'Tis the Season, Part 2

Thursday night was family night this week, since John's regular Thursday committment got cancelled. He called me from his bike on the other side of town, wondering if I wanted to get the girls ready and to meet him at Pizza Hut. He didn't need to ask me twice!

As I've mentioned before, the Pizza Hut here in our city is a really nice dining experience. It is decorated beautifully, spotlessly clean, and has the nicest public bathrooms of anywhere I've been in this Asian country. The service is very good and the pizzas taste almost exactly like American pizzas. And if we bring our student ID card, we get 20% off our total bill, every time! So that means we can get a large pepperoni pizza and a pitcher of Coke for just under $10. It's an affordable luxury.

Lately the Pizza Hut has been all decked out for Christmas, complete with a Christmas music soundtrack and the waitresses wearing Santa hats, with one waitress wearing an entire special Santa outfit. There's one waitress in particular who has served our table just about every time we've visited. After the second time, I asked her name and since then have tried to get to know her a little bit.

The last time she served us, she was wearing the Santa outfit and had a bag of candy gifts that she was handing out. I took the opportunity to ask her if she knew what Christmas was about. She seemed to have no idea. She knew it was December 25th, and that was about it. I was able to share just a bit with her, but I found it highly ironic that there could be such emphasis on decorating for Christmas, and celebrating Christmas, when there was almost no understanding of what Christmas celebrates.

My hope for her is that she will read what I gave her and come to accept it, and have a real reason to have joy in her heart and a truly Merry Christmas.

Listening to "O Come, All Ye Faithful" on the soundtrack, eating pepperoni pizza, enjoying Clara Anne and Chloe's antics, and sharing the reason for the season--now that's the way to spend family night!