Merry Christmas!

Christmas came early this year. Instead of the traditional December 25th, my Christmas was five days early on the 20th. That’s the day my family came to see me. Not everyone has a family that would drive 12 hours on icy roads for a 3 hour visit…but I do. A HUGE thank you to Crazy Uncle Blaine for getting everybody here and back safely. My dad described the trip as the scene from Christmas Vacation where they Griswold’s are stuck under the log truck. I’ve known since Thanksgiving that there was a chance I would see my parents, grandparents, and aunt and uncle before Christmas, but when I learned of the snow storm building in the northeast, I was hoping for the best and mentally preparing myself for the worst. When I got up Sunday morning I actually called my parent’s house first before dialing their cell phones as I was certain that they’d cancelled their trip. But, as my mom said, my Christmas miracle arrived at midnight. Unfortunately, due to weather and immigration issues, our ship was not cleared (meaning I could not leave and no one could come on) until about 11:15 on Sunday morning. And because of the weather I had to have visitors off by 2:00 and be back onboard myself by 2:30. We delayed our departure until 5:30 so I really wish they had given me a few more hours, but I’m thankful for the 3 that I had. Since my family left, all of my friends have been telling me how cute it was when I met them at the gangway. They said I was so excited and looked so happy. People I’ve never talked to before have told me it was very cute. A girl told me tonight that she almost started crying when she saw my mom crying…I told her that would have been fine…I was crying too.

I brought my family to my cabin (yes, all 7 of us fit!) and we had Christmas before heading off on a ship tour. Looking back on it, perhaps we should have done the tour first so I wouldn’t have rushed through it so much…oh well. All I really wanted for Christmas was to see my family, but they brought presents too. A couple surprising things about my gifts this year: 1. I got more books than DVDs! (What?!?! Who am I? And I’ve read 2 of them in the 3 days I’ve had them.) 2. All of my gifts are bigger than my Christmas tree. I joked of rewrapping my gifts and reopening them on the 25th and a friend of mine said I’d have to stack the gifts up and put the tree on top of the pile.

Just having my family here for a little bit has made a huge difference in how I feel about being here. It’s almost as if this whole experience is more real now that I’ve shared it with them. Before I felt like I couldn’t talk to them about very much of it because I would have to explain so much, but now that they’ve seen it and know what I’m talking about…it all just makes more sense to me too. I know that sounds weird, but it’s true. I still can’t believe they were here. I keep looking at my pictures from Sunday and asking, “Did that really happen? Were they really here?” Now I’m even more excited for my parents to come cruise…and I think they are too. I still need to get my dad a glass elevator ride.

I’ve posted some pictures of my family’s visit and pictures from the last voyage.

Completely off topic: I am a third of the way through my contract.

Although my Christmas is already done, everyone else is eagerly awaiting Friday. As I thought about Christmas this year and how I would be away from my family (before I knew they were coming to see me) I was thinking about celebrating what Christmas really is. The “church way” to do Christmas has become to sing “Happy Birthday” and have a cake for Jesus. Yes, Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birth, but isn’t more than that? Or at least, shouldn’t it be more than that? The first Christmas was the start of something big and this world will never be the same because of it. Praise God that I will never be the same. Christmas changed everything. This season is traditionally a season of joy, but if the first Christmas had never happened there would be no reason for joy…ever. Life would be joyless. Hopeless. Christmas isn’t a celebration of a birth, it’s a celebration of life. If God hadn’t decided to send Jesus to earth there would be no hope for any of us. We would all be lost in sin and handed over to death. But Christmas changed everything. What we are celebrating this Friday leads to Good Friday…but it thankfully doesn’t end there. The celebration that started at Christmas will party on in eternity. Christmas is a celebration of love- God’s love for us. He knew the state of this world- He saw each of us in the filth that our hearts contain, but He loved us anyway. He loved us enough to send His son to eventually be killed by us, yet used as a sacrifice for us. Because of Christ we can have forgiveness, joy, and life. Because of Christ we have Christmas. Because of Christmas we have life. Christmas changed everything.

Merry Christmas!