Best New Year's Ever

Confession: New Year's Eve is my least favorite holiday.  So much pressure, so much expectation! Due to many lovely friends, I've managed to have many lovely evenings ringing in the year.   

But this year, ringing it in in Myanmar?

Hands down.  Best, ever.

It started with a series of competitions,

 in four teams [Matthew, Mark, Luke & John],

 with baskets put on heads

 and people put in sacks. 

 [Shout out to Betsy, who took what was supposed to be my race,
and killed it for Team Luke...]

 It was intense,

with massive cheering for each team screaming from all sidelines.

[Luke!Luke!Luke!Luke!]

The events closed with the

 "run down the track and back 

 and blow this balloon until it pops" races

 for which everyone gathered around in anticipation.

[Confession: I failed this challenge completely.]

 The grand finale was when they sent the babies down the track,

causing us to hoot with laughter.

Through it all my girls helped me understand who was on our team,

[Luke! Luke!]

and had themselves

some fun.

Then, it was time for the campfires.

 Each team got its own,

 along with a table to dance on

and a big bowl of buhti dough.

 The big kids fried up what had to be hundreds of little cakes

 ["Sister Laura, take picture!"]

 while the little ones got bleary-eyed

with sleep.

And while we waited, 

 we had ourselves one heck of a time.

There was singing,

 there was dancing,

 there were conga lines

to show the other teams what was what.

 There were boys dressed as women

leading their teams in loud and raucous music making,

along with instruments I have never even seen.

I observed it all 

 with this little one,

 who needed some entertainment in order to stay out of the fire.

 What she really wanted was that buhti,

 which she ate [and generously shared with me]

with great abandon.

And as the night wore on,

 as the sounds of celebration echoed down the corridor, I thought:

 These people?

Know how to party.

[I thought: Best New Year's ever!]

But once the buhti were fried, the night was not yet complete.

 As we waited for the changing of the day,

 we watched a little Frozen,

along with a musical number from the staff
[plus little {wide-awake!} Mary and a resident dog]

that had the children screaming with delight.
And then, as the minutes ticked by there were skits by the older boys, which I couldn't understand a word of but had the children in hysterics.

I looked around, and soaked it all in.

Finally, as the last minutes drew close, we were reminded of
2 Corinthians 5:17 as we embarked on a fresh year
[In Christ the old has gone, the new has come!] and then gathered around in circles and prayed, a chorus of voices calling out to God
for all of His goodness and all of His glory.

We counted down [to 10, not from!], and cheered as the buhti was distributed, hot chocolate poured out, a new year begun.

In the best way ever.