A Christmas story

I'm supposed to say something at church on Christmas Eve. Forgive me Lord but I don't really want to do this. I mean I have enough trouble just speaking normal Japanese to my friends and family. Trying to get up in front of a bunch of people and say something meaningful is beyond me. So what am I going to do? Maybe relate a Christmas story about how one little boy almost ruined a Christmas pageant, or maybe made it especially meaningful.


Wally was a big boy and a little slow on the uptake. But he was kind and loving and looked out for the younger children when they joined in the games. When Christmas time came around and the teacher started talking about putting on a Christmas pageant, Wally had his heart set on playing the role of one of the angels. Ah, to wear a white robe and have a sparkling wire halo! To join with the other angels and sing,

"Hark the herald angels sing~~ Glory to the newborn King~~".

The teacher however had other plans. She thought Wally would make a great innkeeper. Since he was taller than the other children, he looked big and strong and despite his soft-hearted personality he would make a fine innkeeper.

"Wally, this year you are going to be our innkeeper. It is a very important part. The innkeeper stands alone by the inn and sends Joseph and Mary away. The innkeeper gets to have his own lines in the play. Yes, Wally. I think you will be great innkeeper. Just remember to look stern."

Wally was not so sure. He really liked the angels' halos... But as always, Wally worked hard at any job he was given so for the next couple weeks he diligently practiced his lines for the play.

"What do you want?" "Seek it elsewhere." "The inn is filled." "There is no room in this inn for you." "No! Begone."

Whew! A lot of lines to remember.

The night of the Christmas pageant everyone was excited. Wally stood in the wings saying his lines under his breath. But gradually as shepherds and angels and Mary and Joseph came on stage and said their lines, Wally became more and more entranced, his eyes shining with joy as the Christmas story unfolded before his eyes.

"Psst! Wally, it's your turn to go on!"

Joseph quietly led Mary to the inn and knocked on the door where Wally was waiting.

"What do you want?" Wally pushed open the door brusquely.

"We seek shelter."

"Seek it elsewhere. The inn is filled."

Joseph pointed to Mary. "We have looked everywhere and we are very tired."

"There is no room in this inn for you." Wally was properly stern.

"Please good innkeeper. My wife is going to have a baby. She needs a place to rest."

And instead of sending Joseph and Mary on their way, Wally's stern expression relaxed and he looked worriedly at Mary.

"Psst! 'No! Begone" said the prompter behind the curtains.

"No! Begone!" repeated Wally.

Joseph and Mary turned away and walked slowly and carefully across the stage. And the innkeeper, who was supposed to slam the door shut, stood there silently and sadly watching the two tired people go. And as he watched, Wally's eyes filled with tears.

And that was when Wally changed the Christmas pageant for all the people present.

"Wait! Don't go, Joseph! Bring Mary back!" And Wally smiled brightly through his tears. "You can have my room!"

Well, some people thought that Wally had really messed things up that night. But others said Wally's tender and loving heart made it the most wonderful Christmas pageant they had ever seen.

Chip's work

"Frustration is not being able to find the end of the toilet paper."

Nothing

30 years ago my mother would call me every week on Sunday nights and we would talk for an hour on the phone. America to Japan and that was quite an expense! But it was always hard to end those phone calls what with all the news of my new Japanese life and then marriage and then children. My mother kept me up on neighborhood news and her doings at school.

After awhile we decided that we were being too extravagant and cut our weekly phone calls down to twice a month and that is where it has stayed for nearly 20 years or more. And we could always talk an hour! In the past 10 years though, Mom retired from teaching and from volunteer work, my kids went off to America and when we call, there is less and less to talk about. I'd ring Mom and say

"Hi! What's new?"

"Hmm... Can't think of anything."

"How is the family? How are the neighbors?"

"Fine, fine. Nothing new."

I'd resort to asking her what book she was reading and that was about it. She'd ask me about cats. What do they do? Sleep. Conversations lasted 10 minutes! (Or longer because sometime we repeat the first 10 minutes of conversation.)

