The Merriest Of Christmases

I’ve been thinking a lot this season about the manger birth of Christ all those years ago.  Obviously, I think about it every year, but some years the sweetness and truth of the story pierces my heart in a new way.  What I can’t get out of my head this year is that the King of Kings was born in a manger.  It is so precious to me that God chose to come into the world in such a lowly manner.  He could have been born in a golden throne room (this, clearly, would have been my choice), but instead He came into the world surrounded by livestock.

Recently, on the news, I heard one of those stories about a baby whose mother gave birth and then left her child in a dumpster.  I think about that sweet innocent baby and wonder how it will ever know how cherished it is- how special and important he or she is in the eyes of God.  This season, it seems to me that Christ came as He did so that none of us can look at Him and think He’s unreachable.  He didn’t come to save someone “better than” or “richer than” you.  He came to save you and me.  And he was born in the lowest imaginable location so even that baby, brought into the world under the saddest of conditions, can know that Christ understands us.  Our fears and sorrows, our joys and weaknesses.  He understands.  One of my favorite lines in the hymn ‘O Holy Night’ says “the King of Kings lay in a lowly manger, in all our trials born to be our friend.  He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger.”  It’s sometimes mind blowing, but I still believe it’s true.

The lowly infant born in the manger truly is the King of Kings.  I hope He’s the King of your life. 

 

And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:10-12 ESV (emphasis- mine)

Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July!

From Your Favorite Yankee Doodle Dandee

The Mother of All Holidays

So, I fully recognize that I am days behind on this post, but you’ll just have to grin and bear it (or maybe just click away from my blog). 

This weekend I headed home for Mother’s Day and enjoyed some quality time with the best Mama in the whole wide world:

Judy

On Saturday, Mom and I headed out to shop a little (bearing in mind that by “little” I mean “ton”).  We had a great time and I bought some shorts.  Officially becoming the first time I’ve bought shorts I plan on wearing out of the house in about 5 years (What can I say? My pasty white legs and I have issues).  After the shopping we dropped by the church so Mom and Dad could get their church directory photo taken then headed home to cook out.

Late Saturday night my brother came home and so, on Sunday morning I cooked breakfast then we all headed to church.  It was really fun to all be together, something that hasn’t happened too often lately since Colin has been working so hard at his new job.

Colin and I.

It’s a MIRACLE that I managed to get a picture of him without his hand over his face, so please understand that his weird almost-smile is a huge success in the grand scheme of things.  So much so, that this picture will probably surpass any of my Mom’s other gifts as her favorite part of this whole Mother’s Day.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I were cropped out of this photo sometime soon since my Mom is always saying she just wishes she had a recent picture of Colin.  Granted, that would require my Mom to know how to crop someone out of a picture- or to at least know what cropping is.

On a serious note: My brother is four years older than me and during those four years my Mom suffered some painful miscarriages.  I am eternally grateful that my Mom refused to quit trying for another baby and held out hope for me.  She seemed to know I would come along (in my own time- as usual).  Beyond the gift of life, one of the  greatest gifts my Mom gave to me was love, and she gave it to me long before she even knew me.  I’ve always known that my parents wanted and loved me before they met me, and I have always been a cherished daughter.  It breaks my heart to think of children who never know what it is to feel a parents love.

Beyond all these things Mom has taught me to be kind, to stand up for myself and to laugh at myself.  Most of all she’s shown me what unswerving devotion to Christ looks like and has been a solid rock of faith all my life.  The point is: I love you, Mom!

I’m done bragging now, I promise.  At least until tomorrow.

Happy Easter!

 

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Matthew 28:5-6

May The Leprechaun's Be With You

In honor of the many Irish Americans who read my blog here is a list of Irish things that I like, which I am so efficiently calling:

 

List of Irish Things That I Like:

1. Green.  Green is probably my favorite color.  Or, at least, when I can decide on a favorite color it is usually green.  And, although I’ve never been, I hear Ireland is known for its green landscape.

