Holidays in Scammon Bay

There are a lot of events, stories, and people I could write about, but since we're still on Christmas break, I thought I'd share what Drew and I have done over the past couple weeks. If this is too long to read, here's a summary: Christmas in Hawaii school program, church services, spending time with neighbors, video calling family, and a quick trip to Anchorage.

On Tuesday evening of the last week of school we had our school Christmas program. The theme was "Christmas in Hawaii" and students made palm trees and other decorations to make the gym look fun and festive. Each elementary grade performed a song/dance/skit, and I had a group of 8th graders do a little reading skit, and then the high school guitar and choir classes performed a couple songs. To top of the night, Santa (who looks a lot like Drew for no apparent reason) showed up! The little kids were super excited, and Santa was a good sport as he had over 100 kids come and sit on his lap for a picture.

On Christmas Eve afternoon we skyped--sorry Google hang-out-ed--with Drew's family in Washington and California and opened our gifts. It was really fun to talk with them, and especially to see our little niece and nephew.

In the evening we had Christmas Eve service at church, which was filled to the brim! I played the viola and we had several guitarists as well. Drew had been taking the youth through Advent the previous four weeks, lighting candles and talking about the message each represents, so during the service he got up several times to read just a little bit about each candle as one of our youth came up to light it. They haven't really done Advent candles here, or at least in a long time, but it went over really well. A lot of families or groups of people sang special songs, and Pastor Jason preached. It was different from many Christmas Eve services I've been to, but just as warm and joyful.

After service Drew and I continued our tradition of Christmas Eve Chinese food with frozen egg rolls we bought at the store (no Chinese restaurants in Scammon Bay!) and some home made steamed rolls. Our neighbors invited us over to hang out with them and their family, so we spent some time over there eating treats and tracking Santa online with their little grandkids. It was really wonderful to be with a family on Christmas Eve, even if it wasn't our families.

Christmas morning we skyped with my family to open presents and talked with them. The wonders of modern technology, where you can see people's reactions to your gifts hundreds of miles away!

Some other neighbors invited us over for Christmas dinner so we went over there about 5. We brought some of our own culture: Swedish meatballs, rice pudding, and peppakaker. They really enjoyed it all.

The day after Christmas we flew out to Anchorage to do some shopping and take a mini vacation. We got stuck in Bethel overnight, but fortunately the associate pastor of the Covenant church there let us stay with him and his family. We eventually made it to Anchorage and a had a great time relaxing, seeing movies, and stocking up for the next few months.

We got back to Scammon on New Year's Eve, and it was good to be home. We had a late church service and at midnight the town shot off fireworks down at the airport, and everyone went outside to shoot their guns in the air.

Now these last few days of break are just working on projects around here and getting ready for school on Monday! It's been a well-needed break, and a nice relaxing one too. Here's to the next semester!