The doorbell woke me from nap time (M slept on, I’m thankful, he needs his rest with his little fever) I ran to the front door first, no expected delivery person, then ran to the back door, almost banging into B, who was nearly finished with his independent homeschool work. It was my friend C.
C works at collecting bottles, sometimes we give her a lift to the grocery store when she has way to many bags full to carry. I loathe the beer smell when it’s beer bottles though.
She is from Greece, and some of her children live in a town close enough to visit by bus. She loves to buy my children presents. Every year she walks by the community garden and thinks about starting a plot, but neither the $10 fee, nor the offer of a free spot since she can’t afford the plot appeals to her. She loves to work on new English words, and was delighted that my husband knew just enough Koine Greek to learn how to pronounce her name more accurately from seeing it written in modern Greek letters. The different alphabet was off-putting to her when she took ESL, besides the rest of her classmates spoke Kmer , Spanish or Portuguese, so she felt left behind. My mother has offered to work with her more, we’ll see. She doesn’t feel comfortable with free things.
I made her some cocoa, I had some tea. I defrosted some Christmas cookies, she liked the gum drop cookies that were my grandma’s recipee, they are like chocolate chip cookies, but instead of vanilla, they have cinnamon in the batter, and instead of chocolate chips, they have walnuts, crumbled boxed mince meat, and spice flavored gum drops in them. They have sort of that old fashioned/Scranton PA flavor to me.
I showed her my photos from my trip to China on the computer, she admired how the boys have grown since we visited last, we talked about the weather, then she took her leave.
I’m glad the scripture says to practice hospitality, not perfect entertaining. This was less stressful than setting out the good china and making things pretty. (I’m too pregnant to reach the good china right now, and was too groggy from sleep to think of it at the time anyway). I’m glad I have a freezer full of cookies though!
I too appreciate the focus on hospitality instead of entertaining with a perfect home.
Blessings,
Annie