Mele Kalikimaka???

Mele Kalikimaka to you all.

I can't believe that Christmas is less then a week away. Weird. Being in Hawaii during December is a bit depressing for a girl that grew up in the North West. Last year I don't think I even had Christmas. The J-pan Focus DTS was on an airplane to Japan on Christmas Eve night and I feel like we arrived just when Christmas day was ending. Sad. This will mark my 4th Christmas not at home and I suppsose I'll be okay with that.

But I realize that Christmas isn't about the lights, eggnog (which I personally think is foul), trees, snow, santa, Mariah Careys Christmas album, White Christmas with Bing Crosby, snowman, ginger bread houses, Christmas parties, candy canes, stockings, Charlie Brown Christmas, fire places, and Home Alone... I realize that I'm supposed to say "Jesus is the reason for the season" But sometimes I do miss all of it. But this year Christmas is looking up for me. I get to have Christmas in the place I've always wanted...the East Coast. I get to be cold, wear pea coats and have a real Christmas with a real family. Oh yes...that does sound lovely....

...but really, Jesus really is the purpose for Christmas. I do want to make that point clear. I continue to be dumbfounded by a God who would come in the form of a man to a teenage girl in the most difficult of times, born in a filthy cave...and ended up saving us all. Yes that is lovely. My desire for Christmas is not the 'fluff' of Christmas but to somehow bring the Beauty of Jesus and his message to places like Darfur, Cambodia, Japan, Belo Horizonte and so many other places. To desire for what John Lennon wrote in his song "Happy Christmas (war is over) "

A very merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear And so this is Christmas For weak and for strong For rich and the poor ones The world is so wrong And so happy Christmas For black and for white For yellow and red ones Let's stop all the fight A very merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear And so this is Christmas And what have we done Another year over And a new one just begun"