Merry Christmas!!!!
At the outset of the day, it felt like a normal day. It looked like an average day, and for all intents and purposes it appeared to be an everyday day. But it turned out to be an unusual day...an unusually joyous day.
But I had decided that it was a good day to take SK on a shorter version of the six-mile walk I took with Caroline last week. We got up and prepared for our beautiful little walk in the sun and wind and cool temperatures. We never quite made it to my planned destination......But after discussing it, we decided that we would go to the grocery store first to get a few items for tonight's Institute class refreshments. And we had to also stop at the hardware shop for an ironing board cover for the Basingstoke Elders. (We will visit them tomorrow morning and hang their new curtains. We will need to press them first - and the ironing board cover they are currently using is in rags.)
One other little errand and then SK had a brilliant idea. Let's eat at the Slug and Lettuce! That is a delightful looking restaurant we pass frequently on our way to anywhere. It is fairly large with a huge outdoor seating area. I believe during tourist season it is really hopping. I honestly don't know where the name came from but I intend to find out at some point here.
We took our packages in and were seated. I had a perfect view of the castle mound and SK of course. I had to have fish and chips. I am on a mission here (OK, I know you think I'm overusing the phrase, but it is just so cute.) to find the pub or restaurant with what I deem the best fish and chips in Oxford. I have not as yet found one that is outstanding, but I haven't yet had a bad order of this great English dish.
The Slug and Lettuce serves up a pretty good dish of fish though! And SK had a tostada of sorts, and pronounced it as excellent. I think we may go back there again before our time is up here. There are just so many little places like that!!!!
As we were heading home, Melissa texted us with a copy of a postal notice that the Oxford Post Office had tried to deliver our Christmas package today. We were aghast and delighted. This was the package that all of our family had put together. Everyone seemed so genuinely excited for us to get it. Everyone has asked from time to time if we had received it. By the time February rolled around, SK was convinced that it was lost and gone forever.
And indeed, it did seem pretty doubtful that it would get here. It had been checked into Heathrow Airport weeks ago, and then inexplicably went to Dubai, and from there to Jakarta, where it seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth.
Our daughters, checking often to see if it had arrived, pled with SK to pray for it to arrive. This may seem unusual to you, but SK is a man of great faith. His prayers seem efficacious. However, he is also very very cautious about what he prays for. This seemed hopeless - and somewhat trivial compared to all of the prayers in the world wafting Heavenward.
Well....I can't explain the mechanics of prayers and answers, but it seems that his prayers were answered, because he walked five minutes to the post office to see if it was the Christmas package. The clerk disappeared behind the partition and showed up moments later with a long tubular package from Utah with "Merry Christmas" written all over it.
As he walked home, he called me. When I said, "Hello," all he answered (in a very emotional voice) was "Merry Christmas."....and he added "You win." - meaning the bet that it was the very Christmas package we had been looking for.
After he had taken his coat off and triumphantly carried the package to the table, I opened it, while he filmed. He was already emotional, and it didn't take long for me to join him in shedding tears.
We pulled out two giclee prints on canvas and one beautiful print on paper...all three prints of the Savior. I have been sitting here for nearly five months staring at these walls and wishing that I had some beautiful art on them depicting the Lord during his mortal ministry here on earth. The three they sent are among my very favorites.
We will take them into a framer tomorrow and get the framing process underway (two weeks or longer). I can hardly wait to hang them.
We sat down together on the couch to read the long Christmas letter. Each member of the family shared a favorite memory of a Christmas with SK and me. The memories were funny, amusing, tender and so emotional for us. We both sat and cried as I read them aloud.
I don't know where that package has been for all these weeks - or what it has been doing, but it was worth the wait. It made this 12th day of February seem like, well, Christmas. Maybe even better.
After that, it was hard to settle in and get back to work, so to speak.
We tidied up the flat, got the refreshments together, and generally prepared to have the YSAs here for Institute. At 7, they began arriving. First came our young teacher, who teaches at Oxford. She will be getting married in another month. She is brilliant and full of faith. I love her lessons. Next came nine YSAs. The lesson was about the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi. She opened them up for us, and the comments from the young people here made it all even better.
After the lesson, and after the refreshments, and after several had gone home, four stayed after and we sat around comfortably talking about all kinds of things until 11. I was struck once again by their goodness, their faith, their knowledge of the gospel, their desire to serve and lift others, and the courses they have each charted for themselves in the coming year.
Among other things, they want to know how they can help us. They concluded that they will arrive early on Mondays to help prepare the meals, and they will stay after to make sure the place has been properly cleaned. Amazing. They are so very kind.
And here is the fun part. We have been asked on a double date!!!! Two of them - who appear to be a couple, have asked SK and me to join them to see a movie on Friday - "David Copperfield." We are delighted to do that.
It is very late, and we have to get up early to do apartment inspections tomorrow morning. I am tired, but so very happy about the beautiful events of this day. Just like Christmases from long ago, I will fall in bed and savor what has transpired, think of what lies ahead and bask in the joy of this day.
