Celebrating Christmas in Cambodia

We have done lots here to make it feel like the Christmas season. There a couple of reasons why this season feels so different in Cambodia. One is it continues to be 80 degrees outside. Two, we are not around our family. Three is most people do not celebrate Christmas as we know it, not even the Khmer Christians. Most Khmer Christians do not put up a Christmas tree or give presents to their children. To celebrate they go to their church on Christmas for a service and have a dinner together. On one hand it is so encouraging to know that the Christians here are getting it right. Their focus on Christmas isn't about the decorations and the presents but about being thankful for Jesus being born. On the other hand it is hard to not see Christmas lights on houses, decorations in stores, and Christmas music being played on the radio. Of course there is a bit of that because of the foreigner population here.

Since the start of December we have done something "Christmasy" each weekend. We went to a craft fair put on by NGO's helping women and children in Cambodia. We made Christmas cookies, helped decorate a friends fake tree, made two pecan pies, and ate a delicious potluck christmas dinner with our staff. Not to mention all of our decorations in our school classrooms. It is so fun being able to really celebrate the real reason for this season with our classes. In pre-k3 I get to tell the Christmas story every day in the month of December. Last week I had two students come up to me and say, " Mrs. Walker, I love Jesus" It was so heart warming to hear them say that. I responded, " He loves you too." Later on in the week one of the students told me, " I love Mary." It made me a little sad knowing that his statement of his love for Jesus was nothing more than letting me know he can remember then names of characters in a story we are learning about. I know it is a seed planted in their hearts. As they grow and learn more English they will continue to learn about who God and Jesus are!

For the last 12 days of school before Christmas Gideon's 5th graders are doing an Advent Challenge. Each day they have to do something that is encouraging or helpful to others. For example on the first day they had to give 12 people a high five. On the second day they had to open a door for 11 people and so on and so on. He is so creative.

Please enjoy the pictures of our Christmas celebrations! Leave us a comment and let us know how you have been celebrating Christmas!

A Week Long Holiday

For the first part of our holiday break we traveled to a small town 3ish hours south of Phnom Penh on the coast called Kep. We stayed for 3 nights. We had a great time of eating, eating, and more.....eating. We went with the Jones' and we had a great relaxing time. Gideon got to watch the stats online of the Broncos for the first time this season while we sat in the lounge of our bungalow we stayed at, eating our complimentary breakfast and looking out at the ocean! We rented a moto to drive to the next town over, because we heard they serve the BEST RIBS EVER (look below for photo so you can too start drooling)! AND they were right! We also took a short 30 minute boat ride over to Rabbit Island where we snorkled ( not the best snorkeling), ate fresh crab with pepper, sunbathed, and snorkled some more! Check out some pictures below of Kep!









We returned on Thanksgiving day! Our Thanksgiving was not traditional. We ended up eating out at a French Restaurant. We ate chicken, mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, and a greek salad. It was just the two of us! We had and have soo much to be thankful for. We did get to skype with both of our families on their Thanksgivings. I really wanted to try cooking a dinner for some of our friends. We were thinking about doing it on the Friday after, but after Thanksgiving day had passed I felt like we had celebrated it and all the hard work of cooking a big meal for lots of people wasn't so exciting to me anymore. So instead we went out again with some friends and had Khmer style BBQ where they bring you the raw meat and veggies and you cook it yourself on the BBQ that is at your table. It was a fun evening.

By the end of the week long vacation we were ready to get back to school. We honestly missed seeing our kids! And we are people that like our routines so it was good to get back into our daily school routines.

We hope you all had a Great Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for each and everyone of you!

Kristy and Gideon