It is late. I have been thinking on many things I might blog about: what joy feels like; the growth of the Baby Grace program at Turney church; how wonderful Barbara Webb is; the Cards pressing for Matt Holliday; the vacation time I am taking from Dec 23 to Jan 12; a lovely phone conversation with Hal Knight tonight.

Instead, I tell you something. I LOVE to entertain, at least I used to. I haven't entertained much in the last couple of years. When I was in the local church, I would almost always throw a big open house for the church during Advent; I would have the staff over for Christmas brunch sometime in December; I would have the clergywomen of my district over for a clergywomen's Christmas party, something that happened in the Missouri East conference for all the conference clergywomen for years. But this time of the district year tends to be an extra tiring time for me. Last year I planned to social gathering at my house; had to cancel one because I just couldn't get it done, and the other one was canceled because of the weather.

This year, it's a dinner party tomorrow night with seven guests. I am really enjoying getting ready for it which is mostly what I have been doing this evening. I seem to be doing things differently in entertaining...I don't worry quite as much about whether I get every spot off the floor or all the flour from behind the canisters....although I do try to hit all the visible areas! I really like to cook. And I really like to decorate. And I really like the people who are coming over tomorrow night. In the end, it is always about the relationships. So even though I have quite a bit to do tomorrow, I am going to sing along with my Ipod "Christmas Sacred" playlist. I am going to sit down when I get tired. I am going to let Caleb and Rose do the serving as we have agreed (and hope they stay in their happy places) and clean up as we agreed (ditto). And I will try to remember to pull this page up first thing in the morning, read it then, and then several times during the day, to remind me what I said I was going to do. I really want not to be so busy about many things that I forget the essential and sit at the feet of our Lord's good gift of friends.

Guess that's really all I have to say.