and I put up and decorated the Christmas tree with the help of Sister Maria. It's so beautiful. Sister Carmen is suppose to decorate the rest of the living room so I'm waiting till then to post a before and after picture of the living room.
Even at school, all the Christmas and Three Kings Day decorations are starting to go up and make the hallways look amazing. A couple teachers even have fully decorated Christmas trees in their classrooms. I can't remember ever seeing that! It is so nice to feel all this joy as we get closer to the 25th at school and in the monastery.
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