Because Olivia Says It's Been Awhile Since I've Blogged

Last night, as I was watching my team get defeated in the Holiday Bowl, my friend Olivia asked why I hadn't blogged in a while.  It's only been little more than a week, but I suppose, for most people, the last week of the year is pretty eventful, and therefore, blogworthy.  So, Olivia, here is my attempt at catching up:

The day after my kidney stones showed up was the last day of school before Winter Break.  I contemplated whether or not to just take the day off, but I ultimately decided against it.  I wanted to be there to wish my students a happy holiday, to thank them in person for the gifts they brought, and to let them know that I was OK.  Also, my co-worker Steph had the idea for all of us to bring a food to share that our family traditionally eats at Christmas.

So, although I was in a little bit of pain, I woke up early to make monkey bread.  It was the first time I made it by myself, but I'm told it turned out to be pretty good.

Although everything looked really good, I was feeling nauseous, so I didn't eat lunch that day.  Maybe next year.

On Thursday, I finished some last-minute shopping and then headed for my hometown.  My family went out for dinner at a new Mexican restaurant in town.

I would like to insert that one of my most favorite parts about going home is that I eat for free.  Food, in my opinion, always tastes better when you don't have to cook it yourself or pay somebody else to cook it for you.

For the rest of my stay at home, I basically did nothing.  I was still not feeling up-to-par, and my overly concerned mother waited on me hand and foot.  While I realize that I am an adult and completely capable of taking care of myself, it was nice to be pampered a bit.  And I think my mom secretly enjoyed it.

On Christmas Eve, I got myself out of the recliner and ready for church.  Afterwards, my mom prepared a nice steak dinner for my immediate family plus my aunt and my cousin, Chloe.  I, of course, don't eat steak, so it was chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese for me.  We opened presents with Chloe and my aunt, watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and went to bed.

On Christmas morning, we opened our Santa presents with my immediate family.  Among my favorite gifts of the day were:

An electric mattress pad

A heated throw blanket

a stand-up mixer

and a new camera.

Santa was good to me this year, as he always is.

As much as I love getting presents, I enjoy giving them much more.  This year, I gave my mom an iPod nano, an iHome, and an iTunes gift card, which she loved.  My mom isn't exactly technologically proficient, so it took some time to get her to figure out how to use everything.  I got my dad one of those bracelets that claims to make your body more balanced (he wanted one), a framed picture of Memorial Stadium, and earwarmers.  I got my brother a bunch of clothes that he wanted.  I spent way too much, as usual, but I really like gift-giving.

We then went to my grandma's house to have Christmas with my mom's side of the family.  We ate a big lunch and then opened presents.  My grandma has a cat, which I am allergic to, and the medicine I took was not non-drowsy.  So, after opening presents, I laid down in the recliner and fell asleep for a few hours.  When I got back to my house, I slept for several more.

This soon became the theme of my break.  All I did for the remainder of my time at home was sleep, play solitaire, nap, eat, and watch football.  And it was kind of nice.

On Wednesday, with speculations of a snow storm to come, I headed back to Lincoln.  It took me the rest of the day to get caught up on my recorded television shows take down my Christmas decorations and put away all of my new things.

On Thursday, I drug myself out of bed so that I could go to school and get some work done.  When I left for work, it was 60 degrees outside, which is unheard of for this time of year in Nebraska.  When I left school three hours later, it was  30 degrees, and we were in a winter storm warning.

When I got home, I made these:

This picture and this recipe came from this blog, which I adore almost as much as I adore these cupcakes.  I have taken them to work a few times, and they went over famously.  My co-worker, Steph, even called them "life-changing."  So, I thought I'd make them to take to Ashley and Jeremy's house while we watched the game.

The game during which Olivia told me that I needed to blog.

So, Olivia (and the rest of blogworld), that is what I have been up to as of late.

The Real Meaning of Christmas

I love the Advent season.  But it has completely passed me by this year.

Rather, I have allowed it to pass me by.

Advent is meant to be a time of anticipation and preparation.  Admittedly, I have been anticipating and preparing for the wrong things.  I have been anticipating the break from school, holiday gatherings with friends and family, and going home.  I have been preparing by decorating a Christmas tree, baking cookies, and buying presents.

