Holidays hold our traditions. It’s why we buy Cadbury eggs at Easter even though no one likes them, how the candy corn industry can make a full year of profits at Halloween, and why any Thanksgiving without turkey is just called Thursday. Of the holiday traditions, there are none that come close to the big one. In the lineup of holiday traditions, Christmas takes the gold (then makes it glittery and twinkly). These traditions are important, in a chaotic world they provide consistency. Every year we go to Danikens for our tree, and my grandma’s Christmas angel sits on the top of that tree. She has sat on top of Christmas trees before I was born and if my daughters have their way long after I die, she is tradition. Nana’s cookies, presents, watching 24 hours straight of FixerUpper with Grammie, stockings, making a Snowman with Grandpa, candy canes, sledding with Papa, and hours and hours of cousin time arguing over checkers, it all adds up to one word-Christmas.
But The Who’s down in Whoville, as well as Linus, tell us that the tinsel isn’t really Christmas, tinsel is beautiful (particularly the cheap kind that you still find on your carpet in June), but Christmas holds meaning beyond. We are abroad this year, and my grandma’s Christmas angel is tucked away in storage. Were we brave enough, did we have enough courage to embrace the belief there is more to Christmas than the comforts our traditions promise? We were not! We had plans... big glorious plans that involved our bestest of friends the Massenas coming down to meet us on the beach in the Dominican Republic! The Massenas are a part of our tribe from home and at a time of constant chaos we needed some tradition and we needed people who know why wearing ugly Christmas sweaters on the beach is hilarious. Your tribe knows when and how to laugh with you, because they have been doing it for decades. They were bringing with them our stockings, a tiny tree, cookie cutters and our presents (Jake bought me a phone, cause if I ask to use his one more time, he is gonna start looking for a new wife that comes with a phone plan). We were gonna have Christmas with a DR twist!
The Massenas were all on their way until they weren’t. American Airlines decided they weren’t gonna fly at Christmas this year, and told them after they sent them to Chicago and after they lost all the luggage and after they lost the roast beast. Christmas was in fact canceled due to a pilot scheduling error.
We were crushed.
Christmas came this year without a single tradition from home, except one. Before we ate BBQ on the beach we give a Christmas prayer on Christmas Eve. We thanked the Lord for each other and for this year of new experiences and building new traditions. Prayer helped us embrace the chaos of our world that traditions don’t fix anyway. Traditions may hide away the chaos for a moment, but it’s still there. Sometimes planes get canceled, sometimes you don’t get what you want for Christmas, and sometimes you have to stay married to someone without a phone. But here we were together, safe, fed, VERY warm, and praying to our true God, who has sustained us throughout this year. We didn’t have the courage to believe there is more to Christmas than the presents under a tree by choice, but God showed us his truth anyway. That’s what He does, that is why He is good. This Christmas prayer brought us Christmas peace and created a moment under the stars by the crashing waves that will be remembered longer than my Grandma’s tree angel. The DR is filled with amazing empanadas and even better people, who took care of us when we were without. We didn’t have a tree with presents, but we did have a Christmas Pineapple. And although none of us knew this beforehand, on Christmas morning Santa had come and left a note for the girls. The note explained that although Christmas trees are for presents, Christmas Pineapples are for experiences! He left tickets to go bodyboarding, and snorkeling and he even left some to go Zip-lining in a Monkey Jungle! Embracing the chaos gave us new experiences and new traditions and we can all say it truly was a Feliz Navidad.
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