In Cayman there is something called “the Christmas breeze.”  It’s this magical time of year, usually beginning late-November on into December, when the temperature hovers in the mid-80s and there is a steady cool breeze blowing over the island.  I’m sitting in our breakfast nook looking out the window enjoying the breeze blowing through.  It just dawned on me that this is what Christmas feels like to me now.

I love living in Grand Cayman. It’s felt like home for me and my family since the first day we arrived. The people of the Cayman Islands–especially First Baptist–have everything to do with that. In our experience, you won’t meet warmer, more hospitable people.

The first couple Christmas celebrations in Cayman took a little adjusting, though. Our first Christmas came 24 days after our son Titus was born. What a blessing it was to have such precious gift from the Lord in our home. My mother and mother-in-law were here with us for most of that December, blessing us in hundreds of ways as they helped out with the family.

The other Christmas celebrations required us to adjust to the weather. Somehow “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” just doesn’t fit in a sunny, 80+ degree climate. Even more incongruous are the inflatable snowmen in everyone’s virtually beach front yards.

But this year, I think we’ve finally settled into the Christmas routine of Cayman. It was perhaps the most “full” Christmas we’ve had in some time. There was a beautiful candlelight Christmas Eve service at the church, following a Christmas lights tour of the island. Christmas morning featured a little family time before going over to the church for the Christmas Day service. Nice time at home afterwards, and a lovely time at dinner with a large family. Had may favorite–Cayman beef, a traditional Christmas meal here. Yeah, I’m used to that! Another trip to a Christmas light show then back home for movie night with the family. This year we watched The Soloist, largely because the girls received a guitar and violin as gifts. (Movie review: Apart from a few scenes with profanity, a moving story about a homeless musical prodigy befriended by a L.A. Times reporter; one that touches home for me because of an uncle with similar mental health challenges).

But now it’s Boxing Day. I’m still getting accustomed to Boxing Day. It’s a bank holiday in the U.K., New Zealand, S. Africa and a couple other countries with Christian histories. Here’s part of the description from Wikipedia:

The name derives from the tradition of giving seasonal gifts, on the day after Christmas, to less wealthy people and social inferiors, which was later extended to various workpeople such as labourers and servants.

The traditional recorded celebration of Boxing Day has long included giving money and other gifts to charitable institutions, the needy and people in service positions. The European tradition has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown and there are some claims that it goes back to the late Roman/early Christian era.

In the United Kingdom it certainly became a custom of the nineteenth century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their “Christmas boxes” or gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year on the day after Christmas.

The establishment of Boxing Day as a defined public Holiday under the legislation that created the UK’s Bank Holidays started the separation of ‘Boxing Day’ from the ‘Feast of St Stephen’ and today it is almost entirely a secular holiday with a tradition of shopping and post Christmas sales starting.

Being new to the holiday (the U.S. doesn’t celebrate Boxing Day, so unless you live near Canada you probably get no exposure to it), I must confess some conflicted opinions of it. On the one hand, I’m all for a holiday dedicated to serving those who serve us so faithfully. On the other hand, though, the celebration after Christmas still seems to put such people “second” in the season. To the non-initiated, it feels like saying, “Happy Belated Christmas.” That works with birthdays, but feels odd with Christmas or demonstrations of appreciation. And now, the holiday appears to have become primarily about shopping and sales after Christmas.

Nonetheless, I’m the guy coming from the country that doesn’t have a similar day. So, I think it’s up to me to learn more and give more during this holiday.

If there are any readers out there with Boxing Day experience, what’s been your best Boxing Day memory? Or, how should a novice like me serve on Boxing Day?

Yesterday we celebrate Remembrance Day in the Cayman Islands. Remembrance Day commemorates the courage and sacrifice of those fallen in war.

Yesterday, the Lord granted me the privilege of observing seismic historical changes in the Cayman Islands. The country celebrated the adoption of its new constitution, replete with new authority, new political positions, and some continuity with previous ties to England. The constitution modernization process also included a Bill of Rights, identifying 19 basic human rights for people in the Cayman Islands.

Writing or editing a constitution for a country is arduous and at time precarious in any county. But I was struck at the clash of ideals that often occurred in this process. Ideas have consequences and one could see that as issues like marriage and public education were discussed.

“Free and democratic elections” is a phrase typically volleyed about when some country is under military occupation or a “regime change” is in order. Significant numbers of countries around the world do not know either free or democratic political processes. And many others who attempt it seem only to vent violent opposition.