giving thanks on November twenty-two

Words of thanks from Josu this week

"thank you, God for this food
that we have eaten for three days!
that is so crazy!"

we had a very nice Thanksgiving celebration on Sunday. Sitting all around my table there were:
friends,
family,
church family,
friends of friends

(just the way Thanksgiving should be)

Brett shared about some of the history of Thanksgiving,
Joshua asked some provocative questions about the concept of being thankful (he never disappoints!)
and we all shared about what we are thankful for (which is, in my understanding of Thanksgiving dinner, a given. All families, all over the united states of America do that, right?)

also, I think it should be known that I believe that pumpkin pie has never looked quite so good as it did with four candles poking out of the top!

Josu's almost four day

The oven technician came last night- - but didn't have the right piece.
In desperation I called my friend Ana and asked if I could use her oven for an bit
"of course", Ana said, "as long as you don't mind that my house is kind of a mess"
"oh, no, no, no . . ." I promised her "I totally don't mind"
(um, her messy house is cleaner than my just-cleaned house)

so I packed up my sugar cookie dough rounds and hung out at her place for a pleasant hour.

and this morning, (gracias Ana!) I had cookies to take to Josu's class; I actually got to go into the classroom and read Josu's class a book, and join along with the class in singing the happy birthday song, and watch Josu's sweet rosy face beam as he got the birthday crown and passed out the birthday treats.
(I don't think any Spanish mother in the history of the school has ever gotten to do that; I'm blazing trails here.)
To continue the celebration , Josu wore his birthday crown to the dentist office where he got two cavities filled - - without any anesthetic, I might add.
you didn't know that was possible?
neither did I.
the hygienist and dentist told me he behaved perfectly in every way
(I think it's because he's almost four)

the Simpsons are funny and all, but . . .

Josu's birthday is coming up.
The day of his birthday we are having a big Thanksgiving to do at our place; our Christian community will eat together and reflect on well . . .giving thanks . . ;we all have friends or family that we are thankful for, and we'll invite them to come and join us.
and there will be little time to focus on celebrating Josu.

Friday, though, I will take some birthday treats to Josu's school for him to share with his class. he asked me to make a cake with Bart Simpson - - "just like Stephanie brought for her birthday"; he showed me - - his tooshie pushed out, making a kissy face.
I said something like "yeah right, kid"

I'm going to make the cutest little sugar cookies with little faces on them. In fact, I was going to make them this afternoon; and then I found out that my oven wasn't working.

So we spent some extra time at the park,
where we played a rousing game of five flies up
(except for Selma who did her own thing)
this is Josu telling us all to go back, back, waaay back:
this is Joshua running in place because he knows Josu can't throw it waaay back:
When we got home from the park we called the oven technician, and he's supposed to come by tomorrow. I'll pay him anything he wants.
I have a turkey to cook on Sunday,
and cookies to bake before Friday.

can't you just see it?

remove bicycle.
replace with vespa:

apartment living in Spain

I suspect that the neighbors one floor down and one over kept pressing their snooze button between 6am and 7am

and that this resulted in the neighbor below us pounding repeatedly on the wall between 6am and 7am

which is why we couldn't sleep between 6am and 7am
and climbed out of bed tired and a little bit grouchy.

but we can break this chain reaction.
it doesn't have to go any further;
we choose.

Selma Rachel Smith
age: 2
race: human, (with suspected traces of elf)
occupation: garlic peeler extraordinaire

who am I? (and do I talk like it?)

Jaime, Miriam, Brett and I signed up for a 2 hour Senegalese cooking class this week (Joshua signed up to watch our kids).
Being a christian community in our local community, right?

Jaime and Miriam weren't able to come, but Brett and I went - - and then Rachel got home from her class and took over kid duty so that Joshua could join us.
We met Carlos and his wife Mar; and found out that they are neighbors of our friends Enrique and Marisol, and we met Sonia - - the head of immigrant awareness in our little city. we chatted a bit with them - - asking about who they are and what they do, and what other international food they have tried, where they have traveled. And we talked about who we are and what we do - - about what it is like being an American living in Spain, and about that horrible, horrible time that I forgot to buy bread when some Spanish friends came over for lunch, and of course- - about our passion for Christ and for his church

Brett came over to our place afterwards and we all spent a good while reflecting on our conversations as Christians within an unbelieving world; reflecting on what it means to be authentic Christ-lovers, speaking true to our identity; always,
all
the
time.

I think we need to be purposeful about it
and creative
and bold

It's hard work for me
because I think I have spent a good part of my Christ-loving life training myself to talk true to my identity only when I'm with other people that are also Christ-lovers
(it's so comfortable that way)

It's hard work
but I'm retraining myself
(I think this may take a while)
but I'm convinced.
it
must
be
done.

food, and the people behind the food

We sat down for lunch yesterday - - we were eating baguette sandwiches with jamon and sauteed green peppers - - and Malachai announced to us how much he loved Spanish green peppers, and mused abit about how much he had liked the peppers we had eaten when our friends Brian and Sarah visited us from Rome . And when Malachai volunteered to thank God for our lunch, he forgot to mention the food, but he did pray that many people in Rome would enjoy hearing about Jesus, and that "not just that, but that they would also get to enjoy the church with Brian and Sarah"

I layed in bed alone last night, thinking.
Joshua was dropping Brett and Isabel off after movie night, and my mind was racing, thinking about the events and conversations of the day. I remembered the green peppers and the memory trigger that the peppers were for Malachai - - and I realized the tremendous list of recipes that I have in my recipe book that do the exact same thing for me. I can't help but think of Caroline when make pizza dough, Catherine when I roast tomatoes, Whitney when I make green thai curry, mom when I make scones, Luke when the pasta maker comes out, Chris as I skewer the bb-q beef sticks,Ginny when I make those sugar cookies that the Spaniards always request the recipe for . . . (and that's the extremely abbreviated list)

I wonder what recipes you might have that remind you of someone you love?