Advent Calendar - Day 7

This has been my current computer wallpaper for the last while: 

It's happy to have something a bit cold-looking while everything is so warm here!

Here are some neat-looking Christmas wallpapers, so you can add some cheer to your computer screen if you haven't already. :)

Ice Firs

Sweet Christmas

Gift Wrapped

Snow Lantern

Christmas Tree

 Snowflake(s)

Birth of Jesus

17 days till Christmas!

Advent Calendar - Day 6

I thought I'd share a Christmas song with thought-provoking lyrics. So often I just sing songs through and don't really think about the words, when if I really listened, I'd be so inspired by their profoundness. Here is one of my favorites...

Do You Have Room?
Shawna Edwards

They journeyed far, a weary pair;
They sought for shelter from the cold night air.
Some place where she could lay her head,
Where she could give her Babe a quiet bed.

Was there no room? No corner there?
In all the town a spot someone could spare?
Was there no soul come to their aid?
A stable bare was where the family stayed.

Do you have room for the Savior? And do you seek Him anew?
Have you a place for the One who lived and died for you?
Are you as humble as a shepherd boy, or as wise as men of old?
Would you have come that night? Would you have sought the light?
Do you have room?

A star arose, a wondrous light,
A sign from God — this was the holy night,
And yet so few would go to see
The Babe who came to rescue you and me.

This Child divine is now a King.
The gift of life to all the world He brings,
And all mankind He saves from doom,
But on that night, for Him, there was no room.

Do you have room for the Savior? And do you seek Him anew?
Have you a place for the One who lived and died for you?
Are you as humble as a shepherd boy, or as wise as men of old?
Would you have come that night? Would you have sought the light?
Do you have room?

Will you come tonight? Will you seek the light?
Do you have room?

18 days till Christmas!

Advent Calendar - Day 5

Here are a few Christmas cards I made awhile ago with the "Big on Christmas" Stampin' Up stamp set. (Just in case you have it and are looking for ideas!)

19 days till Christmas!

Advent Calendar - Day 4

Christmas in Asia: It's kind of like Christmas in July, but not.

I know that "down under," Christmas is always sunny and warm, but I've just never been used to that so it has definitely been a big change to be in a tropical place during a time that's supposed to be freezing cold! I thought I'd tell you how we celebrated Christmas last year, and some of the things that are planned and happening this Christmas season...

1. Last year I went to Thailand for Christmas. I visited Sunshine Orchard, another mission school, because some close family friends are working there. It was wonderful in many ways, but one of the best things was that IT WAS COLD! I know, you're probably thinking yeah right. But no, it was in the upper 40s up there in the mountains, and we didn't have a nice fire to warm up to - we slept in a bamboo hut like they always do. Brrr!! But it sure felt more like the right time of the year. :)

We also went caroling. Who knew that you could go door-to-door in an Asian village of bamboo huts and sing Christmas songs? It was awesome. I learned a few Karen tunes and enjoyed getting to know some of the students as we serenaded the neighborhood.

2. WPY has an annual Christmas program - but not at our campus. A choir of our children goes to a hotel in Siem Reap and sings for the people there. Last year it was most of my cute grade 6 kiddos, and they did a wonderful job. This year, they are working hard on more songs. They are sounding good, and it will be fun to be able to hear them sing in person this time!

3. My housemate and fellow teacher, Laura (my AFCOE outreach partner back in the good old days), is planning a Christmas program for the dorm kids (both boys and girls). She has had a "store" where the kids can come and pick out a couple gifts for a small fee, for a name they've drawn (most of them are too poor to afford much, and Laura's been saving up random gifts for a few years). So a few days before school finishes and the dorm kids go back to their villages, they will have a gift exchange and a regular Christmas program in the school cafeteria. It will be nice, I'm sure! They are all quite looking forward to it.

4. I've strung up my Christmas lights in my room (just a short strand of battery-powered LED lights), and added a few ornaments and trinkets that make it look pretty. :) (It looks much better in person, of course.)

5. Laura and I are planning to make Christmas food for Christmas. Not sure what yet, but it will be fun to have plenty of time to make yummy stuff that reminds us of home! (This picture is from my Thanksgiving attempt at pumpkin pie for potluck... the remainder didn't last long with these little fellows around!)

20 days till Christmas!

Advent Calendar - Day 3

A little while ago, I researched some cute ornament crafts to make. I haven't made them with any of my kids yet (especially since I teach older kids this year), but they look fun and I'll probably pull them out someday to make. :)

Puzzle-Piece Snowflakes

Button Baubles

Recycled Paper Ornaments

21 days till Christmas!

