Christmas in Croatia

A lot of people know how we spent our Christmas and new year's this year, but I thought I would write about it anyway.

Since we are going on home assignment to speak in U.S. churches April through June this year, we couldn't justify the extra expense of flying home for Christmas, too. However, we didn't want to just sit home alone in our tiny village for the holidays, either. We checked around about our options, and we're so grateful that another missionary family, Dave and Betsy Scott, in Zagreb, Croatia, invited us to spend Christmas at their home. We timed our trip so that we would overlap with them for a few days before Christmas and over New Year's Day. In between, including over Christmas Day, the Scotts spent in Hungary with some friends of theirs and we watched their apartment for them as well as did a little touring around the country.

Thus, Christmas was filled with mixed emotions for us. We were excited to see a new part of Europe and experience a new culture for a few days, eat new foods and see some picturesque scenery. We were also excited to get to know our new friends better and enjoying a lot of social time with them and their two fun children.

At the same time, we were sad about not being with our families on Christmas for the first time ever. This was compounded by the fact that the day we left for Croatia, Andrew's dad, Loren, had a mild heart attack and was hospitalized in Colorado. Over a few days of excellent medical care, it was discovered that he needed a quadruple bypass. He had surgery on Christmas Eve. All of Andrew's extended family happened to be in town for the holidays, so they all spent most of time at the hospital, and his family ended up having a very abnormal Christmas with most of their planned activities being cancelled.

It was a special gift on Christmas Day to be able to Skype with Andrew's dad and see that he was sitting up, talking and exceeding expectations on his healing process. He went home a few days later.

We have GREATLY appreciated everyone's prayers and support for Loren and our family and for us during that difficult and sometimes scary time.

Several funny things also happened to us on Christmas Day. Nothing about our holiday was going to be normal, and I wanted just one thing to be the same as at home. Andrew's family has a tradition of making pigs in a blanket on Christmas morning for breakfast. This is when you put small sausages and cheese inside rolled up canned crescent roll dough and bake it. I was determined to make this at Dave and Betsy's on Christmas morning.

The day before, we rode the tram to the grocery store. I couldn't find canned crescent roll dough, but I did find strudel pastry dough. I figured that would work just fine. I picked up a package of the cheaper dough that was in a blandly printed wrapper.

So, I was very surprised on Christmas morning when I rolled out the dough to find out it was NOT strudel dough, but instead it was sheets of paper-thin phylo dough, which is used in layers to make baklava. I was dismayed but determined to go ahead with the pigs in a blanket anyway. I managed to roll up the dough around the cheese and sausages, and hold it together by moistening the dough with water from the sink. They were the weirdest pigs in a blanket ever.

After breakfast, we decided to watch one of Dave and Betsy's movies. We settled in our pajamas onto their couch to watch on their TV. About halfway through the movie, we heard a key in the front door lock. Then we began to hear the locks clicking. We froze, wondering if it was actually another apartment we were hearing, and then realized it was ours. We thought something horrible must have happened and that Dave and Betsy and their kids had driven back early on Christmas morning because of some crisis.

I stood up to pause the movie as I continued to hear locks clicking. Then I turned around ... and screamed. A strange woman standing in the doorway to the living room also squealed in surprise. Then she threw her hands up and in very apologetic tones began to babble something in Croatian. We explained that we only spoke English. She didn't speak English. We all laughed but were all very startled and disturbed. The woman finally said "Merry Christmas" several times, backed out of the apartment and locked the door behind her.

Andrew and I looked at each other and said, "Weirdest. Christmas. Ever."

Later we learned from Dave and Betsy that this was probably their landlord who knew they were gone but didn't know they had houseguests while they were out of town. She must have heard the TV on and had come inside to turn it off and check things. Well, we all got the surprise of our lives.

New year's eve was very fun! Our friends were back and they made a fun dinner, then we settled in to watch the movies Thor and The Avengers. At midnight we had to stop because the city had erupted into so many loud and flashing fireworks that it sounded like a war was going on. We couldn't hear the movie. The cacophany of bangs, pops and explosions went on for a good 15 minutes at least. Then it was over.

We flew back home the next day. We are so grateful to new friends for opening their home to us and making it possible for us to travel a little bit to distract ourselves from the fact that we weren't at home with our families. It will definitely be a Christmas we will remember for a long time.