December On The West Coast

There is something quite magical about Christmas in the city. The city fairly sparkles with twinkling, warm lights. And now, some of the mountains around are capped in fresh glistening snow. We have had quite a few sunny, warm December days wherein I inquire whether or not it is really December. Also, there have been some misty, foggy, drippy, wintry days wherein the wind sends the last few autumn leaves away and splatters raindrops on the windowpanes. These are the days we spend tucked away inside with the furnace raging, the coffee steaming, and the candles flickering. (Except for Brent. He braves the weather and spreads the Word to a weary world.) We do venture out these days, rain or shine, to check the mail for Christmas cards, take a walk, or go to the park. “Boofilul day, Mom,” says Elliot as dull gray clouds threaten to spill rain on us while we are making a dash for the mailbox. (Thank you kindly to each one who has sent cheery Christmas mail our way.)

We so much enjoyed getting to know Kevin and Roxanne, that I think I will share their story with you. (I am certain Kevin would not mind.) He, Kevin Brock, joined our church in West Valley a few years ago. He is a fishing and hunting guide. He has spent time in Alaska, Oregon, California, etc. While on a hunting trip in Texas, he met Roxanne. She was from Detroit. They fell in love, were married, and now they are doing life together. As I wrote in an earlier letter, they are living right close to us in a camper on the delta during the Striper season. One evening they took us out on their boat. It was certainly a pleasure to explore some of the delta by boat. Elliot was very delighted for the opportunity to fish and reel in the rods with Roxanne’s help. He says he wants to go fishing with Donald Trump now. Dream on, dear boy. Ezra and I spent part of the day with Roxanne while Kevin was away on an overnight duck hunt. We shopped downtown, ate at an Italian restaurant that proved to be quite a lot fancier than we expected, and got coffee at Chrome Coffee. Later that evening we went to their campsite and found Kevin skinning the ducks and the goose we were going to have for supper. He grilled them, and we devoured them. Delicious.

We have officially reached San Francisco with our tract routes now. I will not miss a day of tract work in or around San Francisco. There is so much to be seen. Whether we are winding our way down the mountain on steep roads that end at the sea, driving Skyline Drive with the bay on one side and the sea on the other, craning to see the antics of a homeless soul in a soiled pink bath robe, stopping to walk the pier in Pacifica and watch the waves, or ducking into a charming coffee shop, it is all so fun. It is indeed surreal to be driving Hwy 1 and taking in the splendid scenery all while spreading the Word. One day I will do an entire blog post on the sights and sounds and horrors and food and people of San Francisco.

We were privileged to be invited to sing carols at the San Francisco train station one Saturday. (Thanks to Dave + Katie.) We boarded the train about five minutes from our house and into the big city we sped. I love riding the train, for it is so entertaining. It is not super ideal with the boys, as it is not always possible to get seats together if trains are full or if we are changing trains here and there. On a Saturday, the trains are not as full. We had to change trains numerous times, and each time we sat by someone new. Quite the styles there are to look at. One elderly couple came on and sat right behind me. Clearly, Ezra takes after his Daddy as he insists on talking to everyone nearby. The elderly couple could be heard arguing over who exactly the baby was smiling at. Presently I heard the older gentleman kindly informing his wife that yes indeed she did have a bald spot on the back of her head. She was quite horrified, to say the least, and kept asking him if it was really true. She was dolled up and well-dressed. I never saw a bald spot, but neither did I try very hard. They went on to discuss a security guard who was riding on the train. They were quite certain he was just a regular guy dressed as a security guard so he could ride free. I guess security guards, police, and such get a free ride. Another guy was lying on the seats across from us. I think he had had a hit of something relaxing and he was in La La Land. Upon our arrival at Powell Street in San Francisco, we met with Livingston, Winton, and some Ballico people. There is an exceptionally large mall there with I do not know how many stories. We all went to the food court and got lunch at various places before heading to the train station to sing. (Bryce and Janae joined us for Brazilian food. We just raved about the food, mostly.) That train station sang so well. When the first notes of Silent Night hit, I got chills. It was beautiful. As trains came and went, people would flood through there and stop to clap and cheer and take pictures. A few of the men and even some ladies were busy handing out tracts and chatting with people. We sang for about an hour and a half. I won’t forget the one Asian guy who passed through. He had a stroller with two dogs in it. They were dressed to the nines in Christmas sweaters, bows, and all. He and the dogs seemed very enchanted by the singing. After the last notes of Joy to the World had faded away, everyone split ways. We went with Dave, Katie, and a man named Matthew to get coffee. A fair amount of walking ensued. It is interesting to walk the streets of San Francisco, as you never know what one might encounter. Also, some of the streets are so incredibly steep. (Thank you, Dave, for pushing the stroller for me. He took one look at me laid out behind that stroller, pushing it up a very steep street and kindly offered to take over.) The cable cars going by were busy and packed with tourists as they clanged up and down the city’s signature hills. We toured the Cable Car Museum, walked through China Town, and found a place to eat supper. Nightfall found us speeding toward home on a brightly lit train. We listened in to a phone conversation a man was having with his wife, whom he was just finding out had been unfaithful to him. What a sad world we live in. I felt bad for him and thankful for my life. Also, as I sat watching the blur of city lights flashing past the smudged train window, I was thankful I was not homeless in a cold city with nowhere safe to sleep and nothing warm to drink.

