One of the biggest unknowns when we moved to West Ashley was finding a new church. Leaving our old church in Summerville was very hard -- we love it and the people (in fact Charlie and I still attend the Ladies Bible Study), but we knew it would be important to find a church and church family much closer to our new home.
As we plan to send Charlie to James Island Christian School next year, our first stop was James Island Christian Church. It's not the closest to our house, but still less than 15 minutes -- plus we would love for Charlie to have a real feeling of community and closeness to church family since all of our "real family" is so far.
Being me, I was fairly sure we wouldn't like it. First, I'm incredibly picky about churches and second, it would just be too great to love the school and church equally (impressive faith, huh?).
Well thankfully (and surprisingly) we love JICC. The pastors are passionate about teaching the Bible and serving God and the people are very friendly. Therein lies the one challenge though -- there are lots and lots and lots of people. JICC is easily five time bigger than either Grace Christian Fellowship or Beth Haven.
Determined to overcome my natural anti-social behavior and meet the moms of all these kids Charlie is falling in love with in children's church, I decided to attend the ladies Christmas party Monday evening (with much encouragement from Jason).
Since I didn't work myself up to commit to it until Monday morning, I hadn't planned my finger food or bought an ornament yet. Thankfully we still had plenty of homemade Christmas sugar cookies, so I picked out the prettiest of those and did my best to "artfully" arrange them on a paper plate. I waivered back and forth on the ornament, leaning towards just sitting out of the game -- but I am really trying hard to step up and be social, so I did what any forgetful mom on a budget would do: I found the prettiest, non-sentimental ornament on our tree and wrapped it up. What could go wrong, right?
Well, apparently any social graces fail me when I leave the house without Jason or Charlie, because I managed to launch the plate of cookies across the driveway while getting in the car -- and I don't even have a four year old or groceries or ice to blame...sigh... Amazingly the Ziploc baggie seemed to protect them, so rather than venture back in the house, I soldiered on.
I then found myself driving aimlessly through Parrot Bluff rather than Parrot Point, so I was saved from an uncomfortably early arrival, and when I did arrive I was able to tuck my cookies into the dessert table without anyone noticing and silently vow to avoid that room for the rest of the night.
I quickly found a cup of water to give me something to do with my hands, wandered aimlessly a bit to appear less awkward (brilliantly successful, I'm sure...as I more or less paced up and down a hallway). Finally, I found a friendly looking lady near the back door and worked myself up to start a conversation. Turns out Sherry is a lovely lady who knows almost everyone, and even introduced me to one of the key coordinators of mom events -- her daughter-in-law! Yay!
Next I had a friendly chat with the pastor's wife in the buffet line then enjoyed the meal with Margaret, another lovely woman who assured me I don't need to -- nor will I ever -- know everyone. I just need to find my niche. I just adore practical advice.
Sounds like a successful evening, right? Well, here is where that ornament comes back in... As all of the ladies gathered in the living room for the exchange and I tried to get an unobtrusive spot, I heard the hostess' daughter announce the rules..."when someone selects your ornament, you step forward and explain why you chose that one to bring..."
What!?!?! When does that ever happen???? The one time I regift in my life I have to own up to it immediately?!?!?!? Uggghhh....
I contemplated just announcing that I'd brought it because it was "pretty", like many of the other women -- a true fact, then remembered that I'd confided in Leah, standing next to me that I had taken it off my tree when she admitted she wasn't participating because her husband had suggested she do the same and she refused. Why do I have such a big mouth????
After a few rounds, a lady chose the gift bag with two Boston Terriers in Santa hats (classy, huh?) and the spotlight was on me... I walked forward, unsure of what I would say and told the truth. Everyone laughed kindly and to my defense, it is a really pretty ornament...but this is definitely not how I intended to start building relationships...
It could have been any social situation I attended in 1993...at this point I'm just grateful four volcanic pimples didn't appear on my chin and my hair didn't spontaneously kink into a perm...
Praise God that I have a socially adept husband and son to tag along with most of the time!
