We instructed all our children not to send us any packages this year due to the unreliable mail system in Malta. Most of them obeyed, however, Shane ordered something for us on Shutterfly. Last week, while we were in Rome, he sent us note indicating that it would be delivered that day. We were not home and did not receive a notice, so we were worried about it being returned, as this often happens here. After tracking the package, we found out the address was incorrect. Shane made significant efforts on his end to locate it, and we did a lot of work on our end until we finally reached someone the UPS office. We immediately drove to the UPS warehouse by the airport and upon entering we saw dozens of disorganized piles of packages with no front desk, so we approached the first worker we saw and showed him our tracking number. I was skeptical about how they could ever find our package, but five minutes later he returned with the package. It was a miracle that they found it! We were thrilled! This would be our only Christmas gift this year. Exciting!
We had a lot of fun with our English Class on Monday night. We had a Christmas themed lesson, with Christmas idioms, Christmas vocabulary words, Christmas dinner conversations, Christmas caroling and a Christmas video. I even brought individually Christmas wrapped mint cookies for each of them.
For our FHE Mission Zoom meeting, we were treated to a musical number by these talented musicians with our own Elder McPhie at the piano.
Beck’s invited us and all the missionaries for Christmas dinner on Christmas day and I volunteered to bring the dessert, so we figured Christmas on a mission was going to be easy for us this year. All we had to do was make a dessert and show up. But the closer it got to Christmas, the more I felt like we needed to find out if there were any YSA’s who would be alone and needed somewhere to go. I just kept feeling prompted that we needed to have a dinner on Christmas Eve and invite all those YSA’s who had nowhere else to go. We finally broke down and sent out an invitation to everyone and made a list of people we thought might be alone. We were worried that there could be up to 20 people and where would we put them all in our small apartment? But then we found out that several of them were going to be out of town on Christmas and a group of them were doing their own thing together. We were relieved when only seven of them RSVP’d that they were coming. Nine of us would fit nicely around our table and we could have a lovely small intimate dinner getting to know each of them better.
But then we found out that no one had invited the missionaries to dinner on Christmas Eve! We were sure people in the branch would invite at least some of them, but no one had! The more we thought about it, the more we realized that they too were YSA’s who were homesick, missing their families and needed somewhere to go. So we broke down and invited them to join us. Now the numbers were up to 17. We had to change our plans for an intimate dinner around the table, to pushing the kitchen table against the wall and having everyone sit on the couch and chairs and eat on their food in their laps. Then the missionaries asked if they could bring their friend Juan because he would be alone and would have nowhere to go. We all love Juan and we figured we had just enough chairs to fit one more person, so we reluctantly said yes. Now we were really maxed out!
We went shopping on Monday and the grocery stores were wall to wall people! We had to visit several supermarkets to get everything we needed. Then we decided to purchase a gift to give each of the YSA’s. We drove to downtown Mosta and found some beautiful scarves and neck wraps to give to them. We hunted down gift bags and bought some chocolates to throw in with them. It was a lot of work, but we thought they would all enjoy receiving a gift. Some of them were from countries that didn’t have a tradition of giving gifts and had never received a gift in their lives. So we hoped this little something would be meaningful for them!
Then on Tuesday morning, Christmas Eve day, we got a text from the sisters telling us that Cristian had nowhere to go on Christmas Eve and could we invite him. He wasn’t a YSA and I didn’t feel like we could possibly fit one more person in our small apartment. But then I thought about all the wonderful things Cristian does. He is always helping the missionaries, and he is willing to help out anytime we need him. We couldn’t turn him away. I told them to invite him!
