Merry Christmas (And Pseudo-Christmas Eve)!

Today started off like a normal work day, and really felt very much like any Sunday at work except that I told everyone "Merry Christmas" instead of "Good Morning".  I went to the worship service, hung out with some middle schoolers, and led a bunch of kids in the weekly fellowship lunch/games time.  Then, I went back home, hung around for a couple hours, threw my suitcase in the car, and drove off to the airport.

You would think that flying on Christmas would feel really strange, but it felt just like any other trip to the airport.  Surprisingly, my flight was completely full.  But, since I was one of the very first people to board the plane, I got a seat in the front row, and had sooooooo much leg room.  It was fantastic.  The leg room bonus even made up for the fact that the woman next to me was treating the plane seat like a La-Z-Boy and therefore infringing upon my personal space.  And, after an hour and a half, I arrived to an all but deserted airport terminal in St. Louis and literally ran across the terminal to my family, the only ones waiting to pick anyone up.  There may have been some tears.

Once we arrived back home, everything shifted into "Christmas Eve" mode...that is, all our family Christmas Eve traditions occurred, even though it's technically a day late.  This includes eating a bunch of shrimp and wearing new Christmas pajamas (which my dad had bought my sister and I as a surprise), and generally hanging about appreciating one another's presence.  Then I wrapped all of the gifts I had shipped to the house, plopped them under the tree, and here I am.  All ready to start Christmas while everyone else's Christmas is ending.

So Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Eve!

It's two days before Christmas.  I spent an hour at work stuffing 300 candles into 300 candle holders for tomorrow's Christmas Eve service.

Time to get into the holiday spirit...

A Christmas Story

Tonight I want to share something that I did not write, but something that I think is worth sharing...

"A Christmas Story" - by David Maldonado, Jr.

A child is born in a new land, born of humble immigrants who seek nothing more than life and hope for tomorrow.

The young couple grabs what they can carry with them and sets out in the dark night. They leave familiar surroundings, as well as their home, friends and family. They expect their first born and wish the child could be born at home surrounded by their community. However, for the sake of the child, the young couple knows they must leave, so they walk out into the cold and dangerous desert night. It is a huge risk for them to leave, but it is also a leap of faith. They hope the land to which they are going will be a life-saving, life-sustaining place.

As they make their way through the darkness, guided only by a sea of brilliant stars, they wonder what their future holds for them and their child. It is their hope for the child that keeps them focused and determined on their trek. They are afraid. They know robbers sometimes attack travelers in the night and in the desert. What if they are caught in the night? Will they be arrested and treated as common criminals? Will they be sent back to their homeland?

Fears have a way of immobilizing some people. But for this young expectant couple, fear drives them even deeper into the night. What they fear the most is life without hope, life without a future for their new family. In their whispers, they encourage each other and pray their child will be born in the new land of hope. They must arrive in their new land before daybreak.

But that is not to be. The child can no longer wait to be born. They are now well into their new land. They know no one here, and their surroundings look strange and foreign. Where can they go for the birth of their child? Who will welcome them and offer hospitality? They knock on the first door they see. The lights are on and the house looks welcoming. They see the curtains move and a face peeking out to see who is knocking on the door. But the door does not open. They hear the voice of a woman inside.

“Who is it?” she asks in a whisper. A male voice from within the house responds in a loud, irritated voice as if wanting to be heard by the travelers standing outside the door.

“Oh, nobody—just some foreigners probably looking for a handout,” the man answers. “They should go back to where they came from.”

The young couple, hearing the voices, keeps going. They are determined to survive. They come to yet another house with its lights still on.

“Maybe they will be more welcoming,” cries the young, pregnant woman. This time, the door opens slightly.

“Who are you? What do you want? Where are you from?” the voice calls from within the slightly opened door.

“We just arrived, and our child is ready to be born,” responds the young father-to-be. “We are not from here. We are not asking for charity. All we need is for our child to be born safely. I am willing to work to repay you for your kindness.”

“Humph! Some more of them. They just cause problems for the rest of us. I wish they would stop coming. I wish they would just leave. Our whole town is changing because of them, but I could sure use his cheap labor in the morning. They are good workers. Hope nobody is looking,” thinks the man from behind the door.

With a suspicious glare, the man yells, “OK, you can stay in the back, but don’t make trouble or we will call the police on you and send you back where you came from.”

And so the child is born in a new land, a child born of humble immigrants who seek nothing more than life and hope for tomorrow. A child is born in a new land, and there is life and hope for a family. 

Many of us know this as the story of the birth of Jesus. It is also the story of the birth of the child of the immigrant today. 

Ehhhh...

The sickness continues.  I had to abandon a Cheesecake Factory outing with my Bible study friends tonight  because I just felt so bad.  Hoping it goes away soon...

But, before my cold came on full-force, I did have a fun Galleria outing with a friend today, and we saw this enormous Rockefeller Center-esque Christmas tree that reached up the four stories of the mall, in the middle of the ice rink:

It made me happy :)

Not So Black Friday

My family doesn't participate in the Black Friday madness; we used to do it back when we were all a bit younger and a bit more foolish, but now the morning after Thanksgiving is meant snuggled in bed asleep until mid-morning.  But today, we did embark on another holiday tradition: heading down to historic St. Charles, MO to wander about the shops, and see the general Christmas festivities: Santa's of the world, 19th century-style carolers, and lots and lots of pine boughs and ribbons.  We usually don't go to St. Charles until later in December, but perhaps because I won't be back home until Christmas day, we decided to push the tradition up a few weeks, to the very beginning of the Christmas season.

Check out some pictures from the day!

