We celebrated Christmas Eve dinner with two other families from church. I was preparing the turkey, some traditional southern side dishes, and my new Christmas Crack dessert, passed to me by a friend. Christmas Eve with my American in-laws is one of my favorite times of the year. We always go to the candlelight Christmas Eve service, come home to a small dinner like soup or a crock pot meal, and then enjoy reading from Luke together and singing Christmas songs. Inevitably one of our nieces or newphews is taking piano lessons and they play the piano with songs they know. I love how we sing "Deck the Halls" and everyone teases my husband for saying "Fararararara" instead of "Falalalalalala." It is really one of Kan and I's favorite nights of the year and I am not sure if they know how much we love it. Last year when we were away at Christmas, we said "Never again." We committed to going back to the US for Christmas this year. But circumstances change and God reminds us His plans are better than our plans, and we found ourselves in Tokyo again this Christmas. We decided to continue the Maulden/Fox Advent tradition and bring it to Tokyo. After a large turkey dinner and great fellowship with friends, we sat around and read from Luke 2 and sang Christmas carols together. It was much better singing with other families than just Kan and myself last year. It did not replace our family back home, but it was a sweet time with our family away from home. I cannot even begin to tell you how grateful we are to have such good friends here in Tokyo and have the community we have in our church. God is so good to us. Without these folks, we may not have lasted 6 months here! They are precious people and truly are like family to us here in Tokyo.
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