Images from Camping, part 2

p.s. the red has mostly faded from my hair. even though the feedback was positive, i don't think i'll recolor. Thanks to all who voted. -H

Images from Hilltribe Weekend, part 1

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

Christmas this year was a little different than any other. Jeff and I didn't open any presents or have a big dinner with friends or family. We didn't see a movie or play borad games or do any other "normal" Christmas traditions. The interesting thing about it is when you remove all of our American holiday traditions you realize just how little our celebrations have to do with the purpose of Christmas.

There is a huge movement in the US to remove the word "Christmas" from anything related to the season. What if this weren't such a bad thing? Maybe our father isn't too upset about it. After all, if father really is a jealous father, why would he want to share his son's name with a tree or gluttonous eating? Perhaps, he wouldn't even want to share his name with good things like family gatherings and reciprocal gift giving if those things overshadowed him. Maybe, just maybe renaming a Christmas Tree to a holiday tree and exchanging overpriced "holiday" gifts instead of Christmas gifts might bring to light the real purposes of the day.

Our Christmas celebrations this year began on Dec. 21 when we gave presents to some kids whose Christmas wish was for some milk. These kids are from villages far away from our city and they stay at a youth hostel during the week so that they are able to attend school. Lest you think these are highschool students, they range in age from Kindergarten to 12th grade. It is heartbreaking to see a 5 or 6-year old who only sees his/her parent on the weekend and does not have someone to hug them every day and read them a bedtime story every night.

On Saturday, we loaded up medicines, blankets and school supplies and drove four hours to another village in the mountains. The roads were dirt and impassable during the rainy season. The village has a small school for younger kids and the older kids walk 3 miles every day to attend school. It is solely an agriculture society who use a trade/barter system between the villagers but they are unable to afford basic medicines or school furnishings. The children were so excited to sit in desks to study. Some of them did this for the first time in their lives. One family provided us with a wonderful meal and then we camped with some friends of ours before returning home.

We were able to share a Christmas meal with some friends of ours on Sunday night and the office had a big feast last Friday. We even mailed some small gifts home to our families. But none of those compared with the joy of giving meaningful gifts to people who were truly in need that will never be able to return the gift. Someone once said that the opposite of greed is not poverty but generosity. The purest form of generosity is giving to someone who can never repay. Didn't the first Christmas mark the beginning of the ultimate generosity?

Next year, I challenge each of you to spend a holiday-free Christmas.

Sometimes you just gotta go a little CRAZY

Last week I got the idea to do something a little out of the ordinary. Actually, Jeff gave me the idea. Since he and I are normally cautious and sane people, we have to do crazy things every once in awhile or nothing exciting would ever happen. If you exclude our recent journey around the world, our trip to China and having a kid, I haven't really done much too interesting the last few months. So I thought it might be time to loosen up and quit acting like such a mom.

My options were:

1. Body piercing: But I was a little afraid of the pain and sometimes the piercing boutiques can be unsanitary.

2. Tattoo: same objections as above but add to it the permanent, never-leaving-your-body factor and that was out as well.

3. Hair color: Ding, ding, ding. Not permanent, no pain involved and no health code violations to worry about.

So, I am taking a poll. I am interested to see how many of our friends and family still check out our blog and I am also curious as to what you think about my new hairdo.

Please take a second and vote just to the right of this entry. You have until Midnight Christmas Day to decide the fate of my hair.

So, what do you think? Should I keep the red streaks?

I was just think ing about how I needed to post something but not much has really happened the last couple of weeks that would be blog-worthy. I took a peek at a friend of ours blog to see what was going on with them as they live on this side of the world as well. I hadn't checked their blog in a while and realized that while we were livin' it up in China he was passing a kidney stone and while I was trying to think of something to write about his wife was being diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Needless to say, I am thankful for not having anything to write about. :)

So here is my long blog to tell you that nothing has really happened over the last couple of weeks since returning from our trip. Pretty much the same daily routine. Our time here is passing very quickly. We only have a year and a half left before our term is up but we can extend if we wish. Chloe isn't quite walking yet but she is very close. She is very cautious and too afraid to let go of our hands.

For Christmas this year we are going to drive out to a hilltribe village and deliver some medicine and blankets and supplies for the school and then camp in the mountains. It's a little chilly at night but the weather during the day is wonderful- 70's and sunny.

We miss everyone and hope you all enjoy your holiday celebrations.

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Why me?" Then a voice answers, "Nothing personal... your name just happened to come up." - Charlie Brown