'Twas the season

Christmas started for us on October 25. That was the arbitrary date on which we decided to start recording every package that arrived at the mission office. We (which is to say the person who processes all incoming mail, with tacit support from the rest of the office) developed a system over time. First we printed out a current phone roster for all the missionaries. When a parcel arrived, we marked their name with a green highlighter. Very early in the process, an email was sent to all parents, requesting that if they chose to send Christmas gifts, they send them to the mission office, so that the gifts would reach their offspring despite intervening transfers and any unexpected moves. We also explained this country's curious taxation system. If a package comes in marked "gift" the stated value may be up to 39 pounds before VAT is assessed (usually at a 20% of value rate, but it seems to vary depending on the weather and perhaps what the assessor had for breakfast that day). If "gift" is written in an appropriate size for the label, the powers that be ignore the designation, and treat the package as a commercial shipment, ie VAT is assessed if the value is more then 15 pounds.  Further, if the package was sent from the United States and the value is stated in US Dollars, the processors ignore the Dollar signs and act upon the sender actually declaring the value in pounds. We did not know all this when we sent out the original email - we just went with the law. It was only after a few lengthy discussions with DHL that I came up with the practical law - 1. Write GIFT in large letters all over the package. 2. Declare the value in pounds, not dollars, no matter what the label says.  I would also like to say declare the value to be less than 39 pounds, but that may not be honorable in all cases, but how about keeping the value less than 39 pounds, if you possibly can?

By two weeks before Christmas, we had a long list of missionaries who had not received anything, and a much longer list of missionaries who had. Then came the work. We wanted to make sure every missionary had something to open on Christmas day (or earlier if they so chose, of course) so we phoned the companion of every missionary who had not received anything. In the end we had several lists of missionaries who had received nothing through the mission home.

1. missionaries who were going home just after Christmas.

2. missionaries who had asked their families not to send gifts

3. missionaries who were expecting gifts which had not yet arrived

4. missionaries who had received gifts sent directly to their flats.

5. missionaries we knew would not receive anything from their families. (we did not phone these to ask them)

The office started piling up with packages, which we sorted into zones and stuffed into corners and empty shelves. We used the early December Zone Conferences to send out packages and clear the piles, but many more arrived afterwards.

Our next job was to buy appropriate gifts for each of these categories. List three changed every day of December as floods of additional gifts arrived. We were aided by generous donations of cash and gifts from families of missionaries and also from our own senior missionaries.

The Senior missionaries had a conference the week before Christmas, including a service project to sort and wrap gifts. The office sister missionaries bought vast quantities of Nutella and American peanut butter, also sour gummy worms. Families of missionaries sent us warm clothing items, seniors added boxes of sugary cereal, candy, home-baked treats and all sorts of other things to the pile.

At the last minute we sent a couple of senior elders to go acquire some shopping bags to put stuff in before we wrapped them--and they exceeded their commission! Specifically they brought back a pile of Christmas-decorated rugged shopping bags with handles, which after a brief discussion become the wrapping for the gifts. A chaotic and enjoyable time was had by the seniors as we distributed and packed the bags with assorted goodies.

The departing senior missionaries carried piles of gifts from the conference to deliver in their areas, and the Assistants took a road trip through Ireland, delivering all the way. Christmas Eve arrived, the Assistants returned, and they had forgotten just one gift on the Southern tip of Scotland near the ferry terminal. One missionary would probably have nothing on Christmas Day. It felt like Arthur Christmas revisited. Those missionaries are hours from anywhere. We could not reasonably take it there, so we hopped into our car for a 2 1/2 hour round trip and took the gift to the zone leaders, who agreed to make a four hour round trip on the afternoon of Christmas Eve (which fortunately was their Preparation Day) to deliver the forgotten gift. As far as we know every missionary, including all five categories above, received something on Christmas Day. The ones who were going home in a couple of days mostly received edible gifts from us; they did not need extra baggage. 

As part of the senior conference we also visited the "Christmas Market" in downtown Edinburgh. This is a much-celebrated Scottish tradition, and the one we visited consisted of many vendor booths selling food, souvenirs, artwork, clothes plus a fun-fair to keep the party swinging.

 We were both fascinated by the spinning tromp l'oeiel whirligigs. (The video below may be problematic but you can get an idea from this Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8HGvn5FFRI). We will be tempted to acquire one of these when we return to Provo (they are available on Amazon and are usually called "wind-spinners")

We also went to a local production of "Peter Pan and Wendy", where we much entertained by the cast in the theatre lobby before the performance. They took liberties with the original Peter Pan script and it was an enjoyable interpretation of a classic tale.

Meantime, our personal Christmas was quite delightful. We went carol singing with our old ward (Dalkeith) and visited a local care home and also our bed-bound friend. The ward and audience were fascinated by the Americanized version of Rudolph, with the extra bits shouted at the ends of lines (... reindeer games, "Like Monopoly", etc). One of our Elders (red sweater) was a bit of a showman and did them with enthusiasm, to the delight of the audience.


We received a lovely advent calendar from the Dalkeith Ward Primary, consisting of beautifully decorated, hand-knitted stockings (24 of them, baby sock size) and a sparkly red wash line to hang them on. The stocking came stuffed with candy canes and other sweets, scriptures, notes and drawings, and complete with little white wooden pegs for hanging them.  

On Saturday Dec 22nd we Facetimed with our family to watch them open their family gifts, and then they went off to give us our gift, a service scavenger hunt. They provided a video for us so we could enjoy the experience as well as the knowledge that they had done it. (video in this folder)

Christmas Day itself was quiet and pleasant. We went for a walk around Newhaven harbour, which we had not visited before. We enjoyed the lighthouse, although we were more fascinated by the "No Swimming" sign, yet more evidence of how hardy the Scots are, that such a sign is considered necessary! That "beach" is less than inviting.

The tide was out and all the boats were all neatly lined up along the jetties, on the sand with not a drop of water in sight. We returned a few minutes later, just after the tide had turned, to see water starting to lap against the nearest boats, and when we returned the next day, everything was nicely afloat. It gave us a nice image to go with Elder Cook's Conference talk in October 2015, in which he talked about "Ship-shape and Bristol Fashion." The ships need to be hardy enough and well packed enough to survive being dumped on the sand and tilted to one side.

Low Tide

High Tide (next day, other side of the harbour)

We then returned to our flat end enjoyed a nice roast dinner. We skipped the turkey and went with pan-braised lamb, augmented with lovely British veggies, including our favourite parsnips. We had purchased a traditional Christmas pudding, which is rich, and very fruity, and flavourful, and heavy, but in the end decided to save it for another day. We broached it on New Year's Eve instead, smothering it with excellent custard (Madagascar vanilla flavour!) and Scottish double cream.  

And speaking of New Year. Happy New Year to All, and to all a good ...something or other.