Merry Christmas

"Merry Christmas," he said. "Merry Christmas," I said, twinkling with a smile, as I hung up the phone.

There's nothing like saying Merry Christmas to remind you that yes, it is that time of year. To tell the truth, despite the fact that I had just gone caroling prior to the phone call, it didn't really feel like Christmas. The weather was warm, I was still teaching swimming lessons in the afternoons, and I was so busy with the preparations for Christmas that I almost totally forgot about Christmas itself. This past week has been full of Christmas activities: wrapping gifts from the hogar on Sunday night, practicing for a Christmas Day talent show, making cookies for the kids, going caroling to the houses within the hogar, going caroling with the kids outside of the hogar, cutting out snowflakes to make the cards for each child in our house, wrapping the gifts from us on Wednesday night, and writing daily Secret Santa notes each day. Add the fact that I was gone most of Tuesday to get my visa from San Salvador, and you can imagine that I was pretty busy.

All this busy-ness helped distract me from the fact that Manuel is gone. (Manuel is often referred to as my Manuelito in my photos.) He left last Thursday afternoon, but I didn't find out about it until last Friday night. The sad thing is that it took me that long to notice that he was actually gone. I guess it's understandable, considering that I don't usually eat meals with the boys, he's not in my work group, and he's not in this rotation of swimming class. But still, I don't like the fact that the last time I remember talking to Manuel it was to tell him that he couldn't come to the pool the following Sunday because he didn't get out of the pool on time. And that was a good four days before he left. I nearly cried when I heard the news. Why hadn't I known? Why didn't anybody tell me? Why didn't we do something to say goodbye to him? It was just so sad. But little Teresa, bless her heart, she's the one who told me about it, and when she saw that I was about to cry, she comforted me and talked to me about it. I found out later that night that Manuel will be coming back to visit today, so that helped make things easier to bear. But this has helped me realize one thing: make the most of every day you have with these kids because they're not going to be here forever and neither are you. You never know when they're going to step out of your life and never come back.

Last night I thought of Manuel again as we handed out gifts. His gifts were there with the others, just waiting until he could come back to get them. The kids were so excited to get their gifts. Mami and Papi had all of the kids sit in a circle, and told them all to applaud as each person received a gift and to say "Thank you" and give hugs to all the adults when they got a gift. Alexis and I handed out the gifts that had been bought by the hogar and then handed out the gifts we had put together ourselves. Little Jimmy, Mami and Papi's youngest son, was certain that he wasn't getting anything because the hogar doesn't buy gifts for the children of the Mamis and Papis. Papi even told Alexis that Jimmy could help hand out the gifts. But Alexis wouldn't hear of it. She just kept telling Jimmy to sit in the circle, assuring him that he had a gift. And as all the kids were given their gifts from the hogar, Jimmy remained doubtful. But when he saw that he had received TWO gifts, he was excited. (Hmm, many devotional parallels to be made here...) It was so fun to see to kids get their gifts. For the most part, they were very thankful. Moises even gave me an extra-long hug and a kiss on the cheek. He made my heart melt, the little sweetie. After opening the gifts, we blew up some fire-crackers (scared me half to death, so I lit some myself just to say that I did) and then I went over to House 1 to celebrate with Elizabeth. We read the Christmas story out of Luke 2 as well as Matthew, lit Christmas candles, opened a few small gifts, and played Go Fish and Old Maid. It was nice.

So here I am, lucky as can be, still glowing with the happiness of Christmas, and yet I get to go home in a few days and experience it all again. I am really looking forward to it. To you, I wish that all your Christmases may be as joyful and as full of love as mine has been. Merry Christmas.