Christmas Season with the Gilmores

My teammates gave me a very special gift, before Christmas even came!  That gift was welcoming me (and others) into their family's celebrations in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  There are some holiday traditions that just don't work if your try to do them on your own!  So thank you, Gilmores, for making this year's Christmas season that much more special and meaningful.

Tim, Chris, and their kids have a tradition of celebrating Advent, and this year they opened up their family's Advent times to others on the team.  What generosity!  I was thrilled, remembering Advent readings and the candles in a wreath on my family's dinner table long ago.  Each Friday before Christmas I went to the Gilmores' house, where we all sang Christmas carols together and reflected together on our amazing God who entered the world as one of us so he could save us.

The youngest kids got to light the candles!

As Chris says, I benefit from preparing myself, through times like these, to celebrate Jesus' birth.  And uniting with others creates a more vivid experience.

Then the family invited a few of us girls to come caroling with them!  They like to show up singing carols at their teammates' houses one of the nights before Christmas.  (I was completely surprised both my previous Christmases in Musoma.)  They wear scarves and act like they're shivering, standing outside in the cold... even though Musoma temperatures never dip below the 80's (F)!  Again, I was excited to join in the fun.  I discovered that they also sing carols non-stop in the car between houses!  We had a blast.

Outside the Nicholls' house

We loved seeing everyone's reactions.  I think our new families were touched by getting something familiar in a strange place (that doesn't feel very Christmas-ey, to be honest!).  The kids were always excited--or baffled, in the case of the youngest ones!  And we will not forget Elisa K, shrieking her delight as she bounced in her father's arms!


Tim and Chris Gilmore and their kids Camden, Tirzah, and Braden are such a fun family, and they have always lit up my life in Musoma.  (I introduced them in a newsletter three years ago.  Wow, the kids were so young!)  Thank you, my friends, for being family to all of us.

Current photo, lifted shamelessly from facebook