Double Feature

(Written January 3) Last year we had a rather quiet Christmas.  This year, I swung the pendulum a bit, having guests over on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, in total serving food for nearly 100 people.  I went a bit nutty.  Nutty in inviting, not nutty whilst having guests over.   That would have been a good story though.  On Christmas Eve, I thought it would be fun to have a casual soup and bread lunch.  Inviting everyone I knew really.  Thought maybe 30ish would be around, thinking loads would be traveling or back at home for Christmas.  But as I started counting everyone that could come, the list totaled about 70ish people.  Love it.  I doubled everything and there wasn’t but three pieces of bread left when all was said and done.

  

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

Christmas Day

Currently, Jayson is sitting right beside me reading a book on Project Management.  I can hardly think of anything less that I would like to be doing then reading a book on Project Management. I did read Jane Eyre over the Holidays, for the second time.  Oh, how I love to read about Jane and Mr. Rochester.   

Yesterday, we went swimming down at Jungle Retreat with a family that is here serving Freedom Firm for a few weeks.  Their daughters have become such a fun part of our holidays.  My favorite part of the girls being around is the fact that Sophie, their 10-year-old, has taken James under her wing.  She has the calming effect on him.  James is one for the high emotions and he hardly bellows when she’s around.  And if he does, she does this cute little Yorkshire accent on him and he is bewitched and calmed again.  I am definitely keeping tabs on her until they become of the betrothal age.  

Jovie holding a... kitty? a puppy? Nope. A goat.

The Palms and the Youngs trying to track down any way possible to ride an elephant. Easier said than done. 

Of course, an elephant crossing the road.

This is the point where James asked me, "Is that elephant going potty?"

Ready, steady, jump!

James, keep your eye on this girl...

Last night, after a long day of swimming, elephants, and driving, when all of us felt and looked like rubbish, Sydney was sitting in front of the mirror and proclaimed, “Oh my goodness, I look so beautiful.”  Oh, to be Sydney for a day...

Hey, thanks so much to you who thought of us with your Christmas cards and Christmas emails.  We continue to get two a day.  Never three, not four or one... always two a day.  Do you think that’s weird?  I do.  I kind of like it though.  The pitter patter of Christmas cards is a glorious thing. 

Naseema teaching me how to make Dosas and Pooris

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Two birds flew into the Dining Room

That's Tarrah diving out of the way when one of the birds flew into the Kitchen

Headlight burnt out? No problem. Just grab a head lamp and a flashlight!

It’s a double feature, 2 for 1, double stuffed pizza, buy-one-get-one-free, twice-baked potato.  The earlier dated blog was written about a week ago.  But same ole’, same ole’ excuse from this girl, there was a lack of internet at the house to send it, and Jayson and I didn’t have the giddy-up to bring it to the office to send.  So, here we are, rolling it together, Hansel and Gretel, Gidget and Moondoggie, Tom and Jerry, Josh and Donna.  Twice but Nice.

So, my mom is here.  Wednesday afternoon, James, Ani, and I jumped in a car and headed to Bangalore to surprise my mom.  I am not sure at what point along the way I came to the conclusion that it was no biggie to drive eight hours and then turn right back around and drive back home.  But, I guess I did. So, sixteen hours later, we were back in Ooty for breakfast, with my mom in tow.  

We stopped at the new McDonalds on the way to Bangalore

Ani giving the McDonalds "M" gang sign

There's nothin' like a donut at 1:00 a.m. on the floor outside the Bangalore Airport

Within two hours, my mom had given Ani and I haircuts.  I have had a consistent bad hair day for months, I think this is why she was alright to cut my hair before she showered, hugged Jovie or unpacked.  As we finally did get to unpacking, we discovered a ham, a few pounds of yum-a-dum-dum cheese, fudge, carmel, Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa, and so much more... my mom is brilliant.

My mom has also been in bed for the last few days.  Poor, poor mom.  Her back went out the evening she got here. So, we just brought the party to her.  Opening up Christmas presents, breakfast, lunch, dinner, movies, playing - all the things that we would be doing anyway - just all held in James and Sydney’s room.  Works for us.  We are just thrilled that she is with us.  Anything else is just icing on the cake.

Bringin' the Christmas to Grandma

Also in the news is that I have officially watched my first Bollywood movie.  I cannot believe that I have been here for two years and I haven’t feasted on a Bollywood production.  A few staff and volunteers were all a bit traumatized that I hadn’t, so they brought over one of their fav’s (“Three Idiots”) and we baked some pizza and had a grand night.  Now, the name is a bit ridiculous, in my book.  The wow factor is not real high with that kind of name.  It doesn’t have the “Pride and Prejudice”, “The Last of the Mohicans” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” kind of draw to it.  Anyway, moving past the title, it was actually fairly engaging.  My eyes did get sore reading subtitles, and of course the dancing was quite a kick, but all in all, I would totally recommend the movie. So, let me know when you watch your next Bollywood movie, I do want here all about it.

