Vietnam, Cookies, and a New Tree...

Even as I word process, I am simultaneously digesting my ethnic luncheon meal from church. St. Paul United Methodist has been host for years to one of just a few Vietnamese Methodist churches. Today, the two congregations gathered for a celebration of immenent ground-breaking of the brand new Vietnamese Methodist Church facility. This is all very exciting, but so was the meal!!!! We had homemade egg rolls, fried rice, sweet egg rolls (which we were assured have yet to appear anywhere else in the entire city as of yet), lo mein-type dishes, etc. It was amazing! All of this AND Garrett spent the whole meal "flirting" with the little Vietnamese girl at the next table...she was less than a year old and he just wanted to make her laugh, which he did...a lot!
Last night Eric and the boys made several batches of homemade chocolate chip cookies to take to the celebration. They LOVE to cook! Really, those were some of the best cookies I think have ever been created in any of our kitchens, but DEFINITELY the best we've made since arriving at the new kitchen.
Finally, we spent the afternoon at my grandma and grandpa's farm yesterday. My two sisters and all of our kids were there and it was awesome! There were kids running everywhere and yelling and squealing and climbing and running... I asked Grandma if she was irritated by all the chaos and noise. She said no, that it sounded like life again, just like it did when her own children were around and when the grandchildren visited, too. She almost cried. I'll post pics later, but don't have time now to do all of the editing and stuff. Anyway, our purpose was for more than a casual visit. She asked me earlier in the week to come back and get a few trees to bring to my new yard. I was all over that since buying trees is terribly expensive. We brought home a great maple tree that's about five or six feet tall and very healthy, as well as two pecan saplings which will grow in pots for a few years and then we'll transplant them. We inherited a dead Bradford when we bought this place, so we just put the maple in its place! :0)