This made it necessary to make another trip to downtown Mosta to purchase an additional scarf. We were overwhelmed with all the preparations for the party, but it ultimately proved to be entirely worth it. At the party, Elder Parkes shared a spiritual thought and asked everyone, "What was the best gift they had ever received?" Various responses were given, but we were particularly moved when Shunem shared that in her country, Pakistan, she only received money from her parents each year. However, she knew their housekeeper needed the money, so secretly gifted it to them and then had to make sure her parents didn't find our or she would get in trouble. This act was truly heartwarming. But then Cristian said that the best gift he had ever received was being invited to our home to spend Christmas Eve with us, and we were all brought to tears.
Christmas Eve with our little tree. We put a crackling fireplace on the TV with Christmas music and it was lovely!
We had so much fun! There was such a beautiful spirit in our small home with all these wonderful people! It didn't even feel crowded! One came late and two others didn't make it, so we're glad we didn't turn anyone away!
We had a great time eating, playing games, sharing a spiritual thought and singing Christmas Carols!
Singing Christmas Carols! Elder Grinceri introduced us to Aussie Jingle Bells!
Francesca came so late, only a few people were still here. She brought us a big gift basket full of goodies!
This is our traditional sit in front of the Christmas tree picture.
When we went to bed there was only the Shutterfly box from Shane under the tree (plus the leftover YSA gifts from the party.) We have a tradition of eating little cereal boxes for breakfast on Christmas day, so I set the cereal boxes under the tree as well. I was quite surprised when I got up in the morning and saw another small gift under the tree! I couldn't figure out how Steve could have secretly purchased a gift for me since we are together 24/7! I was even more surprised when I opened it and saw what was in it.
He had purchased the necklace I was admiring at the Christmas Market in Rome! While I was shopping in IKEA and I thought he was down at the snack bar, he was actually racing off to the market to purchase the necklace I had been looking at. What a fun and wonderful surprise for me on Christmas morning! He's the best husband ever!
Christmas Breakfast!
We purchased ties, scarves, chocolates and other Malta memorabilia for the missionaries and wrapped them in these cute bags. Surprisingly, tissue paper isn't a thing here! I searched high and low in Malta and Italy and it's nowhere to be found! So, I had to improvise. I used dinner napkins, and they turned out quite cute!!!
Beck's House was exquisitely adorned for Christmas.
Christmas Dinner was delicious! The Becks went all out! They had ham and about a half dozen side dishes, including Steve's favorite pistachio salad! Sister Bennett made her amazing Hawaiian sweet rolls.
We brought our traditional Death by Chocolate in the clear bowl we brought back in our suitcase from IKEA!
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Sunset over the Sliema Harbor on Christmas Day
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After dinner, we played a few rounds of Codenames! It was fun to be able to play with the missionaries! They usually have to work all the time, so this was a rare event for us!
When it was time to leave, the missionaries were surprised when we started pulling presents from under the tree for them. Not only did we give them gifts, but also the Beck's gave them presents and the Relief Society President dropped off presents for them as well. Their parents aren't allowed to send them anything for Christmas due to Customs charges and the difficulty of getting things mailed to Malta, so this is all they got. I was so grateful for the generosity of the sweet members of our branch who bought something for each of them!
The nice thing about the huge time difference between here and the USA, is that we can go to Christmas dinner for several hours and get home at 9:30 and still have time to Zoom with the family! It was so great to be able to talk to all of our kids together on Christmas night!
After our family Zoom, we had a one-on-one video call with Shane and opened his present. We were thrilled that he had made a photo book of their trip to Malta and Rome with us. What a thoughtful and amazing gift! So fun!!!
The rest of the week has been pretty laid back. Other than a few missionary Zoom meetings and YSA meetings, we didn't have a lot going on. It was nice to have a few days to relax a little after a very busy month of nonstop activities. We even had time to watch a couple of Hallmark Movies and go out sightseeing!
This is what they call the Top of the World! We live very close to here and we had heard about it but we had never taken the time to drive up and take a look. It was a bit windy, but the view was beautiful!
We also took some goodies to a few people in our branch. These are the Jackson kids. They were making gingerbread houses when we dropped by. So adorable!
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