Advent, Christmas prep, and movie night.

Monday, December 9, 2019
I feel tired but much better - until after my first morning meeting. Then a stomach ache hits - I need food, I guess. I have a bit of oatmeal but I'm nauseated and my stomach hurts. My mom taught me to work when sick - it makes us focus and passes the time. So I sew 6 pillows to cover the rest of the porch furniture. There's some batik left, so I grab the throw pillows that don't match and finish off 5 more throw pillows.

DONE! That looks better and I get ready to put the Berninan away. Except there are 2 more floor cushions for BIC to cover. They've sat in the corner of my office for 2 weeks. Well, while the sewing machine is out, I might as well do them, too. I cut 2 zippers to size and finish up. My stomach ache is almost gone.

Tuesday
Our tree is filled with ornaments gifted by friends here and Seattle. I love the mix, including the puppets that were given us our first Christmas. Most of our ornaments are on the trees at BIC, but there are plenty.

Every morning, I hang another ball with a December date and a scripture verse on the tree. We're almost halfway to Christmas ...   

We cancel the weekly team meeting: most of the team is away. We go into town to pick up some ingredients to cook for movie night tomorrow. The steps that span the train tracks are steep and short.

They are are corroded at the sides and on the risers.
We make it safely across to the food wholesaler. Waiting in line at the cashier, watch as a cat springs out of the way as a careless shopper touches it with her toe.

The stairs are just as steep going back. I'm worn out by the time we reach our neighborhood.

W suggests we take advantage of the special at the new spa and restaurant that opened yesterday near our neighborhood. At $12, it's a 2-for-1: we each get an hour-long foot massage and a free fruit drink.

Dinner at the little cafe is cheap (a little steak with fries for $2.20) By 7, when we get home, I just want to sleep.

Wednesday
Alice, Sanny, and I talk through the upcoming process of Art Sunday. Two other groups are renting the hall on Friday and Saturday. They promise to leave the room user-ready. We'll see. "Not going to happen - hasn't happened in 5 years," Sanny grouses.

We'll have to get to BIC by 6:00 a.m. Sunday to set up. It takes us all morning to plan out the tables, supplies, and resources - plus describing the volunteer jobs. We'll have to be ready to run when we arrive. I take a long checklist home and make piles of print-outs and supplies, which get taken to the office.

I bake about 150 sausages and marinade them in black pepper sauce. I boil 2 dozen eggs, which the helper cuts for mayo-eggs.

The jackfruit curry made from our tree fruit has spoiled overnight: the helper left it on the counter too cool after cooking. I closed the lid against ants, lizards, or cockroaches falling in, but the 80o kitchen temperature is not conducive to preserving food. It has fermented to smell like strong cheese, so she tosses the huge pot-full in the compost heap at the back of the yard. "Don't want stomach aches for our guests," she cautions.

Before I know it, it's 4:30. I'm too wound up to sleep but I read and rest for an hour. We postponed movie night from last week because I was sick. I still don't have the strength to cook a full meal.

We've order 3 sets of tumpang, a cone of rice and sides for 25 people - perkadel (dumplings), chicken, and vegetables. Most non-Indonesians will never get invited to this type of traditional meal, which is served at special occasions and celebrations. Christmas is that. Istn' it pretty? (The platter is 30" across.)

The helpers also cut salad and fruit. We plate cookies on festive trays for dessert. Soon our guests start arriving, some with sweets to share.

We eat the main course before the movie. The house is full tonight and there are 25-30 guests on the porch. Conversations in many languages resound against the concrete walls of the living room and spill into the garden.

The Christmas tree is the main selfie station. Our two birthday friends pose with their birthday plates: if it's your birthday month, you get to start the food line.

During December, we ask guests to read the Christmas story with us. We miss this family tradition. We pass out and listen to the readings before we watch the new Grinch movie.

 Dessert gives us a pause halfway - and after the movie we hang out almost until 11:00 p.m.

In the Indonesian tradition, the special celebrant - birthday child or grad student or ? - gets to cut and eat the cone off the top of the tumpang. A foreign students ends up with the cone his first and second pass-through as we bring out the second and third platters.

We run the Roomba vacuum three or four times, each time filling the dust bin. The growling of the motor continues through the night.

Thursday

I have just enough energy for an early online meeting. The helpers are here by 8. They "put things back" in the living room from the move-night dumping ground in my office. It takes me most of the morning to move things to where they belong. Finally, even the flower bouquet is back on the entry table.

W stays home from the walk to finish grading papers. He suggest some options for a date, but I can't fathom going out. The shamrocks are blooming on the porch.

I haven't looked around the yard for a while. Since rainy season started, the garden beds have burst into bloom. There are bird of paradise plants, shoots from the neighbor's driveway.

The birds-nest ferns on one side are thriving. We found them under heaps of leaves under the trees at the back of the yard. Their 4-5' fronds drape over the vines that cover the cement wall between our neighbors and us. The benjamina fig that was constantly buggy and stunted in the pot on the porch has grown into a 20' tree in two years (left, below).

The yellow and pink seeds scattered during dry season have burst into a hedge of color. The volcanic soil is excellent.

Gypsy the dog loves to run between the flowers. He circles the back, jumping through the flowerbed in the middle.

Even the purple water hyacinth in the fish bowl is flowering. Several kinds of aquatic plants grow in the bathtubs straddling the deep water gutter between the upper and lower yard. In indonesia, it seems whatever you put into the ground or the water grows.

This week, the neighbor points at a durian tree towering over our entry gate. (Durian is an acquired taste, so stinky that it cannot be taken on public transport in Singapore.) The towering tree has one fruit, the first in years, but Jez says, "It was loaded with fruit until someone chopped it down mid-trunk. It's taken years to regrow." We're always discovering new plants here.

Read more:
*Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you. 2 Chronicles 14:11

*Everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:8

*In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,  sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.Hebrews 1:1-4

Moravian Prayer: Ever-present God, we thank you that you dwell within us, and are always with us. Teach us and help us to rely on you each day, in matters both great and small. Amen.