And so, Christmas was upon us! It has taken an entire month to get this done, so I will give you the highlights!!
We woke up to our first Christmas as husband and wife. After brushing our teeth and sticking contacts on our eyeballs, we were ready to open our presents just from each other. We each had packed up fully wrapped boxes and stuffed our brand new stockings so that we would have a few moments of Christmas alone and together. My favorite gift from Tommy was a framed print of the Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano- which I've loved for maybe five years. And Tommy's big gift was guitar lessons! (He just started them this week- more on that when I can actually talk about January!) It was so nice to dump our stockings out, eat some candy, and enjoy the joy.
When we walked downstairs, there was a huge surprise for us – SNOW! Now, normally I hate snow. After walking through ice and falling and almost dying in wrecks several times, oh and the onset of undiagnosed Raynaud's syndrome, you begin to see snow for what it really is – a sneaky killer. But! A white Christmas- on our first Christmas! Magic.
We then spent the early part of the morning with two sets of grandparents, Tommy’s parents, brothers, sister and brother-in-law, and our new niece. We had a blast opening fun, thoughtful, random, and exciting presents. And we really liked watching people open our gifts to them. We really tried to either be creative or get them exactly what they wanted. For instance- since Tommy’s parents took us on the Alaskan cruise, we created a photo album online and had it printed and sent to us- hard cover and text included! We were really proud of that one.
By this time, the snow was pouring! Yes, snow can pour, you cynical people. You can find pictures on facebook!
And so, being brave and committed to the fam, we slowly drove up and over the Huntsville mountain to reach my side of the family! (Anyone ever read “My Side of the Mountain”…it’s like that, only less outdoorsy and more only applies to the title) And since we followed Allen and Kerri in their big ol’ truck, we felt safe and adventurous at the same time.
We began opening gifts right away with my family. I had a random artsy moment in Gainesville, and had taken a nice picture I thought dad would like, and so had framed that for his gift. And then for mom, we found a breakfast-in-bed type tray with places for pictures- which we filled with pictures of her family- and she did get misty :) We all got a bunch of wonderful presents- I was most excited about a new camera!!
To top the day off, after a fancy dinner with family back at the Middleton's, we all watched Despicable Me. Perfect day.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
quoting C.S. Lewis.
A few C.S. Lewis quotes to get you into the true Christmas spirit.
"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning..."
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
"[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you."
"Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature."
Merry Christmas!!!
"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning..."
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
"[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you."
"Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature."
Merry Christmas!!!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
"there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas."
Finally, it is a Saturday. We have little planned. So maybe I should get some blogging done!
...And so, landing in Alabama, we remembered what it was like to be cold....er. Running from the plane to the little airport building, and then running from the building to the car, we were thankful for our new Florida home that we left behind.
That night, with the whole Middleton family + a family friend, we played Pictionary. So frustrating!! It was girls against boys. And even though the boys had to draw on a mirror because we could only find one marker board (I said "marker board" because I still don't know if it is a "white board" or a "wipe board" - both seem like appropriate names but I'm too lazy right now to google it.) they would look at the GIRLS' drawings and answer before the girls could. Apparently our brains get slower at night, and boys' brains get faster. Maybe that is so they can protect us from bad guys in the night, and so that we can sleep.
The next few days are a blur now. I know we ate lunch a few times with my sister. And we did a few last minute shopping trips. We really tried to visit with each person in the family a little bit.
And Christmas Eve finally arrived!! The church we used to attend in Huntsville had grown so big that they decided to have one huge service at the basebal stadium, instead of several at the church. Well, that sounds nice for some people, but we are old fashioned. We like the intimacy and reverance you feel when you think about the most holy of nights. And none of us wanted to be cold for an hour or two! Ha. So the Middleton clan decided to visit a church where we knew a few families already. Mom and dad were driving in from Arkansas, and they decided that would be nice too! So Madison, her boyfriend, Tommy and I arrived early to save seats. All of us combined took up 16 and 1/2 seats (1/2 for baby Kaelyn). We also sat with a family that had become really close with my family while we were in Huntsville. This family helped a ton with the wedding, and Madison and I both house sat and babysat them a few times, too. The last time we had seen them was at the wedding! On top of all of that, it was a wonderful service. We were reminded of the state of the world on the very first night before Christmas- how the coming of Christ changed everything. It was such a special time in our lives (me and Tommy) to have that first Christmas as a married couple and to both be so in love with our Savior together. Ah...
