Jeremy and I have always been SUPER relaxed about holidays
in Zambia. Our first thanksgiving together, before we were ever married, we
shared a feast of glazed carrots, sautéed potatoes and wild bush mushrooms. It
was deliciously unconventional. We’ve exchanged gifts for
Christmas… um… never. Rarely do we go buy something for anniversaries or
birthdays. We prefer to save our pennies and instead make memories through fun and
unique experiences rather than give something for giving-something’s sake.
When Bronwyn came along, I felt a certain
responsibility to create for Bronwyn a whole package of traditions for every
holiday that she would grow to remember and think back on fondly instead of
always wondering why she had to grow up with the weirdo parents who don’t seem
to take any holiday seriously whatsoever.
Last year, I stressed about it. Thanksgiving was a total botched job. We
had plans and the plans didn’t go according to plan and I’ll spare you the
details, but it involved us eating Thanksgiving-ish food out of Tupperware
containers, in the car with mom quietly crying and mourning the train-wreck of
her daughter’s first major holiday. Christmas was significantly better. (It was
actually blog-able: here, and here.)
This time around, Bronwyn is one year older, we are one year
wiser, and we’ve made a few main decisions.
We’ve decided that developing traditions does not
mean we have to pre-decide what those traditions are and do the same thing from
now until eternity. What we do and how we do it may look completely different
from year to year.
Nevertheless, we do want to have a handful of constants with
each major holiday every year. These constants come in the form of three general goals:
*Goal 1: Enjoy whatever it is we end up doing. When one thing
stops being fun, move on and don’t worry that we’ve just trashed what could
have been the forever Colvin tradition! (Right now we are obsessed with all things Veggie Tales. I assume we will outgrow that one day.)
**Goal 2: Dig deeper into the true meaning. What’s
thanksgiving about anyway? Why turkey? What’s Christmas for... really? I mean,
Jesus was not born on December 25th! Dig, dig, dig.
***Goal 3: Engage others in the journey. While we enjoy time
with our nuclear family, reaching out to our friends and neighbors is important
to us. When we come up with a fun way to celebrate or a compelling way to share
what we think the true meaning is, we want to share that with people outside of
our home!
So this thanksgiving, we had fun. We wanted a Mexican fiesta
and brownies and so by gum that’s what we ate. (*Goal 1 check.)
We had approximately 4,000 talking hours worth of
conversation about Black Friday and consumerism and what kinds of things fuel a
lifestyle of gratitude and what kinds of things suck the thanksgiving joy from
our souls. (**Goal 2 check.)
 |
| sometimes our conversations are so enthralling that the munchkin just passes right out! |
We
invited people to the Learning Resource Center and had a super fun time with
our neighbors listing off God’s blessings to us and learning why remembering God’s
goodness is essential to living a faith-filled life. (***Goal 3 check.)
(GO READ THE CHOSHEN FARM POST ABOUT THE THANKSGIVING PROGRAM… this is why were are here, ya'll.)
I think Bronwyn doesn’t really care that we’ve agonized over
the who and the how and the what and where and why of all of this celebratory
craziness. In fact, I’m pretty sure her eating the construction paper during
our otherwise very serious and intentional craft time at the LRC was a direct message
that she’s just kickin’ it with us for the entertainment factor.
 |
| classy |
But more
importantly, we are weaving into the fabric of our family principles and habits
that reflect a certain ethos of what
we’re here for; an ethos that communicates the centrality of Christ’s love for
us, on holidays and always.
Happy Thanksgiving!
No comments:
Post a Comment