Advent Calendar - Day 2

I like doing jigsaw puzzles on cold winter nights. It was especially fun back in 2009 with my buddies Melissa and Josh... we'd stay up for hours just chatting and puzzling away. Now, I don't have access to puzzles - or the time to pull one out if I did have one - but I've found something almost just as good...

Jigidi!

It's my favorite online version of puzzles, and there are all sorts of puzzles you can do. I like to put on an audio book or something and work away when I have a bit of free time.

Here are a few nice Christmas puzzles that you might like, too:

Snow Buddies
Christmas Street (Thomas Kinkade)
Christ is Born

22 days until Christmas!

Advent Calendar - Day 1

I used to love advent calendars, counting down the days until Christmas. I haven't used one in a couple of years since there hasn't really seemed to be a point, considering that Christmas isn't as big of a deal here and it just doesn't feel Christmasey anyway.

But this year, I miss Christmas a bit extra, it seems. And so I'm going to do a bit of advent-calendaring on my blog. I'll post something Christmasey here each day, and hopefully it'll help me stay in the Christmas spirit even though I'm far from home and all the Christmas lights that abide there. :)

Today, December 1, I'm going to share the story below. You may have heard or read or seen it before, but I'm putting it here because my Grade 10s will be reading through it starting tomorrow, and we'll be spending time discussing it and learning more about how to write historical narratives. It really is heartwarming and inspiring for me to read it again, and write it in simpler English.

----

Truce in the Forest

by Fritz Vincken

It was Christmas Eve in 1944, and a desperate German battle of World War II raged around our tiny cabin. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door...

I was 12 then, and we were living in a small cottage in the Hürtgen Forest, near the German-Belgian border. Father had stayed at the cottage on hunting weekends before the war; when Allied bombers partly destroyed our hometown of Aachen, he sent us to live there. He had been ordered into the civil-defense fire guard in the border town of Monschau, four miles away.

"You'll be safe in the woods," he had told me. "Take care of Mother. Now you're the man of the family."

But, nine days before Christmas, Field Marshal von Rundstedt had launched this last, desperate fight, and now, as I went to the door, the Battle of the Bulge was raging all around us. We heard the constant booming of field guns; planes soared continuously overhead; at night, searchlights stabbed through the darkness. Thousands of Allied and German soldiers were fighting and dying nearby.

When that first knock came, Mother quickly blew out the candles; then, as I went to answer it, she stepped ahead of me and pushed open the door. Outside, like phantoms against the snow-covered trees, stood two steel-helmeted men. One of them spoke to Mother in a language we did not understand, pointing to a third man lying in the snow. She realized before I did that these were American soldiers. Enemies!

Mother stood silent, motionless, her hand on my shoulder. They were armed and could have forced their way inside, but they stood there and asked with their eyes. And the wounded man seemed more dead than alive. "Kommt rein," Mother said finally. "Come in." The soldiers carried their comrade inside and stretched him out on my bed.

None of them understood German. Mother tried French, and one of the soldiers could speak in that language. As Mother went to take care of the wounded man, she said to me, "The fingers of those two are numb. Take off their jackets and boots, and bring in a bucket of snow." Soon I was rubbing their blue feet with snow.

We learned that the stocky, dark-haired fellow was Jim; his friend, tall and slender, was Robin. Harry, the wounded one, was now sleeping on my bed, his face as white as the snow outside. They'd lost their battalion and had wandered in the forest for three days, looking for the Americans, hiding from the Germans. They hadn't shaved, but still, without their heavy coats, they looked only like big boys. And that was the way Mother began to treat them.

Now Mother said to me, "Go get Hermann. And bring six potatoes."

This was a serious departure from our pre-Christmas plans. Hermann was the plump rooster that we had been fattening for weeks, hoping that Father would be home for Christmas. But, a few hours before, when it was obvious that Father would not make it, Mother had decided that Hermann should live a few more days, in case Father could get home for New Year's. Now she had changed her mind again: Hermann would serve a new, important purpose.

While Jim and I helped with the cooking, Robin took care of Harry. He had a bullet through his upper leg, and had almost bled to death. Mother tore a bedsheet into long strips for bandages.

Soon, the tempting smell of roast chicken filled our room. I was setting the table when once again there came a knock at the door. 

Expecting to find more lost Americans, I opened the door without hesitation. There stood four soldiers, wearing uniforms quite familiar to me after five years of war. They were Wehrmacht Germans!

