all I want for Christmas is you!

I am sitting here in a coffee shop in Phnom Penh, listening to some Christmas music I have downloaded on my computer. It's one thing that reminds me Christmas is in just a few days, even if it is 91 degrees outside and I am drinking iced coffee instead of hot chocolate or something else warm by a fireplace. I was just listening to "All I want for Christmas is you" by none other than Mariah Carey, and reminiscing of all of the past Christmases that this song brings back memories of. Two of my favorites:

1) Going surfing early morning in South Africa.... a few of my nursing friends and I would get up early and try our attempt at surfing a few mornings a week before class. One Saturday we went out and some of the other girls made breakfast for us when we came inside. I remember walking up the stairs of Langerry Holiday Flatts, hearing Mariah Carey blaring from the balcony, as the girls dancing around inside making french toast. I can still smell french toast, salty air, and the smell of the sun in that room. We sat on the the balcony in our swimsuits, ate french toast, and basked in the early morning sun and listened to Christmas music... it was so different from the Christmas seasons we had grown up with (in freezing cold Minnesota!) but I remember thinking I didn’t mind for that year!

2) A few years later, Michelle and I got the grand idea that we would bake Christmas cookies for our friends and mail them all over the county. I think we sent out at least 12 or 13 packages, with at least 2 dozen cookies in each... needless to say, this was no small task! We got everything ready; the boxes, fun tissue paper, addresses, and ingredients. All we needed to do was bake. Somehow we decided it was a good idea to start when we got home from Young Life club that night. It was about 9pm when we started baking... and I know we were up half the night trying to finish! We had candles lit in our cozy living room, and Christmas music playing- this song played over and over along with lots of others. We baked and baked and it seemed as though we would never finish... at times we looked at each other and wondered, "what were we THINKING?! Is anyone even going to care that we stayed up all night and baked for them?!" We had cookies covering our table, the floor of the kitchen, and the floor of the living room! The ginger snaps and sugar cookies were a big hit though... even amongst our guy friend who forgot to check his mail until after Christmas, and ate all the cookies about a month later! It's such a great memory that we have continued to look back on and laugh, and every time we hear this song, we say “Remember that year we made a million cookies?!”

As for this year, I may associate this song with the buzz of traffic in Phnom Penh, the heat, and sweat running down my face as I bake for Christmas on the outdoor balcony of my house. Maybe not 24 dozen cookies, but I must admit it’s not a bad memory for Christmas 2007.