My Heart Sings

wonderful thing:  This has been a blessed season indeed.   I made tons of fudge, some caramel popcorn, and some ginger cookies and snickerdoodles.  I also made some Chai Latte concentrate for a few people who I knew would not really want goody plates.  We filled stockings for each of the missionaries in Prato and Florence.  Christmas Eve, Elders Miles and Lott ate terriyaki steak with us (our tradition), then we all went out delivering goodies.   The elders said they'd never had such success with getting into people's houses before!  We took them to people who might not have a lot of attention during the holidays, or to GANS and their families, or to people with whom we have built a special relationship, etc.  Last of all, we drove the elders home then gave them their stockings; then we drove to the sisters' house, getting in just under the 10:30 deadline, and gave them theirs.  Christmas morning, we drove to Florence and delivered stockings to three missionary apartments, then drove around delivering goody plates till time to come back to Prato for dinner at Andrea's house.  She made it all herself.  Present were Ivan (Honduran), Elisabetta (Chinese), Ianori (Honduran - a friend we hadn't met yet), Andrea's mom (Peruvian), the two sisters and ourselves (Americans) - not one Italian...but we all spoke Italian!   Andrea gave us each a little gift; Blaine's was two bars of Perugina dark chocolate, and mine was a little picture frame, in which Andrea had placed a card that read (according to my translation), "One day, the 25th of December, 2014, two angels came knocking at the door...'toc toc'...into the life of a certain girl...THANKS!"  Sweet, huh?  We ate an antipasta of meats and condiments and bread; then spinach and ricotta canelloni; then pork roast, roast potatoes, and insalata rossa ("red salad" made of beets, potatoes, green beans, etc).  It was tasty and not overwhelming, which was very gratifying.  Then we took the sisters to our place so that they could skype or face time with their families, and watch a movie (a special privilege for Christmas Day - they chose "Tangled"); we left them to it, and went out to deliver more goody plates, arriving back home around 8:30 or 9:00, having delivered over the past 26 hours, 31 goody plates and 12 stockings.  Then we skyped/face timed with four of our eight children (individually - they were all celebrating with in laws this year; over the next three days we've managed to catch the other four).   It was super to be a part of their holidays.  We all feel very very blessed.  The last two days, we have had the privilege of taking part in a senior missionary couples conference at Florence.  We've been instructed, had questions answered, been able to get to know the other 6 or 7 couples and Pres. and Sis. Dibb better, plus hooking up again with Elder Rose (from our early missionary days in the 70s) and his wife Cindy, who are taking over in the office for the departing Harmers (big shoes to fill).   President asked us to share a power point Blaine had made when asked by the Florence DL to make a presentation about how we can help the missionaries in their work. This is all a part of the Greatest Gift, the one that has made this and every Christmas season a time of rejoicing and peace, to those of good will.  Hallelujah.

fun thing:  Today we all went to San Gemignano (google it, it's awesome, and I'll post some pics on FB), which we really enjoyed despite the cold, which did not keep us from eating award-winning gelato.