Some of the buildings on Historic Main Street in St. Charles, MO

Mom peeking around some pine boughs

Carolers!  A different bunch followed us around for most of the day

Dad and Hannah :)

Me and Mom :)

Chillin' with some Nutcrackers

Parents being precious :)

After a fun afternoon of window shopping and Christmas merriment, my sister and I attempted to make mini gingerbread houses.  The construction left something to be desired...

Fail.

...but my final result turned out all right :)

The evening concluded with a rousing game of that 1996 classic board game, "Electronic Mall Madness" (emphasis on the "electronic") with my mom and my sister.  My parents have been cleaning out the basement, and this game was found to be still intact and properly working.  It was a fun flashback.  For the record, Hannah won.

Got my shopping list, got my debit card, got my money.

Check out that awesome game board.

All in all, it was a very, very good day of good old fashioned family fun :)  Much better than camping out in front of Walmart.

Christmas Luminaries

Homemade Christmas luminaries from jars...complete.

They make me happy.  The Christmas decoration piece count is now up to three, with the luminaries, scrap paper tree, and Christmas tree.  It's never too soon to get into the holiday season.  And, since I only have a week and a half of classes left (ah!), I'm *almost* on Christmas break anyway.  So it's all good.

The rest of the day was less than notable, spent in the library reading about creation theology and watching TV reruns.  That 70s Show has begun to make a regular appearance in my life.  I also made pork chops with fruit stuffing in the slow cooker...tasty!  At least, I assume it will be...I wasn't too hungry by the time it was finished so I just ate some of the stuffing.  It was tasty, so I assume the full dish will be as well.

Well that was an exciting conversation about pork chops, wasn't it?

As you may have guessed, I'm short for inspiration tonight.  So let's just call this post complete, shall we?

Christmas Craft...Revealed!

Perhaps the suspense isn't all that necessary, but it was unintentionally built up over the last couple days' posts.  So get ready...here it is!

It's a Christmas scrap paper tree!  It ended up being somewhat bigger than I anticipated, but I found a good place for it on the bookshelf, as you can see.  It was super easy, if somewhat time consuming...basically, you cut out a ton of leaves from scrapbook paper, glue two of them together with floral wire in between, and wrap the wire around branches.  And ta da!  Scrap paper tree!  I may go back in and take out one of the sticks...it's looking a bit cumbersome at the bottom.  But overall, I'm happy with how it turned out, and I really enjoy having a craft project sitting around to work on.  My next project (much less involved) will be luminaries made from jars.  Should be fun :)

The directions I followed are at this link.  Like any craft, their version is much more polished and perfect, but I like my more rustic version.  In totally unrelated news, I went and saw Tower Heist in theaters tonight, and it was good.  You ought to go see it.  Afterwards my friend and I got burgers at Chips at Lovers Lane and Inwood.  If you live in Dallas, you should go eat there.

Work meeting most of the day tomorrow...happy Saturday?

Personal Christmas Party

Today was not the best of days...classes were interminable, the day was long, I was tired, and the insurance drama of yester-month sallies forth.  So, beat down and depressed, I decided there was only one thing to do.

I decided to throw myself a Christmas party.

I went all-out for my spontaneous personal Christmas party.  Deciding from the start that no Christmas party is complete without homemade cookies fresh from the oven, I hunted down a Coconut Cookie Recipe that I thought I had all of the ingredients for, and quickly discovered that I didn't have any baking soda.  I quickly threw on my new green pea coat, and used this opportunity to go to Central Market, the swanky grocery store across the street from my tried and true Tom Thumb store, to pick up some baking soda and something to eat for dinner.  Central Market has a massive prepared food section, so I picked up some chicken cordon bleu and lemon-scented jasmine rice.  Because this is a Christmas party, and you should have good party food.

So I got back to the apartment, flipped on a Pandora Christmas station, and set to heating up my dinner and whipping up the cookie batter.  Then I plopped myself down on the couch, with the first batch of cookies in the oven, and popped in a Friends DVD to watch my favorite Christmas episode - "The One with the Holiday Armadillo."  For you non-Friends aficionados, the general plot line is that Ross (who is Jewish, by the way) wants to get his son excited about Hanukkah, but feels bad that Santa isn't coming and tries at the last minute to rent a Santa costume...and is predictably unsuccessful.  The result: the Holiday Armadillo, Santa's half-Jewish helper.  It's generally hilarious.

Party dinner.

Party Cookies, Part 1

Party Cookies, Part 2 

After dinner, I turned the Christmas music back on, and proceeded to set up my recently acquired Christmas tree.  I was a little bit concerned about it's Charlie Brown-esque spindly quality at first, but when the lights are turned on and with ornaments to fill it out, it actually looks pretty good.   I hung my ornaments happily, after tying ribbons around the top of each, and cut out a star from sparkly scrapbook paper to top the tree.  It makes me happy.

Ta-da!  Christmas tree!

For size reference

The tree is actually just the perfect size for my apartment...big enough to not be pathetic, but small enough to not overwhelm the room.  It was the idea of setting up the Christmas tree that first sparked the personal Christmas party idea, and I was right - having a lit-up Christmas tree in the room makes my life a little brighter (pun intended), and makes it seem like everything's going to be okay.

I finished out the night by watching Funny Face on DVD while working on the Christmas craft project (which is coming along quite nicely, but is still not quite finished and therefore not yet photo-worthy).  Old musicals just feel Christmas-y, even if they have nothing to do with Christmas.  But Audrey Hepburn, fun dance scenes, and movies set in Paris are always welcome in my life.  

Of course, no Christmas party movie viewing is complete without hot chocolate and cookies.

Toasty

So I glued paper and twisted wire while watching my old movie, and sipped my hot chocolate while munching on my cookies, and called it a good night.  Who cares if Christmas is still a month and a half away, anyway?  I need a little Christmas, right this very minute.