Christmas Celebration

For us, Christmas is about waiting for Jesus’ coming, his birth and more importantly, his Resurrection. Despite the image of prayerful contemplation, our lives have been a little topsy-turvy. The main events have been Xmas parties of all different flavors.
The first was the VA Xmas party. It was a dark and rainy night full of traffic and brake lights. It took us over an our to wind our way down to Federal Way to the Dumas Bay Conference Center. There was a buffet reminescent of Thanksgiving and lots of good company. The highlight of the evening was Irina’s and Henrique (?) salsa dancing. I’ve seen plenty of dance movies, but there’s something about a show in person. Those folks could dance. The moves repeated, but I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the intricate motions.
Next came the Deacon’s party, twenty families who serve our church, gathered together for a potluck and white elephant gifts. Sara was invited to this and joined by 10 other young kids. It was certainly lively. We continued a tradition. Last year, we received a ceramic black lacquer panther with jem glowing eyes about a foot in length and on a black stand with 3 holes in the base designed to hold candles. Corny was not the word for it. Worse still, it was cracked and chipped in several places. During last years gift giving, every male whose turn it was (so had the right to steal any gift) examined the panther, agreed the it’s corniness made it cool, and declined to take it off our hands due to it’s poor condition. So this year, Wayne was determined to pass it on. The panther stayed in the car. There was a cheerful box, nicely wrap, with a devious note inside representing the panther. Not till the end did it get picked by our host. He took it with good humor and agreed it will reemerge next year. Ahhh, traditions.
The next day, tragedy struck. While preparing for an afternoon and evening of festivities, we got a call from our nanny, Cora. She fell in a store and was headed to the hospital. While we were able to find a replacement babysitter, we are still looking for a replacement nanny. Cora is recovering from multiple broken bones and out of commission for awhile. We found emergency care for 2 weeks and then Wayne’s Mom will watch Sara for a month while we look for permanent childcare.
We joined our neighbors for a wonderful holiday gathering and got the bonus of meeting 2 couples from the block we hadn’t met before. There will literally be a new kid on the block for Sara to play with in a year or so. Next we headed to the U district sans Sara to meet Mike and Edith. We got to meet Mike’s brother and sister (Russel is legendary for barely surviving a flooding during a backpacking trip and losing his car for several months till a new bridge could be built. We enjoyed Pakistani food (not much different from Indian) at Shalimar’s. And then for something completely different, we enjoyed the Medieval Women’s Choir Christmas performance in the Suzzallo reading room. I’ve never seen an audience to quiet. This “reading room” is tall and gothic and beautiful, filled with stain glass and bookshelves about Fish Hatcheries (what was closest to me).
Finally, we bade Jon and Claire good Xmas with a meal of butternut squash parmesan bread pudding, spinach salad, and Xmas cookies (via Claire) on Thursday. We exchanged gifts (I got a cool basket from Germany along with books-Dark Tower and Radical Reformission by mark driscoll-and Wayne got coffee things-frother and espresso maker). This Friday, I attended Kellie’s party with musicians and friends and a gaggle of girls and got to enjoy a friend from church’s company. I also learned I don’t like mulled wine.