BEYOND ADVENTURE: Extreme Gap Year - My Journal

Tue 25 Dec 2018

I wake up, way too early in the morning, to the sound of heavy rainfall. I can tell it's early because it's dark outside. I reach for my phone and look at the time.

01:20.

What?! It's still soo early? I can't fall back asleep due to the excitement and decide to look at everyone's statuses on Whatsapp. After what seems like hours, I look at the time again.

02:00.

Stuff this. I can't wait any more! I get out of bed and walk silently over to my cupboard. I let a friend on Whatsapp, who couldn't sleep either, know that I was gonna sneak my parents gifts in under the cross.

Yeah, we don't use a tree. We use a cross and decorate it with lights.

I take out the gifts for my parents and sneak out of my room into the passage and out into the lounge area. Using the torch from my phone, I make my way over to the cross and place my gifts gently on all the other gifts already waiting there from last night.

My parents have always done that. Made sure that we're all in bed before they bring out the gifts and pack them around and beneath the cross standing on a table.

Not looking to see which gifts are mine, I stand back and send my friend a pic of the gifts I snuck in...

I return to my room and try once again to fall asleep, but can't. Or so I thought...

I wake up to the sound of my brothers' excited voices in the passage.

Agh... I groan. The boys barge into my room with my dad behind them.

"Happy Christmas, Happy Christmas!!!" They shout out.

I open my eyes and look up at their excited faces.

"I'm coming!" I say calmly. I sit up and reach for my 32GB stick with all the Christmas music videos I've collected. Most of them from La' Orchestra's Epic Music Christmas songs collection. I walk out toward the lounge. I walk over to the t.v., everyone already seated on the sofas, my brothers nearly jumping out of their skin with excitement. I plug the stick In and sit down next to my father. He opens in prayer, thanking God for the wonderful day he has created, and on a day that reminds us about the greatest gift he has blessed us with. Jesus Christ his son. Whom he sent down on this day, to save us in the future. My father thanks God that he did die for us and blessed us with eternal life, joy and salvation. After he thanks God for the gifts and that everyone else in our family and close to it, be blessed, he says AMEN. We all say "Amen" in unison.

I switch the t.v. on and play the first video on the list, "Carol of the bells" by Lindsey Stirling. I switch it softer to background music as my dad starts handing out the first gifts to the boys.

Just so you know, I know the gifts I'm gonna get, and that's why I'm writing about today. It's the things I need for Beyond next year. So, my dad hands me the first gift. My hiking bag.  He hands out here and there to everyone. All the gifts I het are expected and I'm Happy, until I get a thin rectangle that feels flexible.

I have no idea what this is... I open it and am very surprised!  The only pirate at the party and Lindsey is in front. "Her book!" I say excited and surprised. I've been waiting for this book soo long!

My dad tells me that this book had to be ordered from England since it wasn't available in South Africa and it was also out of print.

I put it in the box where all my other stuff is in and accept the next gift. This one is in a rectangular box shape and feels solid. I open it up, and get even more surprised. "The complete collection of Narnia?!" I look shocked. I remember looking for the collection at Bargain Books and most of the books were not there, so it was clear my dad had to have ordered that too.

I accept the next gift, and it's wrapped oddly. It feels heavy too. I open it. It's a 30M water resistant watch! Yay! I was wondering if I was gonna get one for Beyond, and now I have!

My dad hands me a medium sized box and I tear off the paper. A Pampers box???

"Hey mom!" I say excitedly. "I got pampers!"

She laughs and I open the box. What I see inside blows my mind. I'm speechless as I remove what I've wanted for soo long but knew my chances to getting it were slim. The Cheshire Cat plush toy from Alice in wonderland!

"No way... you got it!" I say soo happy.

"You'll never believe what a mission it was to get that," my dad says, serious. "You know Uncle Rick? He was actually the one who helped us get a hold of it. I asked him if he knew where I could find it, and he offered to go take a look in Japan. Guess What? Nothing! It wasn't there. I then found out there was one in New York and Uncle Rick offered to go get it since he was flying that way anyway. So he got it all the way from New York Disneyland and it flew with him in the cockpit back to South Africa."

"It flew in the cockpit?!" I asked amazed. "That's soo cool!"

I also received a cup from my youngest brother, since he accidentally broke my cup. But I love this one more! It's my favourite colour and it has my favourite animal. Brown with owls!

We all received our gifts and we were all happy for them.

I took all my gifts to my room and arranged them on my bed for a photo.

~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆
We go to Mall of the North for lunch and then head back home. Once at home, I start packing my bags and my dad helps out, but not everything is done completely. I will pack it better sooner, when everything is available.

We go out to go and bless a less fortunate family down the road with a Christmas groceries hamper bucket but they are not there, so we go back home.

We spend the rest of our Christfest in each other's company and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Happy Christfest everyone!!! Hope you had a marvelous one as well.

But remember, it's not about you, it's about the one who came to save you for eternity if you believe it. He loves you all very much!