Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Budapest! December has been a wonderful month full of the excitement of Advent and the festivities surrounding the birth of Jesus. We have kept busy here in the Prőhle-Koranyi household. It is now New Year’s Eve which means a new year will be starting soon, full of surprises and experiences of its own.

Advent. I have never celebrated advent nearly as much as I have this month. Advent to me was always that thing we did at church when we lit a new candle every week, but that was it. This advent, everywhere you go, you see advent wreaths both large and small. We had an advent wreath on our dining room table and each Sunday, we would light a new candle, sing a few songs, and pray (depending on who was home at the time). I actually only got to experience this once throughout this advent season, but it was very special to me. We also had an advent wreath at the school and every Thursday (I’m not sure why on Thursday), we would light a new candle and sing together during one of the breaks between classes. It was so random to me, but also something I looked forward to. I mentioned in my last post that our family went to the lake for the Advent Weekend. This marked the start of advent and prepared us for the season to come.

Shortly after this (actually the very next day), the Goulash Gang (YAGM Central Europe) hopped on a train (or a few) to Szálka . We traveled to this small village near Szekszárd, Hungary where we stayed in a quaint guest house of a winery – complete with a vineyard, cats, and a pony. This was were we had our Advent Retreat. We spent the week in deep conversation and prayer, while also sharing laughs, songs, and hugs. We took a “leisurely stroll” through some mud, walked to lunch each day, decorated Christmas cookies, made Christmas cards, and much more. It was an awesome week spent together.

Two weeks of work later and all of a sudden, we are on Christmas break until the 6th of January. On the final day of school, we had a small party for the teachers complete with a performance by the 5th graders! I received a number of gifts from both fellow teachers and the school itself which truly warmed my heart. This same day, my oldest host sister Janka came home from Germany after about 2.5 months of being gone. It has been so nice having the whole family here for the holidays.

The week surrounding Christmas was busy: performance at the church where my brothers go to confirmation, seeing Handel’s Messiah, a Bach concert, a sand-art version of The Nutcracker, lots of church, Christmas eve festivities, lunch at the Prőhle’s, lunch at the Koranyi’s, touring Pali’s winery, a hike, and my host mom’s birthday! Christmas eve was very special though. This is the day that the angels bring the tree and gifts as a surprise for the family. In the evening, we shared a big Christmas meal complete with wine soup, turkey, mashed potatoes, and more. We sang around the tree, read the gospel in both Hungarian and English, and opened gifts. It was such a special tradition to be included in and I will remember it forever.

As you can tell by now, this holiday season has been busy, full of plenty of new experiences and traditions. Homesickness was still very present through this all but I am grateful for these experiences and people. Sziasztok!