Mietzke's Holden Adventure

What a magical night! The moon is full and the whole village has been singing and celebrating decorating Christmas cookies and visiting Chalets. There are candles ablaze in the snow banks. The Nativity is the quiet centerpiece of hope. It has been a busy Joyous day. With a reminder that humble beginnings can bring great light to so many. I wish that I had a way to bottle this experience and share it. It is like a story book Christmas. The snow glistens in the moonlight and those Mountains, so ominous such majesty towering over this little village. I tried tonight to capture it with my camera but there is no way to put it into film or words. I will have to be content just to have experienced it. The Christmas service was beautiful and the children sang in a way that would melt even the coldest heart.
We awoke this morning with Nyrie snuggling into bed with us. It is Christmas morning she whispered. (Whispering does not come easily for Nyrie.) Can we get up and open presents? So we rolled out of bed woke Jordyn, and the children began the unraveling of presents. It is our family tradition to open one gift at a time and honor the person doing the opening. Once you have opened a gift you go to the tree to pick out a present for someone else. It was a quiet, exciting morning filled with love. Jordyn and Nyrie made some beautiful gifts. It was our first Christmas with just our family. It was a precious time together. What a relaxing morning! Jordyn, Dave and Nyrie all got matching Carhartt work overalls and they are wandering about matching one another, and looking about as cute as they come! Jordyn and Nyrie have adorned their heads and necks with new home made hats and scarves from Auntie Tam and they are listening to new music on their walkmans. (I don’t have to listen to Russians by Sting every five minutes because the girls have headphones! Don’t get me wrong it’s a good song but even good things can be overdone.)
Dave made bacon and eggs for everyone while I sorted through the Christmas wrappings. I separated them into burnable, recycling, food compost, candy wrappers and re-usable items. In the village the garbage is dealt with very efficiently because we have to ship anything we don’t compost, recycle, burn or reuse down lake to be put in a land fill so we are conscious of every scrap of garbage. It is amazing sorting through things to realize how much you can actually re-use. It also is not easy to get things up here so you begin to think as you are opening presents, for example about Christmas next year and how if you are careful unwrapping you can use the paper again next year.
It was amazing to be unwrapping our presents sitting by a fire and looking out on the beautiful mountain landscape that fills our living room window. The trees and the roof tops covered with snow, smoke coming from the next door chimney. It is our own living Christmas poster. God is good! The only thing that is missing is all of you. Friends and family you are deeply in our thoughts and prayers this Christmas! Know that you are valued and loved beyond measure!



The thing that really struck me this year was the lack of commercialism, thus the lack of stress. Eric, the pastor, gave a great talk last night about commercialism and consumerism as a reflection of our human longing. We are all trying to fill a void in some way shape or form and many times that need supersedes what is truly good for us. My experience of myself in the preparation to come to Holden spoke to that. I did so much shopping to get ready for this experience, some needed, some not. As I got rid of things from our furniture to our home, and left friends and family behind, I wanted immediately to fill up again. I wanted to cover up or fill in the gap that the absence left. I was trying to buy the known because I was deeply uncomfortable with this adventurous unknown. I was trying to fill my void with the comfort of knowing that all my ducks are all in a row. We are all looking for comfort. My hope in this time is that I will learn how to be in the moment to really experience the losses and the things gained and will be able to live, even an uncomfortable moment with the knowledge that I have more in love than I could ever purchase.