Party Time!

Playing a "pass the gift" game

Last night we had a party for some of our neighbors -the ones who speak to us, plus the government official's family who live across the street. They have two cars and two drivers and lots of servants. They didn't come. But, six of the eight invited families came. We played games. My job was to retrieve the snowballs they through through the snowman. On the right is the youngest boy upstairs. We play together a lot! In the next photo, on the left in green is my beloved landlady. She gives me meat! She takes care of me when Lady goes "out of station." The other lady is our back door neighbor. We are separated by iron safety bars and wire mesh. I can't get through.

Merry Christmas!

Lady and I went for a sleepover at D. & B.'s home for Christmas Eve. We had a progressive dinner with three families. It was loads of fun! I got a lot of gifts last night between the ones my human grandma and grandpa sent me and the ones my friends gave me! Then, this morning, I opened my stocking and even more gifts! Santa brought a new Pooh bear, squeaky toys, and lots of chews. Auntie B. gave me chicken for breakfast! I had buffalo for dinner! I've had a really good Christmas. I hope you have, too!

Merry Christmas and God bless you!

Love,

Marley

Lady and I went for a sleepover at D & B.'s house. This is Christmas morning. Santa has been here and we are opening our gifts and stockings. I don't need any help.

That's a baby boy. The mother will put dark spots on his face to ward off evil spirits. They keep their hair long until they are about three, making it difficult sometimes to tell the girls from the boys. We can tell when they run around with no pants on.

Our Construction Worker Christmas Party

Not everybody was happy about our party today. One of the neighbor ladies became very angry with us. She called some people to make trouble for us, but it all worked out in the end.

We passed out meal packets and gift bags to all our guests.

Our guests listened intently to the story and songs.

Christmas Party

The kids were the first to arrive at our party today. I helped entertain them. They love to have their photo taken.

Cows and Goats

While Christians prepare for Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, Muslims are preparing for a different Holy day. It's called Baqri, or "cow sacrifice," but, Muslim families will also sacrifice a goat or a sheep, or some other appropriate beast. We've been hearing the bleating of a goat for days. He is tied to his gate and being fattened up. Poor guy, doesn't know what's coming. Some of the water buffalo and cows on our street have also been grazing daily. We won't know until tomorrow if one of these has been chosen to be sacrificed in the name of some family members. A special butcher will come to bleed the animal before it is cooked and eaten. Part of the meat will be distributed to the poor. Our neighborhood tent families hope to be recipients. This sacred festival is in commemoration of the ram sacrificed by Abraham in place of his son. You can read the whole story in Genesis chapter 22.
As you know, we have many Hindu neighbors as well. This morning we received a flyer pleading for people not to kill cows and bulls. "Indian cows are endangered species -please protect them from killing." It goes on to say, " Cows give us milk and cow dung which is very essential for agriculture which is the backbone of our economy. Cow is like our second Mother. Mother feeds us milk for one year, but cow feeds us throughout our life."
Living in such a spiritual country with Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhists, and others as neighbors is a different experience from living in China. Most people we knew didn't believe in anything. Many were Buddhists. You can check my archives to see some of the temples I've visited. We are learning more about this culture every day. Tomorrow is our Christmas party for the tent people. We're putting up a big tent for them because the weather has been so bad. If it stays very muddy I may have to stay home. I got both my raincoat and coat filthy dirty!

