We suspect that Christmas in Coimbatore is different from Christmas in Killarney. First, there was no holly green or ivy green in India that we saw. We can't kick our heels and join the fun with the jigs and reels, either! But, Christmas in Coimbatore was great. Of course, we missed our family, but we were blessed to be with good friends. We had been invited to someone's house for Christmas Eve, but those plans fell through. We were left without anyone to spend the evening with, so we were disappointed with that. We went to the church in the early afternoon. President Arul (Branch President of 2nd Branch) and his wife were at the church, so we invited them over to our apartment for Christmas Eve. They and we filled a gap in each others' evening celebrations. We were so happy that they came. They helped us prepare the dinner. We had roasted chicken breasts, mashed potatoes with gravy, lemon and oregano green beans, cranberry sauce, and a salad made from broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, onion, green peppers, and raisins. The dressing for the salad was made from mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, and mustard. The dinner was wonderful, and the company was great! We had cheese cake for dessert.
We felt very different waking up Christmas morning with just the two of us. We have not been alone Christmas morning since December of 1973 when we were newly married. Each year we have taken a family picture on Christmas day (mind you, I think we missed a couple of years as the family became so big). From our first Christmas together to before we came to India, the number of people in our Christmas family picture has gradually become larger. We can't say the same for the number this year. It abruptly changed from a large crowd of people to the two of us. To make us feel not so alone, we held our family picture up to be included in our Christmas picture. Our family may be many miles from us, but we hold them ever so close to us.
We had only a few presents under the tree this year. We didn't have much time to shop for presents, and shopping for presents is not very convenient. Any stores we would like to go to are far away, and we need to get our driver to take us there. We are not even sure what stores we would like to go to. We are gradually learning of more stores that we shop at. Elder Tiefenbach received a new camera from Santa this year. We appreciate the camera that our daughter, Sheri, lent to us while we are in India, but it was starting to give us problems.
Sister Tiefenbach received clothes.
And more clothes - you get the picture. Santa is always wonderful to Sister Tiefenbach.
Elder Tiefenbach also received an ebook entitled, The Guardian, by Gerald Lund. He is enjoying reading it in his spare time. It is about a girl who receives an old pouch for her birthday. She realizes that the pouch has great powers to help and protect her in her life.
For Christmas day, we had two appointments. First, we met all the missionaries at the church so we could all travel to President Raghu and Sister Nancy's house for lunch (big lunch). Elder Ram and Elder Vaiphei had some Santa hats to share.
Elder Ram also shared a huge snickers bar with everyone.
Elder Ram is SO dramatic! We are thankful he put a plastic bag under the chocolate bar before he started cutting it. We have great fun with the missionaries.
We all jumped on a bus and rode to President Raghu and Sister Nancy's house. President Allwyn and his family were also there. President Allwyn is Sister Nancy's brother. They made a lot of food. We couldn't believe how much the missionaries were capable of eating. The other missionaries got chicken biryani and other Indian dishes. Sister Nancy and Sister Sonia made special food for us. Sister Sonia made a delicious pasta dish for us. We also had a feast of fresh vegetables. We were grateful for their consideration and making us something that was not spicy.
Elder Challa took advantage of the pre-dinner conversation to catch up on some sleep. We always enjoy our conversations with Elder Solomon. He is a pleasant, polite missionary.
This is President Allwyn and Sister Sonia.
At 4:30, our driver came to pick us and the sister missionaries (Sister Jebamani and Sister Madabuthula) up to take us to Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi's house.
Again, we had the Santa hats! And, again, we had chicken biryani. We were quite full from the lunch meal, but we ate some of the food that she prepared. Sister and Elder Tiefenbach had to ask for some plain curd to lessen the impact of the spice, but other than that, the food was good. The young boy in the picture is a neighbour. Brother Raja is a painter by trade. He painted the inside of his house for Christmas. This is quite the task because often he had to paint at night when his work was over. This meant that many times he had to paint by the light of a candle. He is quite pleased with the results. The new paint gave their house a nice face lift.
Brother Raja had painted the kitchen earlier in the month. It, too, gave the kitchen a fresh look. Here is Sister Sumathi as she made the final preparations for our meal. She was not expecting this picture to be taken. Sister Tiefenbach called her name and took the picture when Sister Sumathi turned around. Sister Sumathi does not have a refrigerator, so when we asked for plain curd, she had to go to the small store next door where they store her few items that need refrigeration. This family has been so generous to us.
We ended our Christmas appointments with Sister Mary on Thursday. She also is generous with us. She loves to have us come. We love to visit with her. Whenever we visit, she insists on feeding us. On Thursday, she had two of her cousins helping her prepare the food. Her daughter, Sister Shanthi (back left), joined us later.
We are so grateful that the Lord has placed so many loving people in our lives when we are so far from our loved ones. The gift of all these wonderful people will always have a special place in our hearts. We have one more precious gift from Heavenly Father this year - the birth of our 18th grandchild. We would so much love to be there to hold her, hug her, kiss her, and sing to her. We will miss that. But, we are grateful for modern technology that helps us to be part of her life, and we are so happy that we could share in her life from the beginning. What greater gifts could we receive than all this? The Lord has truly blessed us.
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