Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you all had an AMAZING holiday. I had the great pleasure (NOT) of turning 30 this Christmas Eve. I must say, it was a very memorable milestone. Here is a little of how I spent my first day as a sparkly new 30 year old woman:
I got up at about 5:00 a.m. to bake 3 streusel coffee cakes. This was what my mom always made me on Christmas Eve for breakfast since nobody (except maybe the Klob family) wants to eat birthday cake early on Christmas Eve morning. So, one coffee cake for Ryan and me and the other two for a man in our village named Simi, who just happened to turn 44 on Christmas Eve. The story of Simi could go on, so lets just do the highlights shall we? Simi...44 years old...who works in the bush as a farmer, at the Mormon Church and as head of the PTA for 23 hours a day...with 9 kids...all under the age of 12...with only one girl...who was brought to our house for serious first aid with a massive head wound the other day...whose wife is 8 months pregnant. After seeing what Simi looks like when his children are out of school and ALL home, with a wife on bed-rest, we could not think of a more deserving person for Birthday breakfast.
It was such an amazing treat to have real flavored coffee from America. A cup of pumpkin coffee just bombarded the senses and made me feel as happy as a little kid on Christmas Eve morning. I opened another package from my folks and gave Ryan a Tongan fashion show. I think Ryan deserves a medal for husband of the year. He put up with a lot on this day. I LOVE Christmas and saw no reason to skip it just because we live in a village in the middle of the South Pacific. However, it is not easy trying to recreate Christmas when it is 85 degrees and you can literally feel the air blanket you because it is so humid and still. Needless to say, when Ryan laughed at my sugar cookie Christmas bulbs I may have overreacted a tiny bit. He did not deserve the wrath that came his way, but it was not easy making roll out sugar cookies with a gas burner oven. I am not sure in what world I was living when I thought this would be a good idea to begin with. Let's just say Ryan's half a bottle of wine that night was well deserved....even though he decided to wear some of his half instead of drink it. But, more on that later.
Ryan and I then spent the afternoon visiting with neighbors who came over, taking around plates of Christmas cookies and baking in preparation for our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals. My husband was fired from cookie deliveries when I found chocolate on his hands when he came back from one delivery. Evidently he was "evening out the edges." Aarrgh... Kloberdanzs! Families seemed really excited to see us and it was really fun to be able to give them a festive treat. We received 3 large fresh fish, a can of canned beef, and many root crops. It was fun to have people come and go all day and some even wished me a happy birthday!
At about 6:00p.m. Ryan and I started getting ready for the Weslyan Sunday School Christmas program. I honestly felt like I was back in elementary school as I was part of the program. Yep.... 30 and in a Sunday School program. The Sunday school kids always perform the nativity on Christmas Eve night. I had worked with the kids and taught them 'Away in a Manger' and 'Joy to the World' in English. We sang these songs in English and Tongan. I also had a line in the play. The Sunday school teacher demanded everyone memorize their parts. I was worried about that so I cheated and taped my part in my hymnal. Some of the older kids were showing their friends what I did and one boy said "poto" to me (smart). The only down side was it was pretty hot to begin with, but somehow I ended up standing smack dab in front of the 500 watt yard lamp that was used as a spotlight the whole performance. The kids got to see 'Frosty the White Girl' melt as part of the Christmas festivities. My eye make-up ran so bad I pretty much looked like Freddy Krueger by the end. But, the kids did really great and it was a wonderful program. Ryan and I had so much fun being with our community at this event. The men were so happy that Ryan came and sat with them. It was amazing to look over and see him laughing with the Tongan men. And, he looked pretty amazing as well. I even told him that this was the first time I have ever seen him better dressed than Matt Urkoski.
(Hey Barkeim family! Look.... I made our family Christmas picture for 2012. Sorry my head is so much bigger than all of yours :)
Back at my old church in Minnesota, kids got peanut bags after the program for doing a good job. Well, Tonga has them beat. I got a whole bag full of cookies and snacks. Score!!!
Ryan and I came home to enjoy a meal of homemade bread and soup. While I was putting the finishing touches on dinner, I asked Ryan to open the bottle of wine we had splurged on and looked forward to for weeks. After hearing some rather offensive cursing, I went out to see what all the fuss was about. I found my husband, shirtless, covered in wine and trying to pry the cork from the wine bottle with our Rapala filet knife. I lost it. I have never seen anything so hilarious. The picture does not quite capture the ridiculousness of the actual moment. Seriously... how does this stuff happen in a matter of minutes? When I calmed down, Ryan explained that evidently we had accidentally bought a corked bottle instead of a twist top. Having no wine opener, my husband decided just to push the cork in and make his very own geyser of wine.Thankfully he had the sense to take his only white dress shirt off first. What a resourceful volunteer:) Your tax dollars hard at work ladies and gentlemen.We ate our dinner by candlelight and listened to Christmas music performed by one of the guys in our Tonga group. We ended the night with Christmas movies in bed by our awesome battery powered Christmas lights! It was such a wonderful day. I cannot imagine spending my 30th birthday any other way.
a shirtless klob, covered in wine, holding a knife and a bottle of booze...not much has changed since your iowa city days, i see.
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