It never feels like Thanksgiving or Christmas to us here.   I think that helps my homesickness during this time of year.  For one, it’s hot and two we aren’t surrounded with family and friends.  We keep on with our traditions as a family and had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration.  It’s hard to believe this will be our fifth Christmas in a row celebrating outside of the USA.  We traditionally decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and that’s just what we did.  The Amy Grant Christmas album was playing in the background as we set-up the tree and decorated the house.

Decorating for Christmas has always been emotional for me (DeAnna).  As I look at ornaments (or ornaments that have molded and need to be thrown away) or different decorations; I happily, tearfully and longingly think of those who gave me or us the decoration.  For example, my sister made us a cross stitch decoration that we’ve hung every year since our first married Christmas in 1999.  We have straw stars we hang on the tree that we received from friends in language school who are living in Norway and those were pretty much the only ornaments we had to adorn our tree in France.  I look at the ornaments that we’ve made as a family over the years.  (We make ornaments every year as a family and have since our dating years, plus it’s how David proposed to me, so it’s a big deal to us and a family tradition).  It truly is wonderful to have these stones of remembrance, regardless of the tear flow.