When I'd hang up I'd think,

"Mom sure is forgetful these days. She can never think of anything that has gone on for two whole weeks. Must be old age."

Yesterday I called my brother's house to ask what the kids wanted for Christmas. My nephew answered.

"Hi Colin! How are you? What's new?"

"Nothing."

Next my brother got on the phone.

"Hi Keion! Just calling about Christmas. What's new with you people?"

"Nothing."

And in the distance I hear Marcy's brother call out his hellos to me too.

"Oh, Mark's there too! What's new with Mark?"

My brother relayed my question to Mark and the answer was

"Nothing."

So the conversation ended in less than 10 minutes because Marcy wasn't at home. I called my mother instead.

"Hi! This is Tani. How are you? What's new?"

"Oh, fine, fine. Nothing new."

Another 10 minute conversation about books and cats.

Maybe I need to rephrase my question. I guess I've been questioning Mom's memory whereas in truth, there is NOTHING going on with my family!

I don't know why we are all so busy with NOTHING getting done.

There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want. -- Calvin and Hobbes

Natural decorations

I thought it so funny this morning to read comments from yesterday's post and find someone anonymous had written.

"There is a spiderweb in the corner of your room?"

WHAT? Well actually, I thought that there was a good chance that there was one and when I went back to the picture and enlarged it, yep, that's what it looked like. And when I went to the entryway I couldn't really find it. But as the light changed this morning and when I went back out the front door, sure enough, there was the spiderweb! Someone sure has good eyes!

Well, yes, I get quite a few spiderwebs in my house. They are a little discouraging but not as frustrating as stinkbugs or even cats who urp up on my my floors! Usually I let the spider back outside and sweep away the web. I still remember Charlotte's Web and so don't really find spiders and their webs that offensive. I was actually pleased to get the comment because that meant I had a reason to show a picture I took at the kindergarten this week.

On Wednesday I went to the kindergarten and noticed that the teachers had put up a ladder near one of the doors so that the kids could climb up and look at the spiderwebs. Now that's what I call really appreciating nature! I had walked under this doorway numerous times in the past months and never realized that the kindergarten is "raising spiders". I don't think this is by choice. I think the kindergarten is just allowing the 8 legged weavers to take up residence and are using them as a chance to teach a little science. I'm not going to go so far in my appreciation of nature.

And so that you don't think that the kindergarten's decorations are just spiderwebs, here on the other side of the door was the kindergarten art project for this Christmas. Aren't these wonderful Christmas trees! I think these are made by having the kids loosely wrap colorful felt around a cone and then decorating with pine cones, berries, beads and dried flowers.

And notice those neat "stars" on the top? Those were made by one of the kindergarten mothers and she was selling them at the kindergarten bazaar. The principal was so enthralled by them that she bought the whole box of them and now they've been put to use as Christmas stars! These are made from some seed pod (but I don't know which one) and the mother wrapped tiny squares of fabric and glued them into the natural pod holes. Isn't that an amazing result?

I'll probably remove my spiderweb later on today. Or then again maybe leave it for my cats to enjoy though unlike some blog visitors, they haven't noticed it yet.

Getting ready for Christmas

Not too much going on this weekend. How about a cat picture.

I took this picture on Tuesday before my morning English class. Thankfully the four ladies who come are all cat lovers and whenever they come to English they reach into the shoe closet for the Tupperware full of cat treats. The cats know they are getting the treats and they seem to know when Tuesday morning rolls around. Patora, Cleo and Toi loiter in the entryway (Chip was down on the mat) for 10 minutes or so waiting for the ladies to arrive.

The cats have clairvoyance or maybe they just read the signs and sounds better than we think. The vacuum cleaner and the coffee maker being put to work must register in their minds "Tuesday English".