After the service, the Middleton family had a huge lovely fancy dinner! Fancy china, silver and crystal. And yummy yum food. And then I got to take part in my first kid's tradition- opening PJ's! Apparently, this happens every year, and you wear the pajamas to sleep and the next morning to open gifts. I fudged it a little bit. I wore Tommy's pajama pants he got- actually wore them all day Christmas!!
And now.... you'll have to wait to hear about Christmas Day!! :)
...And so, landing in Alabama, we remembered what it was like to be cold....er. Running from the plane to the little airport building, and then running from the building to the car, we were thankful for our new Florida home that we left behind.
That night, with the whole Middleton family + a family friend, we played Pictionary. So frustrating!! It was girls against boys. And even though the boys had to draw on a mirror because we could only find one marker board (I said "marker board" because I still don't know if it is a "white board" or a "wipe board" - both seem like appropriate names but I'm too lazy right now to google it.) they would look at the GIRLS' drawings and answer before the girls could. Apparently our brains get slower at night, and boys' brains get faster. Maybe that is so they can protect us from bad guys in the night, and so that we can sleep.
The next few days are a blur now. I know we ate lunch a few times with my sister. And we did a few last minute shopping trips. We really tried to visit with each person in the family a little bit.
And Christmas Eve finally arrived!! The church we used to attend in Huntsville had grown so big that they decided to have one huge service at the basebal stadium, instead of several at the church. Well, that sounds nice for some people, but we are old fashioned. We like the intimacy and reverance you feel when you think about the most holy of nights. And none of us wanted to be cold for an hour or two! Ha. So the Middleton clan decided to visit a church where we knew a few families already. Mom and dad were driving in from Arkansas, and they decided that would be nice too! So Madison, her boyfriend, Tommy and I arrived early to save seats. All of us combined took up 16 and 1/2 seats (1/2 for baby Kaelyn). We also sat with a family that had become really close with my family while we were in Huntsville. This family helped a ton with the wedding, and Madison and I both house sat and babysat them a few times, too. The last time we had seen them was at the wedding! On top of all of that, it was a wonderful service. We were reminded of the state of the world on the very first night before Christmas- how the coming of Christ changed everything. It was such a special time in our lives (me and Tommy) to have that first Christmas as a married couple and to both be so in love with our Savior together. Ah...
After the service, the Middleton family had a huge lovely fancy dinner! Fancy china, silver and crystal. And yummy yum food. And then I got to take part in my first kid's tradition- opening PJ's! Apparently, this happens every year, and you wear the pajamas to sleep and the next morning to open gifts. I fudged it a little bit. I wore Tommy's pajama pants he got- actually wore them all day Christmas!!
And now.... you'll have to wait to hear about Christmas Day!! :)
Monday, January 3, 2011
we can fly.
So I guess I need to update everyone on our Christmas and New Years activities. Yay!!
Let’s just start with getting to Christmas break.
Oh man, were we ready. We had game night, the jazz gala… Oh! We also had a tacky, white elephant, Christmas caroling night with our small group, which was really fun. Tommy was recruited to play his guitar for the caroling. My favorite was Feliz Navidad! And we walked away with a vintage Gator Coca-cola bottle (YES!) and . We looked really ugly- just straight out of the 80’s, and not the cool 80’s, thanks to WalMart and Goodwill.
Wednesday December 22nd finally arrived. We worked a half day and went home to finish packing, to change into our traveling t-shirts and jeans, and to make sure my plant was set (I got a mini "aqua globe" to water my plant while we were gone. It actually worked!). Then we got picked up and driven to the airport because...
–dramatic pause-
...we were going to fly on a private plane! Tommy’s dad has a friend who owns and flies his own plane. In order to keep their license, pilots like him have to maintain flight hours. What better way to acquire those than to pick up a friend’s parents in Mississippi and his son+wife in Florida?!
They actually ended up being about an hour late, but we used the time to hang out with our drivers (yes, it takes two chauffeurs and a private flight to get us to Alabama) at Starbucks. Our drivers were our minister of music and his wife, who had offered to take us to the airport so our car wouldn’t sit in a parking lot for two weeks. We really enjoyed talking with them. We talked about music and where we had been involved in churches growing up, we talked about their children and their friends. We even found out that the wife, Mrs. Cindy, was born in El Dorado! The tiny Arkansas town my parents live in! Crazy.
When the plane landed, off jumped Tommy’s dad, two brothers, brother-in-law, Grandmother and Granddaddy, the pilot and the co-pilot. They were a sight in all their sweaters in the 75+ and sunny weather we were having. After a snack and a potty break, we all loaded up the ol' plane and jumped in! Tommy and I got prime seating: back bench of the plane, low enough so we couldn't sit up straight, and I was facing sideways. But we didn't care!!!
