Merry Christmas!

Over the past week I've been receiving numerous Christmas emails wishing me and others success and warm fuzzies this holiday season and in the upcoming year.  Wonderful sentiments and warmly reciprocated but I've found that these don't really provide me with any sort of template to send to all of my friends and family whom I've been communicating with on a weekly basis.

This is my last Christmas in Azerbaijan, but in some ways it feels like my first.  Last year, Christmas was more a frat party than holiday, a house party filled with new volunteers drunk on the freedom granted by a house with no Azerbaijani influence; waking up to piece together unremembered conversations and broken household items.  I remember in Sheki asking a couple people if they wanted to skip the mass group going to lunch so we could clean the kitchen-its not often I pass up fast food chicken for kitchen cleaning, but that night messed with priorities.

This Christmas, in contrast, was a true family Christmas.  12 other people joined Glendene and I in Khachmaz for relaxed holiday.  We threw a classy soiree and found ourselves going a little adjective crazy with the menu:

Hors D'oeuvres:
Potato Pancakes with homemade applesauce and creme fraiche
Mulled Wine

Main Course:
Rosemary Roasted Chicken in Root Vegetables
Oven Baked Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese
Winter Carrot Beet Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Desert:
Pumpkin Pie
Savory Apple Pie

And we spread a table that truly looked like a traditional Christmas feast, from the lit candles to the origami stocking place cards.  We were joined by our fellow North Finger Volunteers with a few others traveling from different regions to join us.  Rather than having the biggest party this year, we ended up having a Christmas surrounded by those friends that have become our family thus far into service.

As I grow up and my life unfolds, I become more and more grateful for the occurrence of these type of holidays.  I always want to be with my family in Colleyville on our major holidays, but part of adulthood means making decisions that prevent this hope from materializing.  Whether through work, marriage, or international travel our lives take paths that don't exactly mirror our family's.  I've been lucky enough to find out that this doesn't mean the holiday simply doesn't happen, it just happens with a different, more expanded definition of family.

I know these Christmas wishes are coming a little late, but New Year's is right around the corner (...*ahem* and my birthday).  I hope that you found yourselves amongst those you love this past week, whether or not they happened to be your family.