Bags of Blankets

I'm a very tolerant little dog. I'm sitting atop forty blankets Lady purchased yesterday for the tent families. We went around to each tent area on our block and recorded the names of the families and kids. Well, Samson recorded the names. Lady and I entertained the kids. They love for her to pick them up and pretend to drop them. They come to her and throw their arms up in the air and say, "Whoops! Whoops! Auntie!" Some of the tent families are Muslim, and some are Hindu. Most are non-veg which is a surprise to Lady. The Muslims won't eat pork and the Hindus won't eat beef, so we're serving chicken biriani. Lady brought home more than blankets yesterday! She bought me some ground buffalo meat! I can't wait! She has a special pan for frying my meat and rice. Lady and I are so thankful to Auntie Jeano in America, and Auntie C. and Big T. here in our city. They provided funds to help pay for the food and blankets. Lady and I got all the stuff for the kids. They are getting Milky Bars, milk biscuits (which they love), some chocolates, lollipops, pencils, sharpeners, eraser, and a new toothbrush and toothpaste. The families are also getting some cooking spices. I will be handing out goodies to the neighborhood street dogs. Lady says I should share. It's Christmas. Auntie R. and Auntie B. came over last night for a packing party. They helped pack all the blankets into bags, and packed all the gifts into the kids bags. Auntie Al's room is covered in all the bags! We had pizza, macaroni and cheese, and carrots with ranch dip! All my favorites. I am not allowed to have very much dairy at one time, though. But I love carrots! I lick off the dip and want more. Lady says, "no double dipping." So, I chew the carrot. It helps clean my teeth. We have one more day to prepare for our big Christmas Party!

HoHoHo!

Here I am at my desk, getting ready to blog. Would you like a cookie? It's a cold, dreary day here in India, but warm and cozy inside thanks to Lady's baking in the oven! I brought the silk tree from China. We are missing our friends in China!

More Baking

Lady is preparing cookies for a Christmas party. We can't give this kind to the tent kids because they contain egg. Most Hindus don't eat egg products. They are vegetarian like Lady!

Party

This is my living room and my tree. Lydia drove the boys over for the party. Sim won an alarm clock. Mang won a special pen. They sang Christmas carols, but I just listened. They look just like my Chinese friends to me. Qing Qing is in Lady's class but she couldn't come tonight. Her heart language is Chinese, so that is what she always uses with us. It makes me feel at home! After all, Chinese is my heart language, too.

Cookies

I love it when Lady bakes Christmas cookies. But, this plateful is not for me. She makes mine with no sugar, and different flour. Oh well, a guy can try, can't he? We had a small party for Lady's ESL students from the seminary where Lady goes to church on Sundays. She volunteers each week in a class for the Burmese students. These boys had never had any kind of American food. It was fun watching them eat pizza, quiche, chips and salsa, and veggies and dip for the first time. They didn't want to eat these sugar cookies. They just wanted to look at them.

SUNDAY

I miss Auntie K. I used to go to her home on Sundays, and watch the cat that lives across the street. She went back to the states to be with her family. She's not coming back. She sent my bowl and my mat home with me. How sad is that? So, now Lady doesn't take me there anymore. I have house church at home.
Lady was walking to the store today and got invited to a Christmas Program at a City Harvest Church. The girls (about 25 of them) were from a girl's home for disadvantaged girls. Some are learning to be tailors, and some are learning about computers. Most are orphans. The girls sang a song and did a dance with sticks. Most of the churches are having their Christmas parties now. Lady went to another one last night. The tradition here is to go caroling to all the church members' homes. It takes weeks to do this, in some cases. Our landlord's church caroling team came here last week. We thought they were coming to our home, but they went upstairs. We didn't know how it worked, but someone explained it to Lady. There are lots of Christmas decorations around, but still many, many temples, gurus, and mosques. We have a very large mosque nearby, and hear the call to pray at 5:30 AM, and other times throughout the day. We often pass girls in full burka, with nothing showing but their face, or sometimes only their eyes. Lady speaks to them and they giggle.
So, there's a lot going on this holiday season. It is very different from China. The Christian church there has a Christmas Program, but other than a couple of songs, it really has nothing to do with Christmas. There's no pageant. In China they are really good at having a Christmas celebration without Christ. Here, there are all kinds of programs, but we haven't seen the story of the First Christmas yet, but we do see people freely worshipping the Christ of Christmas. That's different.

Gingerbread Stables

Here the kids are working on their stables. A mom and a friend came to help! They made the baby Jesus out of peanutbutter dough with tinted coconut hay.

Christmas Party

Lady's class made gingerbread stables, then ate them. Lady brought hers home and shared. I love holidays!