But I had decided that it was a good day to take SK on a shorter version of the six-mile walk I took with Caroline last week. We got up and prepared for our beautiful little walk in the sun and wind and cool temperatures. We never quite made it to my planned destination......But after discussing it, we decided that we would go to the grocery store first to get a few items for tonight's Institute class refreshments. And we had to also stop at the hardware shop for an ironing board cover for the Basingstoke Elders. (We will visit them tomorrow morning and hang their new curtains. We will need to press them first - and the ironing board cover they are currently using is in rags.)
One other little errand and then SK had a brilliant idea. Let's eat at the Slug and Lettuce! That is a delightful looking restaurant we pass frequently on our way to anywhere. It is fairly large with a huge outdoor seating area. I believe during tourist season it is really hopping. I honestly don't know where the name came from but I intend to find out at some point here.
We took our packages in and were seated. I had a perfect view of the castle mound and SK of course. I had to have fish and chips. I am on a mission here (OK, I know you think I'm overusing the phrase, but it is just so cute.) to find the pub or restaurant with what I deem the best fish and chips in Oxford. I have not as yet found one that is outstanding, but I haven't yet had a bad order of this great English dish.
The Slug and Lettuce serves up a pretty good dish of fish though! And SK had a tostada of sorts, and pronounced it as excellent. I think we may go back there again before our time is up here. There are just so many little places like that!!!!
As we were heading home, Melissa texted us with a copy of a postal notice that the Oxford Post Office had tried to deliver our Christmas package today. We were aghast and delighted. This was the package that all of our family had put together. Everyone seemed so genuinely excited for us to get it. Everyone has asked from time to time if we had received it. By the time February rolled around, SK was convinced that it was lost and gone forever.
And indeed, it did seem pretty doubtful that it would get here. It had been checked into Heathrow Airport weeks ago, and then inexplicably went to Dubai, and from there to Jakarta, where it seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth.
Our daughters, checking often to see if it had arrived, pled with SK to pray for it to arrive. This may seem unusual to you, but SK is a man of great faith. His prayers seem efficacious. However, he is also very very cautious about what he prays for. This seemed hopeless - and somewhat trivial compared to all of the prayers in the world wafting Heavenward.
Well....I can't explain the mechanics of prayers and answers, but it seems that his prayers were answered, because he walked five minutes to the post office to see if it was the Christmas package. The clerk disappeared behind the partition and showed up moments later with a long tubular package from Utah with "Merry Christmas" written all over it.
As he walked home, he called me. When I said, "Hello," all he answered (in a very emotional voice) was "Merry Christmas."....and he added "You win." - meaning the bet that it was the very Christmas package we had been looking for.
After he had taken his coat off and triumphantly carried the package to the table, I opened it, while he filmed. He was already emotional, and it didn't take long for me to join him in shedding tears.
We pulled out two giclee prints on canvas and one beautiful print on paper...all three prints of the Savior. I have been sitting here for nearly five months staring at these walls and wishing that I had some beautiful art on them depicting the Lord during his mortal ministry here on earth. The three they sent are among my very favorites.
We will take them into a framer tomorrow and get the framing process underway (two weeks or longer). I can hardly wait to hang them.
We sat down together on the couch to read the long Christmas letter. Each member of the family shared a favorite memory of a Christmas with SK and me. The memories were funny, amusing, tender and so emotional for us. We both sat and cried as I read them aloud.
I don't know where that package has been for all these weeks - or what it has been doing, but it was worth the wait. It made this 12th day of February seem like, well, Christmas. Maybe even better.
After that, it was hard to settle in and get back to work, so to speak.
We tidied up the flat, got the refreshments together, and generally prepared to have the YSAs here for Institute. At 7, they began arriving. First came our young teacher, who teaches at Oxford. She will be getting married in another month. She is brilliant and full of faith. I love her lessons. Next came nine YSAs. The lesson was about the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi. She opened them up for us, and the comments from the young people here made it all even better.
After the lesson, and after the refreshments, and after several had gone home, four stayed after and we sat around comfortably talking about all kinds of things until 11. I was struck once again by their goodness, their faith, their knowledge of the gospel, their desire to serve and lift others, and the courses they have each charted for themselves in the coming year.
Among other things, they want to know how they can help us. They concluded that they will arrive early on Mondays to help prepare the meals, and they will stay after to make sure the place has been properly cleaned. Amazing. They are so very kind.
And here is the fun part. We have been asked on a double date!!!! Two of them - who appear to be a couple, have asked SK and me to join them to see a movie on Friday - "David Copperfield." We are delighted to do that.
It is very late, and we have to get up early to do apartment inspections tomorrow morning. I am tired, but so very happy about the beautiful events of this day. Just like Christmases from long ago, I will fall in bed and savor what has transpired, think of what lies ahead and bask in the joy of this day.
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