Christmas Dinner

Last evening the Bible study friends came for dinner. First Diann, with her yummy chocolate cookies and then a parade of bowls and baking dishes slid onto the kitchen counter. The kitchen filled with friends and their greetings. Can I help? Sure, put the butter on the dish, get the ice, lay out the silver, the rolls, the mugs... I felt like the kitchen was full of 15 of my sister Lulu putting the meal in order. Over dinner, it was gentle conversation and good, reviving laughter. Later, we gathered in a circle to talk a bit about Christmas and worship, exchanging stories... God is good. And collected money enough to send 2 goats and 2 chickens to a family without, somewhere in the world for our Christmas gift. After a plateful of dessert and more talk in little groups, we squeezed in and around the sofa while Larry stood up on a chair to get us all into a photo. Jill and I, sitting in the front, put on our party faces to diguise wrinkles. Then a flurry of finding coats, hugs, best wishes for Christmas and they were gone. It is a good, fortifying thing to know these women pray for me, for my children, for the days ahead we'll have at Christmas. It's a good, hopeful thing to know we'll be back together studying each Wednesday evening in the new year.

Not enough words

I'm reading a book by Marilynne Robinson titled "Home" --follow up to her (pulitzer) Gilead. The most sympathetic character is a feeble clergyman in the care of his single daughter. At one meal he prays "There is so much to be grateful for, words are poor things" -- (pause) "Amen." I love that because I often don't have the words to eloquently express my thankfulness. It brings to mind my favorite old story of listening to Jose Maria of Utrera say, "When we get to heaven and realize the immensity of what God has done for us, we'll spend the first thousand years saying --Gracias, gracias, gracias... "

China Review

Last week Larry and I got in a full week a intense grandparenting and some good time with Micah and Jodi! We stayed with Micah and family in Shanghai and got to know all four of the China Sittigs a bit better. Maryann, no surprise, was adorable. We cuddled her til she gave those sweet little baby coos. But despite all my typical grandparental enthusiasm, I never could seem to have the camera ready for her most hilarious smiles! She is a great little traveler all around town in her stroller and a content little sweetheart at home. We'd already been acquainted with Charlotte, of course. but this was the new, improved Charlotte, a real little person! We read countless stories on our bed, danced to her Elmo sing-a-long toy endlessly and had big fun rolling out Play-doh. She has an impressive attention span and we communincated pretty well, in spite of our dearth of Chinese. Jodi, was her usual warm and chatty self! Standing in the kitchen while she cooked up breakfast or digging into lunch with chopsticks at the table, we traded stories back and forth companionably. We learned about her plans ahead, her hopes for the girls, bits of Micah news... Most of our Micah time was spent over some yummy, memotable meals too. We heard about his studies ahead, the ins and outs of being the science chair/teacher at school, and watched him be the instructive, patient, "funnest" dad around. All in all, we came home with a better sense of life in Pudong --in the small 10th floor apartment, at the market with Jodi, on the playground with the girls and with Micah at school. It was a good trip.