22.12.06

the Christmas Getting to Know the Neighbors Campaign!

Over the next two days (our Saturday and Sunday) we are going to begin our Christmas Getting to Know the Neighbors Campaign. Okay I just made that name up. Catchy, no? Ideally we would've liked to have a Christmas party in some capacity, but since we don't know many people in town, or at least not enough to constitute a good party, we realized we should use Christmas as a good excuse to meet our neighbors and build some relationships so next year we can have a real kickin' party!

Today I bought 3.5 kg of eggless sweets. (that's 1.59lbs!) At first I was going to bake some eggless cookies and fudge and things like that, but husband had the brilliant idea of using South Asian sweets
instead. First of all, that eliminates any stress in the kitchen. And secondly, it will show our neighbors that Christmas doesn't have to be all western with weird treats, or cake, which is what they actually think Christmas is about. This is a bit more contextual to show them they can celebrate Christmas too. So here is what 3.5kg of South Asian sweets look like. The foiled covered things are called barfi, just in different flavors. Don't be fooled by the gag-worthy name; it's actually really tasty. It's like fudge, only without the chocolate. Or the marshmallows. So I'm not sure how it's like fudge, but go with me. And the foil stuff is supposed to be eaten with it. The first time someone gave me barfi, I threw it away because I couldn't get the foil stuff off and all I could think about was getting Alzheimer's later on. But I don't think it's actually foil... (Anyone know?) Anyway the rest of the stuff is...I don't know. The little round things taste like plain sugar in a ball. And the other two are too big for me to try. But I'm sure our neighbors will recognize them, and probably love them more than my mocha caramel cookies anyway.

I'm wrapping them in bags and tying them up with a gold ribbon and a verse explaining very simply what Christmas is all about. And then the door knocking starts! We're not going all white shirt/black tie/bicycle on the neighbors. We're just trying to introduce ourselves, tell them Merry Christmas, and hopefully they will invite us in or at least remember us as gracious people. I like that in Phil 4 - "Let your graciousness be known..." that's our hopes, and we ask you all to send money for this opportunity. We are asking the boss to open homes and to open hearts to us and our message, open doors for us to share with them, and that we can begin some great relationships from this. Thanks for your part in this!

3 comments:

SouthAsiaRocks said...

The foil is actually REAL SILVER!!! Seriously! You can look it up! They get silver and pound it into "foil" (there's a couple of different ways they do that, and one of them is non-veg, which most "south Asians" don't know) and put it on top! Ta-da!

So, hook me up with those mocha caramel cookies!!! (or at least the recipe, they sound awesome!!)

Emily said...

I knew you'd be the one to know the answer! You're a walking encyclopedia. :)

SouthAsiaRocks said...

hahaha!