I have been doing all of the things that Christmas should not be about.

In my Bible study this morning, we pulled out a devotional book entitled Simply Wait:  Cultivating Stillness in the Season of Advent.  Since today was the fourth Sunday in Advent, we focused on that chapter - the chapter about obedience.

I have not been very obedient as of late.

Our wonderful leader Dr. Gene Armstrong quoted a song by asking us, "Where is the line for Jesus?"  He commented that everywhere you look, there are lines for Santa and check-out lines for buying presents, but you are hard-pressed to find any evidence that Jesus has anything to do with this holiday.

It's sad, but he's right.

I'm so grateful that today's church service re-focused me.  As we lit the fourth candle on the Advent wreath, I was reminded of the previous three candles - of hope, preparation, and joy - and was given my focus for the week - the candle of love.

Today was also our church's Chrismas pagaent.  I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the children speak about and sing about the birth of our Savior.

I've got seven days until the Christ candle is lit, and I fully intend to make the most of those seven days - having hope, preparing, sharing joy, and loving.

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.  The virgin's name was Mary.  The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

-Luke 1:26–38

Holiday Hoo-Rah

After we picked up Andy from the airport, we went to Allison's house for the NASC Holiday Hoo-Rah.  This is one of my favorite NASC staff events that happens during our year.

We spent a good amount of time just mingling:

Shortly after we arrived, it was time for the white elephant gift exchange.

There is a $15 spending limit.  Each year, there is a pretty good mix of nice gifts/gift cards and things that were found lying around the house.

It begins with each person drawing a number.  The first person opens a gift.  The second person can either steal the first person's gift or open a new gift, and so on.  If a gift is stolen from you, you can either steal from somebody else or open a new gift.  The game continues until all gifts have been opened.

Here are some staffers opening their gifts:

Even when you're not opening, it's fun to watch others' reactions:

After gifts were opened, many people left.  A few of us stuck around to play games... or to play with our new gifts!

Another great Hoo-Rah for the books!

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

On Saturday, there was a real-live singing flash mob at the mall in my city!

I met two of my co-workers in the food court.  They both brought their adorable daughters to witness the singing.

Hailey (on the left) had no idea why she was there.  She was further confused as to why she had to eat lunch standing up because all the seats were full.  Avery (on the right) knew what was going on, but did a great job of keeping the secret.

We had to stand around for about 45 minutes before the singing started.  It was very crowded, but people were in good spirits.  Soon enough, this is what we heard:

After it was finished, Hailey said, "This was kind of worth the wait."

Indeed, it was!

A Little St. Nick

One of my favorite projects at church is our annual St. Nick project.  An amazing woman in our congregation named Teri came up with the idea 24 years ago, and it has been growing ever since.

Teri recognized that there was a need in rural communities throughout our state for Christmas gifts for low-income families.  In our city, there are many resources for families to be able to provide gifts for their children, but in many smaller communities, the amount of community resources isn't great.

So, Teri got in contact with county caseworkers throughout the state.  The caseworkers agreed to provide her with names of families, a brief synopsis of the circumstances under which the family has fallen, and a few gift suggestions for each member of the family.

Beginning in November, members of our congregation sign up to adopt these families in need.  Families can choose the size of family they wish to adopt.  Then, in December, we all get together for a wrapping party.

This year, I was assigned a family of nine.  I adopted three people and I volunteered to do "extra shopping" for members of our congregation who prefer donating money rather than doing the actual shopping.

The mother of the family was my age - 23 - and together with her boyfriend, they have seven children under the age of nine.  If you do the math, you'll know that these parents were just kids themselves when they started their family.  It's very sobering to me to think about what my life would be like with even one child, and I can't begin to wrap my head around what life would be like with seven children.  I know many married couples with stable incomes that wouldn't even think about trying to raise seven children.

It is suggested that we only spend $25 per person in our adopted family.  So, on Black Friday, I went to Wal-Mart and put $25 worth of gifts in my cart for each person in my adopted family.  I stared at the cart and felt like I was giving away nothing.

