Though we titled our Christmas Day dinner a French feast, it really was the story of five loaves and two fishes in New York City.
With Christmas approaching in New York, Sister Ann Jones and I felt that as missionaries sans families that rather than be alone on December 25th, we could host a Christmas Day dinner and invite the other couple missionaries in our apartment building. Though our apartments are compact, a multi-purpose room is adjacent to our office. With 20 people responding, we planned a tasty menu, gave assignments and looked forward to a Joyeux Nol. The Joneses had lived in Paris for three years when Charles was called as mission president in France, which lent authenticity to our event.
The Sunday before Christmas, December 23rd, I happened to talk to a pair of elders in our Harlem ward and asked if they had an invitation for Christmas dinner. They said they did but that a couple of missionaries in Chinatown did not. I said that of course we would be happy to have them join us.
It turned out that a “couple of missionaries” were actually ten missionaries, six of them hungry elders. Grocery shopping in quantity in midtown Manhattan is indeed a challenge with crowded stores and only carrying or carting bags home on foot. We had already made a run to Costco with a borrowed minivan-an almost all-day experience miles away, and it was not possible to ask all our cooks to go shopping again on Christmas Eve.
Ann gulped as I told her about the now increased number of guests; our only worry was having enough food. We peeled a few more potatoes for potatoes au gratin and added more greens to the salads and hoped there would be enough beef with Bernaise sauce to go around. Someone found a Buche de Nol at a nearby bakery.
This experience for us was the miracle of the loaves and fishes; not only did we have just the right amount of food, it was according to one diner, the “best French food in town.”
Our dinner would have been an enjoyable one shared with our friends, the other missionary couples. But to host ten young sisters and elders with the wonderful spirit they brought and the stories they shared about their backgrounds and missionary work was an unforeseen blessing. All of them expressed gratitude for having a place to go on Christmas Day, when they were so far from their homes and missing their families. We missed our families, too, and the usual traditions; nevertheless, this experience of sharing our beef and croissants was for the Joneses and the Petersons the highlight of Christmas.
Thank you to Kim Tovey for the photos.