In Freedom Firm news, near the end of 2010 nineteen girls were rescued in Nagpur, a new area where Freedom Firm hopes to make major headway in the coming 12 months. 2011 is off to a mixed start, with five minor girls rescued just two weeks ago, then police in a different area this week gave excuses why they “can’t” help. It’s a roller coaster as usual. 

Merry Merry Christmas Eve Eve

Jovie getting down to U2's "Mysterious Ways"

 

The Freedom Firm Christmas party

The girls doing a dance at the party that they had been working on for months

Merry, Merry Christmas Eve Eve to you!  Just a wee note from the Palm Six to wish you all a Merry Christmas.  I just ate two popcorn balls in the last ten minutes.  My mom sent them to me; I mean our whole family.  Confession (mom, don’t read this next part) in the last week the kids have each had two popcorn balls.  I have one or two each day.  I hid them from the kids. I love popcorn balls.  My mom sent other treats, so they have had plenty of Grandma’s homemade goodness.  Just not in the popcorn ball category.  If you haven’t had a popcorn ball this season, run, run to your supermarket and get the ingredients now.

Tarrah and the Freedom Firm aftercare crew baking for the Christmas party

We have been in the full Christmas swing around here.  I think this year I will remember Christmas by all the baking.  I think it’s been my coping mechanism a bit.  I tried my hand at fudge this year.  It never set.  So, now, it’s fudge syrup for ice cream.  We also tried our hand at caramels.  They got brick hard.  Now, they are caramel syrup for ice cream.  Saufferer family (my maiden name), if you are reading this, don’t eat all the fudge and caramels at Christmas.  Maybe you could pack up a bit of a Ziploc and send it with my mom when she comes in a few weeks...  If you do eat it all, could you make some more? 

There is a bit of shindig here tomorrow, for a Christmas Eve lunch.  Appetizers, soup, bread, and yummy treats. I hope it’s a real barn burner.  Can you have barn burners for Christmas Eve?  Who even knows where the term barn burner came from?  Anyway, I did put away the Star Wars light sabers and Nerf guns tonight.  I remember last year’s Christmas party, there was a bit of deal with them.  You don’t want to deal with a weapons deal on Christmas Eve, that’s my motto.

Okay, so our mystery picture from the last blog got an overwhelming nod towards the overflowing yeast.  I guess it wasn’t so mysterious.  Or maybe you guys are incredibly smart when it comes to mystery pictures.  Let’s go with the latter.

Love to you all and Merry Christmas.

Burning Plastic and Rank Garbage

James and Ani ready for a formal event at Hebron. 

If anyone can guess what this is a picture of, we will be very impressed indeed!

I was just warmly sitting by a roaring fire and my keen sense of smell picked up a burning plastic smell.  Like a bird dog, I put my nose to the ground and was off.  After 10 minutes, I could only place the smell somewhere around the fire, but nothing more specific.  So, in an attempt to guard against anything more hazardous happening, we put water on the fire.  That was 10 minutes ago.  “Jayson, does it still smell in the living room?” Jayson, “Little bit, not as bad.”  Good, we are making progress.  I was having a bit of a salty tooth and went to go scavenge the kitchen for a salt lick (a bit of deer humor, forgive me).  All I could find was stale rice crackers and the smell of intense garbage.  Bummer.  Burning plastic and rank garbage, pretty much paradise island here in the Palm household.

Well, we definitely had a great fill of cuteness this last week at our kid’s Christmas play at school.  For the last six weeks, our kids have been belting out a song, “Babushka, Babushka, open wide your eyes and you will see...Babushka, Babushka, baby Jesus came for you and me!”  At all hours of the day, this song was heard.  Even Jovie got it down.  Ani was an angel, James, an Italian pizza delivery man, and Sydney was a tree.  I don’t mean to play favorites here, but Sydney definitely was the most memorable of the three.  Come on, a four-year-old in a Christmas play is nothing but fantastic.  By the fourth and final performance I am pretty sure I saw her eyes roll up in her head and almost fall asleep on stage out of sheer exhaustion.  Click here for a taste.

The Hebron Christmas Program

Sydney on day 2, still smiling.

Sydney on day 4, definitely done.

