Baby, It's Cold Outside Inside

Brrr.  Freezing, as in fingers barely work.  Seeing your breath come out in clouds of vapor.  Toes?  Can't feel them.

The kicker is that the cold is indoors - in my office, to be precise.  For the last week or so (since the temperatures dropped outside) the main office has been chilly, and my own office - usually over-hot during heating season - downright arctic.  Adding to the cold, the door to the (unheated, northwest corner) stairwell next to my office is propped open as some work is being done out there.  Talk about wintry blasts!

Yet my heart is warm.  This morning our Bible study joined up with the second study (our study was so large we split in two four years ago) at Nancy's house for our annual Christmas party.  It takes a special breed of women to have a Christmas party at quarter to six in the morning!

Not to mention a special hostess; Nancy beautifully decorates her home, lays a pretty table and cooks all sorts of wonderful dishes, making her guests feel honored and welcome.  We linger by the fire a bit, have a devotional, and participate in a tradition from Nancy's Polish heritage:  sharing of the oplatki.  It's a foregone conclusion that one or more of us will shed tears, but as our hostess said this morning, "I know I can cry in front of you all."

We take up a collection each year for a charity in lieu of giving gifts, but every year it seems someone has selective hearing and blesses everyone with treats anyway.  In additon to all of the preparations for the party, Nancy always has a loaf of homecooked quick bread for everyone.  This year, Patti sent us home with a container of red velvet candy; Susan supplied beautiful bell ornaments.

But the true gift we share is friendship and sisterhood in Christ.  Many of these women have been with this study much longer than the six years I have; the roots of the group go back fifteen or more years.  We're very much an intergenerational group, passing on knowledge from one to another, expanding perspectives and challenging one another.

So while my outsides are a bit icy, my insides are filled today with the warmth of good food and great fellowship.