The next week on Friday we met Glenn and Princeton at the same train station and caroled all over again.

The Ballico young couples kindly included us in their Christmas party. We met at about 4 pm on a Saturday afternoon and went caroling. Bryce, Janae, and Adeline piled into Silvia with us, and we were off. We got into some pretty cool places. At one mansion we got to explore a wine cellar. Down a lighted winding staircase, through a heavy wooden door, and there it was. Cool, dark, and full of wine barrels and bottles. We peered into a dark, damp, secret tunnel that led to who knows where. At another place we got served the best tamales in the history of ever and now I am a tamale fan. Back at the house, Keith and Faylene’s, we were served warm beef stew, sourdough bread, and salads. A lively gift exchange followed wherein gifts were stolen and laughter was had. We stayed for Sunday. Spent the night at Bryce and Janae’s. Greg Dyck, who has been doing extensive studies on the book of Revelations, gave teachings morning and evening. Very interesting. We found ourselves at Bennie and Sher’s after church for a comfy, cozy hour or two. (They are the best.) 11:00 pm found us headed for home.

The other Sunday as we were walking the Antioch pier, we spotted sea lions. Yes, sea lions were spotted just five minutes from our place. How cool is that? I do not know if we will ever see them again, but we are surely going to keep an eye out for them now that we know they are here. Just wanted to let y’all know that.

I know this is plenty long already, but I have to tell you about the night we took the boys to a Christmas Fair in Stockton. We had been seeing advertisements around for this Magic Christmas at the fairgrounds. The website boasted two miles of Christmas lights, ice skating, pictures with Santa, hot cocoa, and so on. Sounds amazing, right? We pull up and see a few strings of Christmas lights. I quickly reassured Brent and the boys that there was wayyyy more to it than just that. Well, sadly I was wrong. There was not a lot more to it. Brent and I were hooting the whole time. It was so low-key we could not believe we had even paid a dime to get in there. We had to be patted down with a metal detector wand before we could enter. There were also security guards all over, so we knew we were definitely in Stockton. And the two miles of lights? Well, let us just say there were a few paths here and there lined with some T-posts that had plastic orange construction fence stretched between them, and one string of lights running along the top of the fence. There were three little bounce houses that were overflowing with screaming, jumping kids, an “ice rink” made of clipped-together squares of white plastic for the ice, and a very jolly Santa. A makeshift white tent was set up by the bounce houses and a strong smell of frying spam floated our way. Presently Brent went over to investigate and talked with the guy awhile. He said he certainly did not feel like being at this place cooking spam. They had called him last minute and asked him to set up a food booth and he had not had time to prepare anything more than rice and fried spam. He said he was gonna take it up a notch by crushing some pork rinds on top of the rice. We had a good laugh. Fifteen dollar laughs. The boys did love the bounce houses but did not seem overly infatuated with the lights for some reason. I think the street tacos we found down the road beat the fried spam and rice. (Even if they had crushed pork rinds on top.)

We feel very privileged and thankful that we are being allowed to travel to Oregon for a few days over Christmas. (We will just cut our furlough a little short since we are going away for a couple of days.) Brent’s family will join us at Vince and Moni’s for Christmas. Thankfully we just got our Explorer out of the shop, so it will be done in time for us to drive to OR for Christmas. (Our Explorer sits in our garage, and suddenly started leaking oil the other day. We took it in, and they had to pull the engine to fix the problem. So, a nice bill for us to pay. :( Elliot was sure his black car was just in the shop getting race car tires put on, but sadly, it was a little more extensive than that.)

Merry Christmas to you all, from California.