Merry Christmas
>> 22 Dec 2008
Hi folks
Just wanted to wish you all a very very Merry Christmas. Hope you're all enjoying the time of year and are looking forward to tucking into some turkey, pulling some crackers or whatever it is you might be doing this Christmas.
This will certainly be a very different Christmas for us, being the first year we're away from the UK and away from our families but we've tried to enter into the Christmas spirit here in Dhaka. Even as we write this posting we're listening to "Santa Baby" on our Christmas albumn and we've put up loads of decorations in our flat.
We've managed to have one Christmas dinner and 2 mince pies, so we've not missed out entirely but they've not quite cottoned on to the concept of bread sauce yet!
We've also been to 3 carol concerts; one of which was at the British High Commissioner's House last night, so we felt very privileged to be part of that.
We're actually off to Sylhet, which is the tea garden region on the East of the country for Christmas, with our local church. There's about 70 of us going, of which most will be Bangladeshis but there'll be about 10 of us Bideshis (foreigners) tagging along. I'm not sure we'll get the traditional roast turkey and Christmas pud with brandy sauce but there might be a few carols to sing along to. We've found out that there's a Bangla version of Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Silent Night, so it might not be so different from home after all.
As we're packing ready for our Christmas trip we thought we'd share what Christmas means to us. This year, more than ever Christmas means family. Over 2000 years ago it meant the start of a new family for a young couple Bethlehem. About 30 years later it meant the start of a world-wide family centrered around Jesus, which we're blessed to be a part of and which means so much to us. In 2008 it means sharing a bond of love with the ones closest to you, even when they're thousands of miles away.
We sincerely hope that Christmas means as much to you as it does to us.
Lots and lots of Christmas love
Andy and Nic xxxx
