Advent Journey Day 9

Tonight I hosted our annual Book Club White Elephant gift swap.

I love dressing up the house when guests come over.

 It's always a great way to end the year.  I write a song about the books we've read, we eat good food, and enjoy our gift exchange.

Barbro pondering what she would trade for the bag full of odd spirits!

There's always something interesting that turns up from our basements, garages and closets!

The green handle for a 2 liter bottle was not the most popular gift!

While Judy was less than thrilled with the green handle, Sandra was quite happy with the Olive Oil/Balsamic Vinegar package she received!

I ended up with a box of goodies from which you can play an interesting game.  I plan to use it on Christmas Eve at our gathering with good friends.  It was actually a very cool gift and one of the best parts of it was the beautiful bow that adorned the package.  Sorry, no pic.
Silly gifts are the mere wrapping of what this night means for me.
It's a gathering of good friends who have journeyed through life together over the past year through the magic and meaning of books.  Book discussions allow a window into our souls because different aspects of each book resonates with each person in a unique way.   Sometimes people hate the book.  Other times people love the book.  Every once in awhile we all actually like the book!  But we always learn something new, enjoy being together and come away more enriched for having read the book and entering into the discussion with one another.
Gifts are a part of the Christmas season, whether they be silly white elephants or serious, well thought out gifts.  It is fun to both give and receive gifts.  But the real gift of giving lies in the relationship that we share with the one doing the giving or the getting.  God knows this.  That's why he created us to enjoy relationship with both him and others.  Tonight I'm thankful for the relationships I enjoy with my book buddies.

Book Club: Middlesex

Last night was one of the most fun, most interesting book clubs we've had.  And dare I say, it even included a surprise ending that left us with our jaws dropped and our bellies rolling with laughter!  The novel was Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.  If you are in a book club, you must read this book.  Even if you aren't, you should read this book!  This is a great novel about immigrating to America, pursuing the American dream by hook or by crook, complex family and social relationships, and one person's quest to find identity and belonging through a complicated maze of circumstances.  You will read things about America that will surprise you and perhaps make you feel a bit uncomfortable.  There are some strange and difficult sexually oriented sections but it's more strange than erotic and they are germane to the story.  You will see the immigrant's struggle and some of the biases that are unfairly attached to immigrants.  You will feel the pain of leaving a homeland because of war and seeking to build a life elsewhere.  You will see how one generation builds upon another to create a better world for the offspring to come.  You will see how a young person navigates relationships, family, school life and friendships.  I was deeply moved by the attention to detail Eugenides pays to just about everything.  Some of my favorite lines in the book include the following:

On marriage:  "To be happy you have to find variety in repetition."

On being the "right" kind of immigrant in America: "It was about Mayflower and Plymouth Rock and everything that happened for two minutes 4oo years ago instead of everything that had happened since…instead of everything that was happening now."

On seeking to adapt to the new world whilst hanging onto the former: The wife packed her husband's lunch filled with Greek delicacies into the new American invention...the brown paper bag.

So many beautifully written moments that will awaken a variety of feelings from within.  It certainly did within each of us gathered around Mary Beth's table last night.

The title of Middlesex is layered with meaning.  Of course, the town is called Middlesex, but more importantly, the main character is a reflection of being a middle sex...the character is a hermaphrodite.  Yes, this lends itself to some odd moments in the story and there are definitely some morally questionable bits as to how this came about...siblings and cousins marry one another, but the author handles these delicacies with such care that the reader is drawn into the complicated web of family life with compassion and interest rather than with disgust.  The coming of age core of the book is in part why critics have lauded this novel as one of the great American novels and it really is quite a poignant story of a young person's struggle to figure out who she/he really is.

So at the end of this lively, wonderful, layered conversation, the most venerated of our book club members, an amazing, insightful and wonderfully articulate woman of 81 years young looks across the table and says, "I want to ask Jodi a specific question but I don't know if I dare to."  Now, I have been asked many things in my life and I have been told many things and I have seen many complicated, messy and painful situations in people's lives so I was pretty confident that whatever zinger this dear friend would throw at me, I could handle it.  Believe me, I've never been so unprepared for a question in my life!

She first established that in hermaphrodites, one sexual organ is usually more developed than the other therefore the ones with well developed female organs can have children whilst those with dominant male organs cannot.  So the big question of the night was simply this: "Is it possible, that the virgin Mary was a hermaphrodite and therefore that is how the virgin birth came about?"  After I picked myself up off the floor and scooped my jaw back into my face, I replied, "Well, I don't think that would preach well on Christmas Eve!"  It was one of those wonderful, unexpected and bizarre twists to book club that we have come to love and appreciate!  To think that the thought had actually crossed her mind whilst reading this book was the most remarkable thing of all to me.  It was a wonderful night.  I always feel so filled with with thoughts, opinions, ideas and friendship when I return from book club.  I'm very thankful for the range of thought this group brings to my life...no matter how nutty, however outrageous it may be. 

Advent day 9

Tonight was our annual Book Club White Elephant Gift Exchange Christmas party. I started this tradition a few years back when we realized that getting a book read for December was tough due to the holiday and travel demands of everyone in the group. I hated to miss an opportunity to gather so I began this wonderful tradition. The rules are simple...you cannot buy a gift but rather you must find something in your home that you no longer want! It's amazing what we have come up with over the years but this year was particularly interesting. One of our favorite parts of the evening is trying to guess who brought what and that always reveals a little bit more information about each one of us!
The gifts are given out via Yankee Swap...each gets a number and you can either draw from the pile or steal someone else's. We always have at least two rounds and it gets a little rowdy sometimes, especially because as is the case with all White Elephants, there is always some treasure that emerges as a fan favorite! This year it was a little stuffed dog lying on a cute white pillow. A couple of the women could see that a granddaughter or niece might really like this cast off gift!
I feel that I ended up with an enviable gift. A matching set of "racing nun dolls" along with a "Nuns Having Fun" 2o09 calendar that is filled with hilarious photos and captions. I just couldn't pass it up and it has actually inspired me to begin collecting bizarre religious kitch...we've received several of these types of gifts through the years and it's amazing what's out there in the name of religion. Most profoundly, in the midst of our laughter and joy, we shared our heartfelt love for one another and proved once again that the gifts we give to one another have nothing to do with how much money gets spent. We have way more fun exchanging these throw aways than we ever could by seeking to buy one another "real gifts." The real gift is the way in which we care for one another and extend love and concern to one another. I've received it. I certainly hope that the others have received it from me. Recently, a woman (not in our book club) who we most of us love and admire in the American Women's Club, lost her husband quite unexpectedly. I felt that we couldn't really dive into the frivolity of our evening without acknowledging the gift of friendship that we share and the bond of love and support that we now extend to our dear friend. I asked my book club friends to join me in a moment of prayer as we started our evening. They all willingly participated. It was a tender moment, one filled with tears and love and a recognition of the true gift we are to one another.
The night was filled with much laughter and much joy. But we also took time to acknowledge that many in our midst are struggling. Family members are ill, futures are uncertain and changing, longings remain. But we offered our prayers to God and pledged our support to one another and that my friends is no White Elephant Gift. It is the real deal...the genuine article. My book club friends have come to mean a great deal to me and in the midst of our laughter there is also often tears and always we come away refreshed, renewed, inspired and thankful. I hope each of you has a place where you find the same.