Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Maryland!
Our long anticipated flight home was delayed in Rekjavik because of a howling blizzard. I love snow, but when it interferes with my travel plans home, it is not appreciated. We were afraid that we would have to camp out in the airport all night instead of enjoying our nice cozy beds at home, but after six hours of waiting they boarded the plane and sent us on our way. Petra and I were met at the airport by three overjoyed people: Mom, Dad, and Paul. We have spent some wonderful days here at home enjoying family, friends, and mom's wonderful food. We were planning on going to Maine to spend Christmas with Paul's family, so we had our own family "Christmas" on Friday. Unfortunately my dad had a bad cold, and by Sunday he was still quite sick so we had to cancel our trip to Maine and just Pet and Paul went up.

Today, Christmas day, we have just been relaxing and goofing around with my mom and dad. I gave my dog Tinka a bath for her Christmas present (I don't think she enjoyed her Christmas gift as much as the rest of us; she was starting to aquire quite the scent!). I showed my mom and dad some of the pictures of my trip to Africa. I think they were a little homesick for the good old Malawi days, and they enjoyed seeing the African floura and fauna. My mom and I have been doing some cooking today too. I made bread and my mom made our traditional Danish Christmas meal of nut roast, potatoes, rodkal and of coarse risalamande. It is great to be back in a first-world kitchen, after cooking over the open fires in Tanzania. Nothing beats cleanliness and an electric oven.

I have missed my family so much these past months. Often I would sit and make up long lists of what I could do during Christmas, but now I don't really care what I do, all that matters is that I am with my family. It is so great to be back home. Have a great Christmas!

Content

I'm back in the land of gross consumerism from the poor, yet happy continent of Africa.
Believe me, it was total culture shock to walk down a crowded Danish walking street and see all of the stores with an endless variety of non-essentials. People bustled about the shops trying to figure out what to buy for Christmas for the friend who has everything. You could see them puzzling over whether to buy a silver plated toothpick holder or an electric knee warmer for their loved ones. There was no end to the foolishness.
The Tanzanians were so content and happy all of the time, even when they had no running water or electricity. It didn't matter that they ate ugali and beans three times a day (if they could even afford more than one meal), they still always had a smile on their faces and a song on their lips.
It makes you ponder sometimes what you really need to be happy. It doesn't matter how many possessions or money you have, you can still be discontented. The only source of true contentment can come from God. Have you found the Source of true contentment?