Christmas Cookie Exchange!!

So this lovely Friday I have been preparing for this evening's event, a cookie exchange. It has been a very very trying adventure. I usually only bake one of about five different items and although they are delicious, none of them would be classified as Christmas. So I searched high and low for Christmasy cookie recipes. So technically it is my own fault that this day has been so hectic for everyone knows that you never use a recipe for a public event that you haven't tried at home first.

So my first great disaster was the Easy Coconut Macaroon recipe. The only ingredients were shredded coconut, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and almond extract. Mix and spoon drop on to greased pan and bake. Sounds so very easy. So I followed directions and instead of the beautiful light brown mounds emerging from my oven I got flattened out gooeyness with burned bottoms. No one wants to eat those, so I made an emergency call to Kristi and she suggested I add an egg white to the remaining mixture. I did and the remaining mix made 6 beautiful macaroons. Not really enough for a cookie exchange, but enough to take and eat.

The second almost disaster was a Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookie. It was so runny that I had no hopes that it would solidify into cookies that one could actually eat, but they sort of did. Each cookie is a little more sticky than I had hoped, but they will do.

The third disaster slash mistake was my Oreo Snow Balls. Everything was going well until I began to melt the white chocolate to dip them into. This is when you realize that shelf life of products does matter. For when I tried to melt the first package of chocolate in the microwave instead of melting it sort of crumbled into a pile of white crumbly stuff and then proceeded to burn. It was really gross. So I used the other package on the stove this time and had a relatively good amount to use for half of the balls I had made. Once it was all used up I had to use the baker's chocolate. I forgot that it was unsweetened. So the other half of the snow balls are very dark chocolate flavored. I will take them to the party but will have to warn everyone regarding dark dirty snow balls.

My fourth disaster, Mocha Crinkles, will be the least noticeable at the party. Something went terribly wrong with the dough. It was supposed to be kept in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours until firm and able to mold into balls. I kept it there over night, assuming that more hours would mean firmer dough. However, it was the most sticky dough ever and it was disgusting. I had to put it in the freezer for several hours and then could only roll four cookies at a time before re-freezing it. It was a very slow process. The end result isn't too bad though.

I am finished and awaiting the time to go to the party and I am tired. And my baking self esteem is a little low. Tragic.

Weirdness Come to Life!!

So, I put up my little Christmas tree last week and it is so sparkly and happy and bright. I know that many of you have huge, beautiful, real Christmas trees and I am so very happy for you. Each ornament I placed on the tree had special significance to me. Most of them were from my parents. But some of them were gifted to me from very dear friends. As each one found it's own little resting place the tree became less and less a tree and more and more a reminder to me of how wonderful life is and how beautiful each one of us is to make our life, by adding our own little characteristics to what would be an ordinary life. Our little quirks and idiosyncrasisms are God's way of making each one of us special and beautiful. I am so very blessed to know so many weird and lovely people and I know that it is because of the weirdness around me that makes me happy.

Yesterday, I was walking down this little street and two little girls were standing on the side of it and as I got nearer to them one of them said hello to me. This of course is not an unlikely thing to happen to me, but this day it tickled me pink and so I said hello back and I smiled to them in my best friend smile. I continued to walk and when I got about ten paces past them I turned around and both girls were giggling and still watching me, so I waved and both little girls smiled and covered their enormous grins with their hands and as I turned back to continue on my journey all I could be was happy. Each of us giving a bit of brightness into the others life-but this would never have happened if we hadn't let in or out our weirdness.

Think back over your life and picture those you love the most the ones who have placed superior knowledge into your mind, the ones who have made you laugh so hard you almost peed your pants or had food squirt out your nose, what about the ones who know you so well they can tell when you are not doing well just by looking at you, or the individuals who you don't really know very well but stick out in your memories as one who knew who he was, and lastly those who made you realize that you were not insignificant. Each group made a very important impact in your life and why was that? Because they embraced what was special and let it out into the world to make it a better place.