This happens to me every year.  So, as usual, I went over budget.

Way over budget.

I couldn't help it.  Christmases were always really good at my house.  They still are.  I just couldn't bear the thought of seven young children opening up only one or two gifts on Christmas morning.

Now, I know that Christmas is about much more than opening presents on Christmas morning, but for this family that I don't know and will never meet,  I hope that the things that I bought them - books, games, movies - will provide them with some activities that can be done together so that they may grow closer as a family.  Most of all, I hope that the gifts that I purchase will give them a sense of hope in the midst of some really hard times that their family is going through.

When it came time for the wrapping party last week, there was lots of work to be done:

I always invite at least one of my friends to come with me to help wrap.  This year, since my friend Ashley shared with me that she loves wrapping presents, I invited her.  She was a great helper!

 I love that this project at my church allows for families to show compassion for those who are less fortunate.  While we were wrapping, I loved listening to what this father was telling his son about giving and receiving.

This sweet boy helped pick out the gifts that his family gave away, and I could tell that he learned a good lesson in the value of a dollar.  He, like me, felt bad for not being able to do more for their adopted family.

As a congregation, we bought gifts for 420 people this year.  And after only two-and-a-half hours, all the presents were wrapped and packaged for delivery.

It is my prayer that these gifts will be a blessing to those who receive them this year.

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

I love the Christmas season.  So it makes no sense why I procrastinate getting ready for it more and more each year.

As a kid, my parents were always on top of it.  They went all out, indoors and outdoors.  We used to spend the day after Thanksgiving getting everything ready.  My father and brother took care of the outside, and my mom and I took care of the inside.  We put up multiple Christmas trees, mom set up her winter village scene, and we hung garland everywhere we could find room for it.

I always looked forward to the time we spent as a family while getting our house ready... blaring Christmas CDs over the stereo system, looking through all the handmade ornaments that had been made beginning in our preschool years, putting the first fire in the fireplace, and setting up the nativity scene so we could say goodnight to Baby Jesus each night before bed.  The Christmas season at our house was wonderful.

When I went to college, I lost the privilege of decorating the house.  Mostly because my parents wanted it to look festive when I came home for Thanksgiving.  So, by the time I got home, all the work was already done.  I didn't do much of my own decorating during the college years because there just isn't much room to decorate in a dorm room.

Last year, in my first year of adulthood, I contemplated not decorating at all.  I had just started my first job, and had spent all my savings on boring things like furniture, dishes, towels, and classroom supplies.  I didn't leave room in the budget for Christmas decorations.  Thankfully, when my mom came up to go shopping on Black Friday, she generously offered to purchase my first Christmas tree and all the decorations that would go on it.  Furthermore, she offered to stay with me and help me decorate it.

Thanks, Mom.

This year, I decided to be a big girl and decorate all by myself.  I purchased a few new things, and I wanted everything to be ready before my family visited last weekend.

I got a few new things for my table...

I got a few new ornaments...

Dusted off the old star...

And bought all new things for my mantle.

It's still not exactly how I want it to look, but I spent way too much money on decorations.  It's good enough for this year, though, and I'll plan to get some more things next year.

I finally forced myself to wrap the presents that remained under the tree in Target sacks and amazon.com boxes.  As it turns out, I much prefer the wrapped present look.

When I woke up on Saturday and looked out my window, this is what I saw:

At first, I was not thrilled.  I am notsomuch a winter person, and all I could think about was how the season of bundling up to go outside was upon us.  Worse yet, the season of indoor recess for my 6th graders is upon us.

On second thought, I was kind of excited to see the ground slightly covered in snow.  Elie, my best friend from college, was hosting a Christmas cookie decorating party, and the snowy day made the cookie decorating party seem more festive.

I took no action shots while at Elie's, but I did take pictures of the final products.  I am not very creative, so using frosting to make cookies cute is not a strength of mine, but they turned out OK...

Elie and our friend Claire were much more creative with their cookies:

Claire even made some Husker-themed cookies!

So finally, with the decorations, the presents, the cookies, and the snow, it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.  Here's hoping you and yours are enjoying the preparation as much as I am.