I was paralyzed with fear. Although still a child, I knew the harsh law: sheltering enemy soldiers meant high treason. We could all be shot! Mother was frightened, too. Her face was white, but she stepped outside and said, quietly, "Fröhliche Weihnachten." The soldiers wished her a Merry Christmas, too.

"We have lost our regiment and would like to wait for daylight," explained the corporal. "Can we rest here?"

"Of course," Mother replied, with a calmness born of panic. "You can also have a fine, warm meal and eat till the pot is empty."

The Germans smiled as they sniffed the aroma through the half-open door. "But," Mother added firmly, "we have three other guests, whom you may not consider friends." Now her voice was suddenly sterner than I'd ever heard it before. "This is Christmas Eve, and there will be no shooting here."

"Who's inside?" the corporal demanded. "Amerikaner?"

Mother looked at each frost-chilled face. "Listen," she said slowly. "You could be my sons, and so could those inside. A boy with a gunshot wound, fighting for his life. His two friends were lost like you and they are just as hungry and exhausted as you are. This one night," she turned to the corporal and raised her voice a little, "this Christmas night, let us forget about killing."

The corporal stared at her. There were two or three endless seconds of silence. Then Mother put an end to indecision. "Enough talking!" she ordered and clapped her hands sharply. "Please put your weapons here on the woodpile and hurry up before the others eat the dinner!"

Dazed, the four soldiers placed their weapons on the pile of firewood just inside the door: three carbines, a light machine gun and two bazookas. Meanwhile, Mother was speaking French rapidly to Jim. He said something in English, and to my amazement I saw the American boys, too, give their weapons to Mother.

Now, with Germans and Americans so close and tense in the small room, Mother really worked hard. Never losing her smile, she tried to find a seat for everyone. We had only three chairs, but Mother's bed was big, and she placed two of the newcomers on it, next to Jim and Robin.

Despite the strained atmosphere, Mother went right on preparing dinner. But Hermann wasn't going to grow any bigger, and now there were four more mouths to feed. "Quick," she whispered to me, "get more potatoes and some oats. These boys are hungry, and a starving man is an angry one."

While looking in the storage room, I heard Harry moan. When I returned, one of the Germans had put on his glasses to inspect the American's wound. "Do you belong to the medical corps?" Mother asked him. "No," he answered. "But I studied medicine at Heidelberg College until a few months ago." He told the Americans in what sounded like fairly good English, that because of the cold, Harry's wound hadn't become infected. "He is suffering from a severe loss of blood," he explained to Mother. "What he needs is rest and nourishment."

Relaxation was now beginning to replace suspicion. Even to me, all the soldiers looked very young as we sat there together. Heinz and Willi, both from Cologne, were 16. The German corporal, at 23, was the oldest of them all. From his food bag he drew out a bottle of red wine, and Heinz managed to find a loaf of rye bread. Mother cut that in small pieces to be served with the dinner; half the wine, however, she put away "for the wounded boy."

Then Mother said a prayer to bless the food. I noticed that there were tears in her eyes as she said the words, "Komm, Herr Jesus. Be our guest." And as I looked around the table, I saw tears, too, in the eyes of the battle-weary soldiers, boys again, some from America, some from Germany, all far from home.

Just before midnight, Mother went to the doorstep and asked us to join her to look up at the Star of Bethlehem. We all stood beside her except Harry, who was sleeping. For all of us during that moment of silence, looking at the brightest star in the heavens, the war was a distant, almost-forgotten thing.

Our private truce continued the next morning. Harry woke in the early hours, and swallowed some broth that Mother fed him. With the dawn, it was apparent that he was becoming stronger. Mother now made him an invigorating drink from our one egg, the rest of the corporal's wine and some sugar. Everyone else had oatmeal. Afterward, two poles and Mother's best tablecloth were fashioned into a stretcher for Harry.

The corporal then advised the Americans how to find their way back to their lines. Looking over Jim's map, the corporal pointed out a stream. "Continue along this creek," he said, "and you will find the 1st Army rebuilding its forces on its upper part." The medical student relayed the information in English.

"Why don't we head for Monschau?" Jim had the student ask. "Nein!" the corporal exclaimed. "We've retaken Monschau."

Now Mother gave them all back their weapons. "Be careful, boys," she said. "I want you to get home someday where you belong. God bless you all!" The German and American soldiers shook hands, and we watched them disappear in opposite directions.

When I returned inside, Mother had brought out the old family Bible. I glanced over her shoulder. The book was open to the Christmas story, the Birth in the Manger and how the Wise Men came from afar bearing their gifts. Her finger was tracing the last line from Matthew 2:12: "...they departed into their own country another way."