Well this Christmas day was pretty much the worst one we’ve ever had. I mean, Christmas in general was wonderful. The weather has been lovely, our families gave us very generous gifts, and it has been very special for us to have only each other to hold on to this year. But Christmas day itself was a real bomb.
It all started first thing in the morning. We had made a chocolate pudding the night before. Jessica was going to teach children’s church and it was going to be a special treat for the kids. But there’s no instant pudding to be found on this island, so we had to try to make the kind that you boil and let sit overnight. Well, the pudding didn’t have the same thing in mind, apparently. It didn’t set at all. So when we woke up on Sunday morning we only had a big pot of slightly thick chocolate milk. And like the
fool that he is, Ben said, “Well, if we start the day this early with something going wrong, then we can only go up from here!” Yeah right!
So we rushed like mad to leave the house. Not only did we need to find an open convenience store and hunt for a pudding alternative, but we had to get to the other side of the island to pick up a woman and her daughter who needed a ride to church. We picked up both and headed to church, but halfway there we got a flat tire. Now, Ben had just replaced a leaky tire the Monday before and hadn’t yet got a new spare. (Six years of driving in CA and I’ve never had a flat. But within six months in Malta, I’ve had four.) Stranded and embarrassed, we had to wait for someone from church to come and pick us all up.
Finally we made it to church, pleasantly surrounded by the family of God. It was pretty much the only good part of the day. Afterwards, someone gave us a ride back to the car and dropped us off with a spare tire as well. We were on our own for the rest of the day.
The afternoon was slow. Jessica took a nap and Ben played games on the computer. But Jessica woke up from her nap in the early evening with a real bad case of the shivers. The weather’s never terribly cold, but the houses here have zero insulation, and the humid air sends the coldness straight to your bones. She couldn’t stop shaking, so we cranked up the propane heater. Now we had been warned of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning with this type of heater, but Jessica was freezing so we decided to sit her right in front of it on full blast. It cured the shivers, but the direct fumes from the heater made her nauseous. She got sick to her stomach. We turned off the heater, bundled her up, and sipped water slowly. Dinner was late on Christmas night as we waited for her appetite to return.
In the evening we talked with our families on the phone and shared pictures over the internet. Our families were at Ben’s uncle and aunt’s house for Christmas. It was wonderful to talk with them all together, except for the end of the conversation, “Okay, kids. We miss you but we have to go open presents now. Merry Christmas!” We tried not to feel overly depressed. But the day really stunk.
But then fast forward to New Year’s Eve… the best New Years we’ve ever had! We were invited to a black tie dinner gala by a friend in the church whose uncle is part of the Lion’s club here on Malta. It was outstanding! It was held at the luxurious
Casino Maltese. There was our friend and her boyfriend, two of her cousins, one of whom brought a girlfriend, and another young couple from the church. The nine of us sat at a table together with our friend’s mother, and I think we were the only people there under 40, maybe even 50. But don’t get me wrong, those older folks really know how to party. There was plenty of champagne, silly party hats, noise makers, and great live music.
There was one appetizer of wild boar with pear chutney, and another of bacon wrapped prawns. Then some pink champagne sorbet to cleanse the palette before the arrival of the filet mignon that was wrapped in filo and topped with wild mushroom sauce. Mm-mm!
We counted down to midnight on the dance floor. Balloons fell all around us and were popped loudly by dancing merry-makers. Everyone gave the classic European kiss on the two cheeks of anyone standing nearby and said, “Is-sena tajba!” There was more music and dancing for the next two hours, and things were just winding down when we left.
We’d never imagined that New Years could be so fun!
Click here to check out the pictures we posted on our gallery. We hope your Christmas was much better and your New Years was even half as fun as ours were. May God bless you with the nearness of His presence in 2006!
