Ushering in 2011

Despite the date entry on this post, it's already 2011 here in New Zealand; we had a lovely New Year's Eve. 

The morning of New Year's Eve, the girls and I (Stacey) went to a piano recital given by Angie, the pianist from the church where we went to Christmas Eve services.  The concert, given to raise funds to aid women living in Gaza, was at her home just four houses from ours.  We were served tea and a sweet, and settled in for about an hour's worth of beautiful music from Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven, Grieg, and Haydn.  Before and after the concert we met the other guests, who were primarily older retired men and women, but also one of Angie's students, Mika, who is eight and a half, and his mother, Ximena.  One of the women, Pam, asked the girls if they had a grandmother at home whom they missed, to which they both said yes, and she said, "If you like, I can be your 'other' grandmother while you are here," prompting Katy to give her a big hug. 

Angie, who'd already offered and lent several children's books to the girls, pulled out a tremendous box of Legos for us to borrow, as we still don't have our shipment from home.  So we lugged the Legos home and invited Mika to come and play for a while.  Before long the girls and Mika were playing together as if they'd known each other for years.  Ximena came to collect him a bit later, bringing with her sun hats (as the sun here is very intense) and inviting us all to go for a walk to Henley Lake.  It was delightful to chat with her as we walked along, and the children climbed a tree at the water's edge.  After three and a half hours of walking, we returned home, collecting Glenn at the end of his day of working at the hospital.  Along the way plans were made to get our families together for New Year's Eve, which we did after supper.

Glenn went to town and brought back pizza for our dinner, munchies for the night, and sparkling grape juice; the Tobias family arrived around 9:00.  Peter, Ximena's husband, is a bit quiet like Glenn, and interesting to talk with.  Mika came of course, as well as his brother Sven, a delightful thirteen year old.  They came in with all sorts of goodies to share.  Sven took one look at all our musical instruments and said, "I should have brought my guitar," so he went back to their house (two doors down) and brought it back.

The younger children watched movies while the adults talked.  Sven, typical of his age, was caught in that between-world of early adolescence: he wanted to talk with the adults, but he also sort of wanted to see the movie, so he navigated between the two.  Actually, Glenn did that as well.  At midnight we watched the New Year celebration in Auckland and enjoyed a toast.  No ball dropped, but there were fireworks at the Sky Tower, and we gave "Auld Lang Syne" our best effort--Ximena in German.   

As with all New Year's Eve parties, especially those with tired children, things wound down quickly after midnight.  Before they left, though, Sven came to me to ask if I would like to borrow his guitar.  It wasn't the one he usually played, he said, as he has an electric guitar at home.  This one is a classical guitar very similar to the one Mom and Dad gave me when I was in high school--the guitar I have played in Bennett Jams and for tiny sleeping babies.  His offer nearly brought tears to my eyes, as I have missed having my guitar.  Of course, I accepted his offer, and as soon as our guests had departed, I went into Beth and Katy's room to play the old familiar bedtime tunes for them.  They fell asleep gently and contentedly.

If you've noticed a recurring theme here, it must be one of tremendous generosity.  Quite unsolicited, people here have brought us things to make our house more comfortable and homey: books for the girls, games, a wok, and now a guitar.  With such warm and gracious people, we are sure to have a memorable 2011.  Hope yours will be, too.