My Stocking

My stocking was in the box that finally came from China. We don't have a chimney, or even a banister. In the case, you can see where we have received some Christmas cards from friends in America. Lady gets so excited whenever she gets a card! That's usually my role! I'm excited every time Lady walks in the door. Notice our new potted plant? A family moving to Thailand gave it to us! Thank you A & M!

It's a lot warmer here in India than it was in China. By now I was always wearing a sweater or a coat. Sometimes I even walked in the snow and wore my sweater AND a coat. It's chilly in the mornings and evenings, but very warm during the day.

We're both excited about our first Christmas in India. Lady has two Christmas functions tomorrow. She is having lunch with her Korean student's family, and then going to a church's Christmas dinner with Pastor Sam. Monday, her ESL class will be coming over for their Christmas party. I love Christmas parties! We're also planning our party for the tent kids. Every day they ask for food and clothing. Lady's students gave some candy to give them. We hope to give each family a blanket, a hot meal, and some provisions. Of course, I am planning the street dog party. I'll be giving out doggie cookies and flea spray. For Christmas Eve, Lady and I have been invited over to Auntie Beth's to spend the night! I'm taking my stocking! And my blankie, and my rug, and my Pooh coat, and my doggie dishes...

My Box Finally Came!

Our tree was a little bare, but yesterday, my box with all our Christmas ornaments and decorations arrived from China. We've been waiting for months! It had been opened but we think everything is there. Lady was most concerned about her handmade ornaments by her Gram. They are precious to her. She also has ornaments made by other family members, friends, and former students. Some of them Lady made. She also has ornaments from different parts of the world. She used to leave these packed in a box at my American grandma's home, but she decided to keep them with her and use them. The tree holds many memories that way. I have several ornaments on the tree. I have an apple with my name on it from my first Christmas with Lady. I have a stocking ornament with my picture in it! Speaking of stockings, that's what I was concerned about. Where would Santa put my presents? If you want to see photos from past Christmases, check my archives. Lady was glad to get some of her craft materials in the box. She had her class Christmas party today. I got to go after school to help Lady pack up. I got some of the gingerbread stable the kids made. Auntie Beth not only brought the gingerbread stables, she also brought candy canes. She told them the candy cane story. I already know that story. We used it in China last year to share the true meaning of Christmas. Lady and her friends gave out thousands of candy canes with the Christmas message. We had so many Christmas parties last year. So many of the Chinese wanted to know about how Americans celebrate Christmas. I think they just wanted Lady's cookies. Now that her cookie cutters have arrived, she will be baking some Christmas cookies! She makes a batch of doggie cookies just for me. I will share them with the street dogs.
Auntie Al left for America, but we don't know if she has arrived yet. We miss her.

I'm Helping

I'm helping pass out the new shoes! The kids came running when they saw Auntie Al and Lady bringing bags to their tents. Unfortunately, we didn't have shoes for the little bitty humans or the older kids. They kept following us and begging for shoes, but we didn't have any to give them. Pastor S had to yell at them and tell them to quit. We've told their parents that when we have things to give them, we will bring it to them. But they come to our gate and yell, "Auntie, Auntie, biscuit, Auntie, bate (clothes), Auntie..." Our landlady gets upset with Lady, and Lady gets annoyed. When we give them things, they always want more. Lady says we must do what we can and leave the rest to God. It is not our place to judge them. I was good. I didn't bite the boys who were grabby and following us. They just want some shoes. I don't know why. I don't wear any. It's not just the kids who come to our gate and beg. The street dogs come and whine! We have a rule: we never give out anything from our gate. It seems as soon as the kids learn the rules, they go back to their home village and new ones come! We have to start all over again. Some of our favorite kids have gone back to their home village. Their neighbors say they will come back in a month. Even when they are annoying, Lady and Auntie Al still love them, care about them, and want to help them. And so, every day, I walk Lady through the neighborhood, and we try to love on them a little bit.

New shoes!

New shoes! We brought the school kids here for Children's Day. They practiced their local language with the people. The students in Lady's school donated clothing for these poor kids. It's been cold, so she is very happy to have long sleeves and jeans.