Project Advent, Day 14: All Saints Chess Club

12/14/2011


A really funny thing happened during my shift at Second Helpings yesterday, and I was so excited to have met Billy Gillispie that I completely forgot to write about it.  A lot of this was in the live delivery, so I probably can't do it justice here.  Nancy, who leads the Second Helpings ministry, was telling us about a visit from her granddaughters last week.  They were having the nicest time, laughing together, and trying on some of Nancy's sweaters.  She told us how sweet she thought they were.  Then she found out that the reason they were so interested in her sweaters is because they were looking for something to wear to an ugly Christmas sweater party.  "And just that fast, I went from telling them what darlings they were to telling them that they were monsters who needed to get out of my closet right that very second, thankyouverymuchandIhopeJesussavesyou!"

Today, it was back to All Saints for my last chess club visit of 2011, since the kids' last day of school before Christmas break is Tuesday.  I had sort of wanted to bring some kind of gift along with me to give to the kids, but since attendance varies from five to fifteen kids, I couldn't decide what it should be.  I also don't have too much money to put into it, since payday doesn't come until tomorrow.  Since the club meets at lunch time, I decided just to bring some cookies along, and that turned out to be just fine with the five boys who showed up today.

While Blake and Ripon played, I started a game with a second grader named Aiden.  I thought that I was being crafty, and then he closed the noose and checkmated me.  I'm going to have to use the Christmas break to strengthen my game some...

After our game, Blake wanted to play me, but we only got a few moves in before the guys had to put away the boards and go back to class.  I promised him that if he did his homework and cleaned his room quickly tonight, we'd play at home.  There's a stone chess set that used to be my dad's, and Blake really likes to play with it.  There were quite a few cookies left, so Blake and I took them over to the teacher's lounge for them to enjoy.  A double shot of service!

Gratitude Project: I had the best talk on the phone with my in-laws earlier this week, and it occurred to me again how fortunate I am to have married into their family.  So many people don't care about their in-laws, and I'm blessed enough to have in-laws who I actually wish I could see more of.

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