A Welcoming Christmas in Québec

This year I spent the holidays here in Québec. I had the wonderful blessing of being able to go home for Christmas last year, but this year I did not quite have that privilege. I had been given the opportunity to go home, several people offered to pay for my flight, but I made it my choice to stay here. Some of my plans with friends here had fallen through and it was starting to look like a sad Christmas, but God turned things around in answer to several prayers.

I ended up being invited to spend a long weekend with a friend with her family in Toronto. She was leaving that Saturday and this idea came forward Thursday. It was a little bit of a risk taking this last minute trip, but I had no concrete plans for the days leading up to Christmas Eve, so I said yes. We left Saturday morning around 10:30am and arrived in Toronto 12 hours later. We did make a long stop to have lunch with some friends before we ended up driving through a snow storm. It was a pretty good storm where we couldn't see anything in front of us. We made it safely after waiting the storm out at a McDonald's. We were wonderfully welcomed by her parents and a cup of tea around the fireplace. It was a lovely way to end the long day. On Sunday I went to church with her and her parents, and then we went to her sister's house to celebrate their extended family Christmas. It was a decent sized gathering of 20 people including two toddlers and two babies. It was overall so warm and a fun time with their family. The guitar got pulled out as we sung Christmas carols in the living  room. I felt very welcomed into their family, and it was such a blessing to take part in their Christmas celebration.

My friend Lindsay and her parents.

The rest of my time there was spent doing some touring around the city and visiting some friends and seeing the new Star Wars, which was really good. It was very sad for me to leave because I hadn't felt so much at home with another family in such a long time. I was very thankful for them.

My friend Lindsay and I.

Christmas Eve brought me to the church for their service. The church had a nice program where the kids put on a small play of the birth of Jesus and the pastor reminded us all about the true meaning of Christmas. Afterward, many people stayed for a pot luck supper. It was really good to see so many people in the church come together for Christmas. Many of the people that were there don't have families nearby and so the church does this bring these small families together to create a large family. And it became a large family gathering with people mingling and group games happening later in the evening. It was a blessing to be there. 

Christmas morning was quiet for me, but it gave me time to reflect on the season and make myself pancakes for breakfast while I called my family. My friend Edîth from my English Conversation group had invited me to join her and her family for their Christmas Day supper. So I joined her that evening and spent the night with her as well because we didn't leave her parents' house until after midnight. It was a good experience to see a Québecois Christmas dinner with meat pies and soup for dinner and a traditional yule log for dessert. I enjoyed getting to know her family and play games with them and watch them exchange gifts. It was a little different type of Christmas than I am used to because they are not Christians, but I still felt very welcomed by them. Please pray for my friend and her family, that they will know the Lord.

My friend Edîth and her son. 

The next day I was again welcomed into a smaller family, a couple and their baby. We spent the afternoon together and had a second Christmas dinner together, it was more traditional with turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. We ended the evening with A Charlie Brown Christmas. It was a calm evening with them, but I am always thankful for the way this family from the church has welcomed me into their lives.

The following week was busy because we had a wedding at our church two days later, and two days after that was a  New Year's Eve party. The wedding was on a beautiful day when the sun was shining and it wasn't too cold, it had snowed a lot the day before and then it snowed even more the day after. Both her family from Québec and his family from France were there as well as many of their friends. And of course it ended in a fun dance party. Then two days later I saw a lot of the same people at a New Year's Eve party where we talked and played games all evening. It was a great gathering and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

My time here in Québec has been short and it will be short, two years is a short period in our lifetime. I am only in the lives of these people here for two years, I hope to keep connections with them but for now I am only living in their community for two short years. But what surprises me is how welcoming they have been. I could have been held apart at a distance because they knew I wouldn't be here for very long, but instead so many of them have welcomed me with open arms. The young adults here have invited me to so many of their events and parties, and I have been welcomed into several different homes of the church. This church that has welcomed so many different immigrants and families who don't have large families here, has welcomed me into their family, and for that I will be forever grateful.

This Christmas season might have been lonely and depressing if I had concentrated on the fact that I was not with my family in California. But God showed me that I have a family here in His church. I will be forever thankful for the small community of Christians that have welcomed me here in Québec.