I need to give a shout out for my favorite Christmas CD of the year.  Andrew Peterson’s “Behold the Lamb” has heightened our celebration.  If you like your music with a little folk and a lot of great lyrics, check it out. 

The kids start their holiday this Thursday morning.  They will be off until the first week in February.  Being that we live in an international community, these are the answers I got when asking people how they are spending their holiday:  Australia, Thailand, Kathmandu, North India tour, Scotland, the States, England, Ireland and Everest Base Camp.  Whew!

Some cool Freedom Firm news from Jayson. At Freedom Firm we’ve wanted to raise awareness in India about the problem of sex trafficking, but the tyranny of the urgent has pushed this aside regularly. Our amazing Finance Manager, however, lined up a school for us to do a presentation. Last Friday I had the privilege of seeing Vijaya, one of our rescued girls, share her story openly in front of 160 teenage girls at this school. Their response was overwhelming. The girls flocked to Vijaya afterward to talk to her and thank her. Several shared feedback, telling their stories of how they’ve been mistreated and not feeling like they’ve had a voice. At the very least we hope to help schools recognize the struggles of their students, but more than that we hope to find ways that these girls can get the help they truly need.  

It's a bit hard to see, but that's Vijaya on the stage speaking to the girls. Even harder to see is Jayson sitting to the left of the podium. 

Okay folks, it’s good night for now from the Palm house.  Sleep tight.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

 Jovie's first ride on daddy's bike. 

Decorating for Christmas

“The weather outside is frightful... ya ta da da da...” There was a reprieve in the rain a few days ago, but “it doesn’t show signs of stopping...” It’s official, and I am sorry to say it, but I have now been colder here in INDIA than any weather in frigid Minnesota. It doesn’t make sense. We are inches away from the equator, but I am telling you, I have been wearing four layers all day, inside, with wool socks and a hat on. I am not sure with what to do all my coldness. I am also sorry that I keep on leading with weather reports. I really can’t help it.


Okay, moving on to more exciting events, our current (electricity) flow into the house. Totally more exciting, right? So, I will try to shorten this fascinating story to a swallowable amount. For the last six months, our plug to our washing machine has been melting. We have probably gotten it fixed four times. Two weeks ago, we came home to a smell of burning and our plug to the geyser (pronounced “geezer”, the hot water heater) that is hooked up to the water in the bathroom had started melting. So, we could only plug it in for 20 minutes at a time or it would start smoking. I know, I know people, the Palms are usually a hazard waiting to happen, but this multiplied it tons. Early this week, the plug quit altogether. So, we called the electrician to come and fix it, and he came out and fixed the plugs, and he also said the current coming into the house wasn’t coming in properly. (Hang on folks, I’m almost done.) So, the EB guy came today. I have no idea what EB stands for, it’s the electricity people, maybe it stands for Electrical Board. Anyway, so this wee olderish man knocked on my back door today, asked me if my current was bad, and then proceeded to wrap a rope - like for sailing kind of a rope - around his waist, and then put a wide, elastic looking like hair band around his feet, and started shimmying up our electric pole. Just like that. About five minutes later, he came down and said it was all fixed. I asked him what the problem was and he said it was rusty. Rusty? That’s it? Rusty? I was looking for a paramount problem. In fact, I have been blaming myself for using too much electricity. I thought maybe the house wasn’t designed to run a washing machine at the same time as a refrigerator and geyser. But it was rust, an age old problem in the world of metal.

I hope your Thanksgivings were all grand. Ours was scrumptialicious. I ate so much of Bec’s Harvest Stuffing that it totally gave me a carb hangover the next day. We had Thanksgiving number one on the Friday before t-giving and Thanksgiving number two on the Saturday afternoon after t-giving. I was very thankful to have two groups of people to celebrate with.


Within the last week Freedom Firm has rescued 19 girls, and as I write this as they are doing another raid. All so exciting. So thankful.

The Second Thanksgiving

The First Thanksgiving

I was asked to go into James’ class last week and talk about Christmas in America. I was a bit stumped at first. Not knowing really where to go with it, the previous week another mom came in and talked about an Australian Christmas. She talked about having a candlelight service on the beach, because its summer during Christmas in Australia. So, I talked about snow, and how the tradition of snow was a part of my memory of celebrating Jesus’ birth. I know, geographically speaking, it would be different all over the States, but I showed them where Minnesota is on the map and had them all say Minnesota. I taught them how to make snowflakes from folding paper and cutting little bits out and then unfolding it. I showed them how to do it and they thought I was so magical. And then I read them a story about snow and then we frosted sugar cookies. It was so fun. And it helped the missing of a Minnesota Christmas.