Take off! Woowee-- that thing was just moseying along and then shot off! It didn’t take long at all to be way, way high. It was so strange, being so small and being so high in the air. I felt like a pebble… which makes you a little nervous because pebbles fall very quickly. But we stayed up- thank the Lord. We got up to 32,000+ feet, where you see only the tops of the clouds and where the air was negative 30 degrees. And we got to watch the sun set. Holy cow, gorgeous. That brought all the iPhone cameras out. And then we turned on all the cabin lights and the two brothers, Tommy, and I played Spades. See, it was a surprisingly smooth ride, but pretty loud. Above the woosh of the wind passing and the engines (engines? I feel like I should say turbines. I don’t know what a turbine is, but sounds more important than an engine.) roaring you had to enunciate, use hand motions and have animated facial expressions. Well, that’s tiring after about 4 minutes. So cards was an easy solution.
In about an hour and a half, we were landing in good ol’ Huntsville, Alabama.
Let’s just start with getting to Christmas break.
Oh man, were we ready. We had game night, the jazz gala… Oh! We also had a tacky, white elephant, Christmas caroling night with our small group, which was really fun. Tommy was recruited to play his guitar for the caroling. My favorite was Feliz Navidad! And we walked away with a vintage Gator Coca-cola bottle (YES!) and . We looked really ugly- just straight out of the 80’s, and not the cool 80’s, thanks to WalMart and Goodwill.
Wednesday December 22nd finally arrived. We worked a half day and went home to finish packing, to change into our traveling t-shirts and jeans, and to make sure my plant was set (I got a mini "aqua globe" to water my plant while we were gone. It actually worked!). Then we got picked up and driven to the airport because...
–dramatic pause-
...we were going to fly on a private plane! Tommy’s dad has a friend who owns and flies his own plane. In order to keep their license, pilots like him have to maintain flight hours. What better way to acquire those than to pick up a friend’s parents in Mississippi and his son+wife in Florida?!
They actually ended up being about an hour late, but we used the time to hang out with our drivers (yes, it takes two chauffeurs and a private flight to get us to Alabama) at Starbucks. Our drivers were our minister of music and his wife, who had offered to take us to the airport so our car wouldn’t sit in a parking lot for two weeks. We really enjoyed talking with them. We talked about music and where we had been involved in churches growing up, we talked about their children and their friends. We even found out that the wife, Mrs. Cindy, was born in El Dorado! The tiny Arkansas town my parents live in! Crazy.
When the plane landed, off jumped Tommy’s dad, two brothers, brother-in-law, Grandmother and Granddaddy, the pilot and the co-pilot. They were a sight in all their sweaters in the 75+ and sunny weather we were having. After a snack and a potty break, we all loaded up the ol' plane and jumped in! Tommy and I got prime seating: back bench of the plane, low enough so we couldn't sit up straight, and I was facing sideways. But we didn't care!!!
Take off! Woowee-- that thing was just moseying along and then shot off! It didn’t take long at all to be way, way high. It was so strange, being so small and being so high in the air. I felt like a pebble… which makes you a little nervous because pebbles fall very quickly. But we stayed up- thank the Lord. We got up to 32,000+ feet, where you see only the tops of the clouds and where the air was negative 30 degrees. And we got to watch the sun set. Holy cow, gorgeous. That brought all the iPhone cameras out. And then we turned on all the cabin lights and the two brothers, Tommy, and I played Spades. See, it was a surprisingly smooth ride, but pretty loud. Above the woosh of the wind passing and the engines (engines? I feel like I should say turbines. I don’t know what a turbine is, but sounds more important than an engine.) roaring you had to enunciate, use hand motions and have animated facial expressions. Well, that’s tiring after about 4 minutes. So cards was an easy solution.
In about an hour and a half, we were landing in good ol’ Huntsville, Alabama.
"you threw off my groove."
Apparently, our new pastor here in Gainesville really loves jazz. So for a nice Christmasy evening, he invited a band called Grüv (pronounced “groove”) Therapy to be the entertainment for a “jazz gala" for the church. Not lying.
Jazz would not make it on our list of Favorite Things. Tommy and I are both very particular about music. But I got an email asking for volunteers to help with the decorating, so I signed myself and Kim up to do that. I figured that actually serving would be an even better way to continue meeting people at our church.
