A Green Christmas

Christmas in Papua New Guinea, as you can imagine, is quite different than one in the United States. It is the hottest time of year and the grass is always greener in December. I have mixed feelings about being here opposed to the states during this time. Though I would much rather be with family for the holidays I do not miss the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, Christmas music playing in October, expectations for expensive gift giving or LOTS of gift giving, and so forth. I was often frustrated by all that was expected of me during this time of year in the states, especially when I was living on a teachers salary.

However, I felt myself missing Christmas music everywhere, decorative lights all over and candy canes. Although we try our best to make it look and feel like Christmas, it is just not the same. At one point I found myself getting discouraged. After telling Alan, we decided that we would do our best to make our own traditions here. It won't ever be an American Feeling Christmas but it can be a Papua New Guinean feeling Christmas.

We hung the stockings and set up the tree (a 6 foot Walmart special I shipped over here). The ornaments were put up and our tree was topped with nothing other than a Chick-fil-A cow! We played Christmas music any chance we got (Amy Grant, Sufjan Stevens, The Gettys, and She and Him) and made some oh-so-delicious gingerbread cookies (which turned into bars). Here we are putting up our first ornament as Mr and Mrs Halbrooks, a gift from Alan's mom.

I decided I needed an advent calendar, so I made one! What do you think? Pretty spiffy huh! Some Papua New Guinean ladies make these little bilums (woven bags) and sell them at market. I wanted to make one of my own so I looked online. WOW! I decided to use one idea, painting clothes pins and began that process. While I was painting I thought how cute it would be to have each clothes pin holding a tiny little bilum. The next morning we went to market, collected them, and began to fill them with all kinds of goodies: marbles, candies (wrapped in plastic to avoid ant issues), toys, etc. We decided that Alan would open the odd numbers and I, the evens. Feel free to steal my idea if you want to.

I even did a bit of table decoration! Oh yeah.

We enjoyed a Christmas choir and band concert put on by the middle and high school students, which was lovely.

Alan got into some traditions I made up such as: taking a picture while under the Christmas tree, posing while running down the stairs on Christmas morn, and having a silly string war. We pulled out some good ol' puzzles to enjoy the season (it's mango season...so we ate them each morning as well!)

On Christmas Eve my mom invited us and some friends over for a lovely dinner. We ended the evening with the watching of Charlie Brown Christmas, family classic! We have watched many movies this holiday such as Home Alone, Muppet Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, Elf, etc. Good times!

The morning of, we woke to a wonderful display of uniquely wrapped presents. Our present selection is limited so Alan and I have decided to step up our wrapping and make that part of the fun. I created a snowman for Alan and he made me an echidna.

My echidna, once I finally got it unwrapped, was peppermint cocoa! SOOOO delicious!

 Alan's snowman was actually a new set of tennis balls.

Our Christmas was very fun with friends and family, great food, and wonderful presents! The weather was surprising cool and rainy. Below you can see my Christmas attire (of course I only wear these jeans at night with friends, not exactly "PNG appropriate")

On New Year Eve we invited some of my single gal friends. I remember being single. You would either get invited to everything or to very little. This year, I didn't want them to have to ask. The food, again, was delicious and the games were awesome. Alan set up the dart board outside and we borrowed a wii for the evening. Catch Phrase was a bit hit! A few minutes before midnight Alan rigged up a glow in the dark smiley face ball, taped it to a string and lowered it from a pull-up bar in our hallway. We may not be able to see the real ball drop but this was very special and brought lots of laughter! Confetti poppers exploded while motorbikes rode around center rolling in the New Year.

 

Holding to my "working backwards" theme, next up will be...Thanksgiving.

Working Backwards

Instead of starting from our wedding in July I figured I would start with my birthday in January, just to be confusing. No, the truth is, I am still organizing and working through wedding photos. The next few blog posts will be "working backwards". Since we are on break for a few weeks, I have time. This blog post is about my birthday.

January 5th I turned 29. Yep, I told you, and I'm not ashamed. I have lived them well and will wear them proudly! That said, my 26 year old husband threw me a lovely and even royal birthday party!
A few years ago my friend Elizabeth and I did a Murder Mystery Party. It is, to this day, one of my favorites. Alan and I looked online and found one called: A Knight of Murder. We downloaded it and began the invites. Our friends responded with great enthusiasm. We probably had as much fun finding the costumes as we did acting it all out! Over the years our community has been blessed with many wonderfully gifted seamstresses who have made costumes for all kinds of high school plays.

The day of, my friend Lindsey helped me decorate our house to look like a Medieval Manor while Alan worked on the cake. He is a cake connoisseur! Carrot cake on the top, chocolate wacky cake on the bottom, what could be better?

 Everyone was given a description of their character and objectives they had to complete before the end of the night. After an introduction and welcome by my husband, Lord Taylor, our friends were free to mingle, enjoy the delicious goodies, and figure out "who dunnit".

The lights "suddenly" went out. A scream was heard (from me...for effect) in the darkness. When the lights came on, one of the guests had died! We all laughed when the victim's spouse was called on to tape off the body of the victim. He was laying on his side with a leg turned up so that is why our "taped person" is so oddly proportioned. Luckily, he was given the role of the evidence man. He presented the evidence, which I obviously did not look closely at, to help us decide who had done it.

We had so much fun...maybe a little too much for some of us :)

I am so grateful for the friends God has put in our lives (and these are just a few) here in Papua New Guinea. I look forward to what is in store for me this year.