Choir Christmas Concert, decorating our house, and getting ready for Sinterklaas

After choir concerts on Monday and Tuesday night (they went very well), a whole play day with the Cairo Homeschooling group in Al Rehab on Tuesday, and a choir party after our last concert, I woke up on Wednesday to my body telling me to take it easy for a day or two. Too much sun, running around, standing up or walking had made my ankles, hands and even face swollen, and I was tired. I spend all of Wednesday at home, catching up on school work with the boys and housework, but when I woke up on Thursday I still didn’t feel much better, so I took a day off completely; I let the house fall apart, did most of the school work supervision from the couch with my feet up, the boys had Hardees meals for lunch, and we ordered Papa John’s for dinner when Courtney came home from work. On Friday I felt as good as new. We had brunch with friends at the Maadi House in the morning, and then we went to pick up a Christmas tree, or rather, a Christmas Cypress at Midan Degla.

When I was little, we didn’t decorate our house until the night before Christmas Eve (which is when the Swedes open their presents – it’s the first of three days of celebration). On first of advent, my mom would put out the Advent wreath, our Advent calendars and hang up lighted stars in the windows in our rooms, but that was all. The rest of our Christmas decorations – and we had a lot – came out the night before Christmas Eve, when my dad came home with the tree. My mom would be preparing some of the Christmas food already – the ham, most notably – while our house was being transformed: shelves containing photographs and memorabilia would turn into winter landscapes with cotton for snow and little Christmas creatures – Swedish ‘tomtar’ (santas )and trolls – and in the center we would have a large nativity scene with the three wise men, the shepherds, the sheep, the angel, the stable, the animals and Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. My mom would change all the table cloths and curtains, and put out hand sewn family Christmas table cloths and curtains, change our bed sheets, and decorate everywhere. When the tree was finished, the star placed on top, and all the candles lit, we would sit down and taste the Christmas ham; ham sandwiches with mustard and tea. Then my dad would pour himself a cognac, sit down in the family room, turn on the radio, and at midnight we would all listen to the Christmas concert broadcast every year: a famous Swedish opera singer would sing ‘Oh Holy Night’, and my brother & I would look out the window into the pitch dark woods to get a glimpse of Santa. According to the Swedish pagan Christmas tradition, this night is magic, and my brother would be a little worried that our cat, who went outside, and who acquired the ability to speak on this magic night, would go tell Santa about his mischief. It would always seem nearly impossible to fall asleep on the night before Christmas Eve. I’d lie in my bed, looking at the star in my window (it was gold and red), glistening crisp snow in the bright moonlight outside, the Advent calendar empty, and this was my very favorite moment; the night before Christmas filled with anticipation of what was to come.

Since Courtney’s family, and most families in Belgium, decorates their house beginning of December, we’ve reached a compromise; we get our tree on the weekend of St. Nicholas. Hence yesterday was our big day of transforming the house. We don’t have a ton of Christmas decorations, but when I looked around last night while helping the boys set their shoes outside for Sinterklaas, I thought it was beautiful. I could tell the boys were very excited when they went to bed. They don’t have a star in their window, but their very own Christmas tree in their room, and when I checked on them a few moments after saying good night, I could see William was already out – he has the ability to fall asleep in an instant – and August’s eyes were slowly closing as he was gazing at the tree. Both boys were smiling.