blackrockbulletin: Adventures in Paradise 11

ADVENTURES IN PARADISE 11

Kia orana, everyone! Our excellent adventure continues with a focus on the spirit of Christmas. We have suggested that because there is no snow, or crisp weather, it just didn’t “feel” like Christmas. How could it feel like Christmas when our view consisted of palm trees, coconuts and rootsers on our lawn? What kind of holiday celebration focused on a picnic on the beach, we wondered. We have been reminded through the generosity of others that there is no particular look to the season, but there is an atmosphere here that is palpable. The people are happy and the children are excited. It seems that people get a little goofy here, as evidenced by the number of people we have seen riding on scooters while wearing flip flops, sarongs (women) and santa hats. We have seen children dressed up like candy canes and dogs wrapped in tinsel. We come home to find fresh produce on our doorstep and fresh flowers as well. We are trying to make room on our calendar for our invitations and feel blessed that no one wants us to be alone on Christmas. Our belated conclusion is that the Christmas spirit is the same where ever you are as long as you are surrounded by people you love. We are grateful to our Savior for the gifts that he has given us. We have heard the saying that “Wise Men Worship Him Still”.

Our sweet friend, Taina has totally planned our Christmas morning. I mentioned earlier, that we will have to move our massive (3foot) tree to the center of the room so that we can all dance around it before we open presents. She wasn’t clear on whether this was a one-time ritual, covering all the presents that are to be opened or would we have to dance before every present unwrapping? Perhaps the latter should be the case just so that we can work off the breakfast that she has planned. While I admit to being new to menu planning, island style, it still seems that our breakfast is a little over the top. We will start by baking the twenty-five pound ham that flew back from New Zealand with our friends. Taina wondered about having bacon as well, but I suggested that might be pork-overload, so that was cancelled. Fried eggs and omlettes, crepes, and homemade rolls are also to be included. I might add, here that the islanders think that the American way of having just one main dish per meal is odd and the idea of having only one or two veggies is stranger, still. So, on with the menu. I hope that you are getting a good mental picture of all of this. Let’s add two or three kinds of fruit, pork and beans on toast and canned spaghetti. Taina suggested that nine o’clock would be a good time to eat, as we would have time to prepare our stomachs for our next feast scheduled for one! We are all going to roll, or I mean stroll down to the beach with the candy from our Christmas stockings and enjoy the rest of the morning. Oh, yes the beach is part of most everyone’s Christmas plans here.

Ward and I will not be including any more photos of ourselves until well into the new year’s diet plan. Oh, my! Christmas day is to be capped off with a baptism that evening and you already know what that means in terms of refreshments! I am thinking that the new queen-sized quilt that I bought will make a lovely new dress!

We were sad to see that many of the large coconut palms that lined the road were being cut down.Why would anyone want to do that? Well, it seems that those coconuts fall onto passing cars, not to mention scooters and are doing major damage, so they had to go. Also in keeping with the subject of landscaping, we find this hard to believe, but no one here uses a lawn mower. They use weed wackers to cut a whole yard! So if you would like to try this method, you will need long protective clothing, some kind of head covering , gloves and goggles. As always, flip flops are the order of the day. In a place where time is not an issue, the idea of spending a whole day cutting the grass is totally acceptable.

Our Salt Lake ward has a tradition of sending a Chirstmas stocking to each missionary serving from our ward .Over the years, I have contributed some small item or note to be included in one stocking or another, but I had absolutely no idea of the impact it would make on the missionary who would receive it. Today, Ward and I had the sweet experience of opening our Christmas stocking package. While we do not wish to spoil our surprise, we were stunned to see how many friends thought to include something in our package.The stocking is beautiful and appears to be hand-made. On the front is a white wooly lamb, with the caption, “Feed My Sheep”. There is a gold star near the top and not only was the stocking filled with gifts and cards, but the whole package was filled with them as well. We look forward to some quiet time together on Christmas when we can read the cards and open our gifts from dear friends. We are so touched by this thoughtfulness.

On Monday, we held a special Family Home Evening with the Femone family. We read the Bible story and watched a dvd of the Nativity. We talked about shepherds and mangers and no room at the inn. After the movie, we dressed all the children up as shepherds and took a photo. I made six loaves of bread and we served hot bread with butter and jam and hot chocolate. The children learned how to make snowflakes. It was wonderful chaos. One of the young women who attended wants to start lessons with us this week! At the end of the evening, we piled thirteen of them into our van and took them home.We sang Christmas carrols all the way to their house. Oh, yes, we should mention that for this large family, there is no family car; only two motor scooters.

As always, there are more adventures that we could share, but they will wait, as we have a special Christmas gift for everyone. We found a Santa’s hat at the house and spent some time asking friends to put it on and let us take their pictures. Please enjoy these photos and our ideas of what would make good Christmas gifts for them.

As always we are happy and trying to work hard. We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We hope you have a lovely and peaceful holiday and please know that we are with you in spirit.

Love, Ward and Susan Elder and Sister Belliston, serving in the Cook Islands

It's days before Christmas

On our isle in the sea

Each person is wondering

What will be under the tree!