Just like my little metalic green pickle ornament, it is special not only because it is a pickle and those are my favorite food but also because of the weirdness of it and because it was given to me by one of my favorite people, it has character and makes my tree a more beautiful species because it is hanging there.

Or take my tree topper, possibly the most simple of all tree toppers, a star cut out of cardboard and wrapped in smooth tin foil. WEIRD right? But I will let you in on a little family secret, we have always topped our Christmas trees with tinfoil covered stars. They are beautiful, in such a simple way. Every year my daddy writes the year on the back and every year my momma says that we should get a new topper. We always disagree about it and daddy always places the star in its rightful place. Our family star was made my my daddy and so was mine. My star is much smaller than our family's but it suits my tiny little tree just fine.

I am thankful for the weirdness of my Christmas tree and the things that it reveals about me, my family, and what is important to me. I am proud to exhibit my weirdness here in China. Where everyone values the ideal of being exactly like everyone else. But although there is something to be said for the ideal and value of conformity I must say that what my heart desires is to be known in all my uniqueness, even if it is weird. Because I know that the one who made me this different is pleased with my little weird bits and He wants me to live joyfully.

I was once accused of hiding myself from the world and although the bleakness the world often exhibits can be quite daunting I hope that in my desire to make each day I live in a more beautiful thing that I embrace the bleakness and instead of hiding from it I give my all to it.

May that be Chinese classes, volunteering at the rehab clinic, or interacting with the neighborhood children-my all.

Official December Newsletter!!

“And I pray on Christmas, He’ll get me through another day.” Harry Connick Jr

The climate in Kunming is considered Mild and compared to you all in Chicago, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Colorado, Missouri, and Nebraska it is. However, having no in-door heating does take a toll on a girl and so I have finally turned on my heated floor. It is a genius piece of technology. A very thin patch of plastic encases a heating element and it lies directly on my marble flooring and when I plug it in and turn it on it can heat my floor up to 45 degrees Celsius. I am also debating on whether I will take a heated pillow to school to sit on or not. It is so much fun to bundle up in winter coats, sweaters, socks, boots, and such. Once the weather began to cool down I began to have the Christmas jitters. Anxious to listen to Jingle Bells, drink hot chocolate, bake cookies, and celebrate the life that gives True Life.

I have been feeling recently that my contributions to the world are vastly inferior to what they should be. In fact, going about my daily life of school, language helper, homework, the occasional social lunch or dinner I have felt that I have or am letting you and my Father down. I am not an asset. I suck air. I give nothing back into the larger whole. Life constantly gives me struggles and I am only just getting by. I have seen the Goodness of His hand in the lives around me and even in my own life and feel unworthy of it all.

Sharing those feelings to my small group of close friends here I was reminded of a few very important points. 1. My feelings are not always a reflection of what is real. 2. I am not just getting by, I am being prepared to be more successful in the future. 3. Father cares and thinks the day to day activities in our life are important. 4. When I continue to be obedient to what He has asked of me I cannot be a failure.

This time of year is one in which we all look back over the year and give Thanks for all the wonders that have been done for us, ask for Forgiveness for the failures that we have been a part of, and Request that our future may be in step with His will for us. Maybe you have been feeling like I have; that you are not fulfilling the expectations you had had and you never will, or perhaps you are also overwhelmed by the goodness He has showered on you but cannot accept that He wants those good things for you. Have you too forgotten Whose you are?

Those are Lies.

So this Christmas, please walk with me back to the Stable where an infant lies in a feeding trough and lets gaze at Him there. He is lying there because He desires us All to be free from all those lies and to be filled with a Joy that announces that we are free from sin and in every moment of every day we will cling to the Truth that He Lives so that we may also Live.

Joy Joy Joy is what I wish for you this lovely Christmas Season. Thank you for all your faithfulness in regards to me, whether in material or emotional support. You are truly a blessing to me.