The Christmas decorations are slowly getting put out. I've taken down the quilt behind the cats in that picture and now have Santa Claus up there instead. Every year I look at Santa Claus and think I should make a red quilt of Mrs. Santa Claus (since there are Mr. and Mrs. Santa up there in crewel work) but of course I never get around to it before Christmas and get out of the mood after the holidays.

Hope you are all getting your Christmas errands done!

Knitting

Yesterday morning I taught English to a couple kindergarten mothers and one of the mothers, seeing Tetsu's half knitted in the chair asked how much more I have to do and when I was hoping to finish it. Oh, I should be able to get it done in another week if I get in some serious knitting time and do nothing else.

Well that's a laugh. There is NO serious knitting time scheduled and so I squeeze in a bit of knitting between lessons and when I am bleary-eyed and thinking of bed. At this rate I am NOT going to get this done by Christmas! After the mothers left I settled into a chair and since it was a rainy day, I spent the rest of the afternoon knitting. Well, maybe if I don't have to do any major adjustments I can pull this under the wire.

This year's vest pattern is fairly complicated but doesn't have cables or color changes. Tetsu prefers solid colors and simple patterns but he's probably not going to be able to tell if this was complicated or not. Straight knitting I find boring and besides, any irregularity in stitches shows up too easily. I'm not too good at setting a gauge either (nor at making armholes and necklines etc.) so I often get a piece almost completed and have to do some ripping to make a garment wearable. I'm keeping my fingers crossed with this one.

I guess I did show another vest that I was working on a couple of weeks ago and but that was a flop. I had found VERY CHEAP cotton yarn at the recycle shop and started working on an English knitting pattern. Cotton is too stretchy and even with a lot of TINK-ing (knit backwards=ripping) and elastic yarn, the armholes are too stretched out. I don't know what to do to remedy this any further so this project is sitting on the table looking forlorn.

The cotton vest looks better on the floor than on me.

Kindling

THANK YOU TETSU!!!

It is not even Christmas yet and I have already received my Christmas present. Actually, Tetsu asked me weeks ago (before the car situation) what I would like for Christmas. And I said...

"Hmmm..."

"You WANT something! That is the first time you have ever hesitated and not just told me 'nothing'! What do you want?"

Well, Tetsu had asked me a while back if I had ever heard of the Condor. It took me a long time to figure out he was talking about a KINDLE (Japanese pronunciation of R and L you know) and I said yes, I'd heard of it (because I had read Mary's blog and I do get notices from Amazon).

So when Tetsu asked what I wanted, that sort of floated in my head.

A Kindle (which is a digital book) would be a great way to get English books that are hard for me to purchase. Of course it is not as hard as it was 30 years ago when I'd have to send a letter to my mother and ask her to go buy me a book and have her send it which would take three weeks. We've come a long way, baby! and now I can order books online very easily. Occasionally Amazon Japan will tell me they can't get the book and then I go to Amazon. com and order from there. Ordering from America takes a week and the shipping costs are higher (Amazon Japan will ship free) but of course Amazon Japan English books cost more.

And of course when I'm in the States I usually load up on used books at a dollar a piece but recently I've had to pay overweight fees on my luggage (some of that is fabric related...) so maybe I'm not really saving money buying used books.

What I'm saying is that I'm trying to justify buying a Kindle.

Tetsu determined that HE didn't know how one buys a Kindle online but since I do, he forced me (willingly) to order one right away so that it would arrive in time for Christmas. According to his information Kindles are so popular that it might not arrive until late January.

SO... I ordered a Kindle!!!! And it arrived from the States in 4 days.... And I left it in the box for two days thinking I'd wait until Christmas. But I was again forced (willingly) to open the box because Tetsu wanted to see what a Kindle was and how it worked.

Yesterday morning I opened my Kindle box. OOooohh! So COOL! Very sleek, very professional looking! And I played around awhile and then pushed the right button and ordered a book that Nancy had written about on her blog a few months ago. And then I went off to a hamburger shop with Kindle in hand and spent about an hour reading!!!

You can tell I'm going to get less than usual done this season. And I was already behind! Does anybody want to recommend a book?