Sandy Christmas

Although sledding, snowball fights, and cross-country skiing are all fun, since they are not available in Bontoc, we decided to come down from the mountains to enjoy the warmer temperatures and beauty of the beach.  For the past few years Christmas has been spent at the beach in San Juan, La Union.  Once again it was beautiful and relaxing.

Much of the time was spent playing in the pool.

Annalise even learned how to swim this year. She has been close to doing it for a while, but our life in the mountains does not provide many opportunities for her to practice and gain confidence.

The beach was lovely too. All of us had fun playing in the waves and digging in the sand.

And of course, the beach is always a great place to go for a walk. It is amazing how few people were on the beach. Whether playing in the South China Sea or strolling the shore, we almost felt as if we had it all to ourselves.

Every year we have been at the beach, we have enjoyed the company of new friends. This year, two of the families from the Family Discipleship Training School in Baguio joined us. We enjoyed the fellowship with the parents while our girls enjoyed having friends to play with.

Johan and Eva, from Sweden, suggested that our three families reenact the Christmas story on the beach. In the shade of the palms, I read from the Bible while others acted out the story. Our family's tradition here has been that we read the story on the beach, but this is the first time we acted it out. It is also the first time it has been accompanied by translations into German and Swedish.

Our angels announcing the birth of Jesus, (with sand in their toes).

As our time at the beach drew to a close, rather than being sad, we were filled with excitement because our travels were not over yet.  We left the beach and traveled to meet with friends at Valley Cathedral Children's Home.