So Sunday after church, Kim and I talked to Mrs. Cindy about the decor plans. She told us to meet back in an hour. Well, there's no way we all could get back to our homes and get all the way back in an hour. So we drove over the overpass to Wendy's. Fine, Sunday dining. I did not realize that all old people eat there after their church services. It was sweet though- we ended up discussing where we would all end up, if we would be able to stay in Gainesville, but how blessed we were to have made such easy connections- and over fries and coke! Can't beat that.
And since the two wives were stuck working hard, the boys stayed too. How amusing to watch two manly guys work with garland and table cloths. But they were a huge help. And Kim had a great idea to make a photo-corner! We used trees and stools and lights and poinsettias (I HATE saying that word. Who made that one up.) and made a cute little nook- very prom-esque.
Backtrack a little bit- that morning at church, I saw one of our new friends Becky in the hallway and decided to chat for a minute... I really wanted to ask her if she was going to go to this gala-ma-bob and what she was going to wear since she is a seasoned regular. She said that she and her husband weren't going to go if they couldn't find a sitter in time. I said of course Tommy and I could watch her kids (two awesome boys!) so they could have a night out. Since we were the decorators, we felt obligated to actually go to the thing. And we had never been to a "gala"- seemed like a nice date night type thingy. But honestly, if we didn’t get to go, no biggie.
She actually did find a sitter, so instead they took us out to Chili's! Double date night! The four of us haven't had a chance to hang out one on one... er... four on four?? And we had so much fun! We talked about their kids and how they met and how we met and their families and our families, just on and on… And it’s fun to be all dressed up looking fancy when everyone else in Chili’s is wearing jeans. We looked like we really never get a night out.
So we headed over to the jazz gala. I think we imagined that it would be more "fellowship" and less "concert." Nope. We grabbed dessert, the band started playing, and everyone sat down at tables and watched. A group of us (yes, we have a group! we’re so in.) went to take pictures at the picture spot (a big hit!) and got shh-ed for being too loud….which is weird because, if you’re going to set up tables, that implies you’re encouraging conversation. Maybe the tables were just there to hold our dessert plates…? I don’t know. And they did announce to be aware of guests and make them feel welcome. That usually involves a fair amount of talking. Interesting night.... but I did thoroughly enjoy my red velvet cake :)
Jazz would not make it on our list of Favorite Things. Tommy and I are both very particular about music. But I got an email asking for volunteers to help with the decorating, so I signed myself and Kim up to do that. I figured that actually serving would be an even better way to continue meeting people at our church.
So Sunday after church, Kim and I talked to Mrs. Cindy about the decor plans. She told us to meet back in an hour. Well, there's no way we all could get back to our homes and get all the way back in an hour. So we drove over the overpass to Wendy's. Fine, Sunday dining. I did not realize that all old people eat there after their church services. It was sweet though- we ended up discussing where we would all end up, if we would be able to stay in Gainesville, but how blessed we were to have made such easy connections- and over fries and coke! Can't beat that.
And since the two wives were stuck working hard, the boys stayed too. How amusing to watch two manly guys work with garland and table cloths. But they were a huge help. And Kim had a great idea to make a photo-corner! We used trees and stools and lights and poinsettias (I HATE saying that word. Who made that one up.) and made a cute little nook- very prom-esque.
Backtrack a little bit- that morning at church, I saw one of our new friends Becky in the hallway and decided to chat for a minute... I really wanted to ask her if she was going to go to this gala-ma-bob and what she was going to wear since she is a seasoned regular. She said that she and her husband weren't going to go if they couldn't find a sitter in time. I said of course Tommy and I could watch her kids (two awesome boys!) so they could have a night out. Since we were the decorators, we felt obligated to actually go to the thing. And we had never been to a "gala"- seemed like a nice date night type thingy. But honestly, if we didn’t get to go, no biggie.
She actually did find a sitter, so instead they took us out to Chili's! Double date night! The four of us haven't had a chance to hang out one on one... er... four on four?? And we had so much fun! We talked about their kids and how they met and how we met and their families and our families, just on and on… And it’s fun to be all dressed up looking fancy when everyone else in Chili’s is wearing jeans. We looked like we really never get a night out.
So we headed over to the jazz gala. I think we imagined that it would be more "fellowship" and less "concert." Nope. We grabbed dessert, the band started playing, and everyone sat down at tables and watched. A group of us (yes, we have a group! we’re so in.) went to take pictures at the picture spot (a big hit!) and got shh-ed for being too loud….which is weird because, if you’re going to set up tables, that implies you’re encouraging conversation. Maybe the tables were just there to hold our dessert plates…? I don’t know. And they did announce to be aware of guests and make them feel welcome. That usually involves a fair amount of talking. Interesting night.... but I did thoroughly enjoy my red velvet cake :)
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