2. The Corrs.  Awesome music.  Thank you Ireland.  Thank you Corrs.  Thank you to the “In Blue” record that I listened to nonstop for a whole month when I was 17.  You’d think that I’d still be burned out on their music even now, but I still listen to it with great affection.  Coincidentally, if you are in the mood for some good instrumental music, check out “Rebel Heart”- next thing you know you’re imagining yourself roaming the green hills of Ireland (or so I’ve heard).

3. Vacation Dreaming.  I’d like to visit Ireland on vacation.  If you’d like to support me in this goal, I’ll gladly take Visa, Mastercard or Discover through my PayPal account.

4. The accent.  Makes me so very happy.

5. Irish Cream Pies.  Once upon a time, in high school, Chelsea and I were partners for a project (this is funny all by itself because Chels and I were strictly forbidden from being partners in almost all of our classes because of all the giggling, but we somehow managed to trick Mrs. Graham into letting us team up) and the project required us to present a holiday and bring a food to class, as a learning tool.  Well, Chelsea and I thought we were being so sneaky in choosing to make an Irish Cream Pie to represent St. Patrick’s Day because Irish Cream Pie includes a little ingredient called Irish Cream.  We hit up the mini-bar at Chelsea’s house and made the pie which included some Bailey’s and nervously brought it to class.  We watched with amazement as our classmates and teacher gobbled down the pie and then, when Mrs. Graham asked for the ingredients, we replied with “chocolate and I don’t know… some kind of cream, maybe?”.

6. The Lord of the Dance.  What is not to love?  Dancing?  Good.  Costumes?  Good.  Pipes and Flutes?  Good.  Dancers’ feet flying about as if disconnected to their bodies?  Good.

7. Celtic Woman.  What would I do without the Celtic Woman performances on PBS?  I love the “choreography” and the fact that the women always seem to be performing in front of some dilapidated castle with a drawbridge.  I will forever love the Celtic Woman because it reminds me of my friends The Clardy’s who share a similar affinity for all things Celtic Woman.

8. U2.  Duh.  Because: A.) I love their music, B.) I am a big fan of people who use their good fortune to do good for others and C.) I truly believe Bono and I could be best friends in real life if we could just meet.

9. Limerick.  Because I enjoy a good limerick from time to time.

10. The Potato.  Ireland has a long and somewhat rocky relationship with the potato, as do I.  Need I mention Ireland’s rough go-of-it after The Potato Famine, or my dark days after the french fry incident of 2007?  It’s a love-hate thing.  But in the end?  So worth it.

There you have it.  10 Irish things that I like.  I’m pretty sure that the Irish Department of Tourism will be calling me any minute now, so I need to go prepare my best Irish accent. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

High On Love

I kicked off my weekend a little early last week with two days off school.  Then on Friday, I got a computer virus, fixed my computer, took out the trash and waited for my BFF Chelsea to arrive at my casa for our weekend of fun.  There’s so much more to this story, but I just don’t have it in me to explain at this moment.

Once Chels got here we watched the Olympic opening ceremonies.  The whole time we were watching it we wondered where our favorite Canadian, Celine Dion was.  I also wondered why that Canadian Opera Singer did that to her hair.  Having sung some opera in my day, let me just tell you that the height of your hair is not directly related to your singing ability.  Don’t be fooled.

On Saturday I was invited to a party at my friend Cortnee’s apartment.  So, Chels and I set off to see what kind of Valentine’s trouble we could get into.  When we got there the place was DECKED OUT with VDay fun!

We decorated cupcakes:

Had tons of fun!

Decorated Valentine’s (mine from Chels):

       

And decided to make it a yearly event!

This was the table after it was all said and done:

A little scary.

My favorite story of the whole night came from our friend Dara.  D was more interested in eating the cupcakes than decorating them (and who can blame her, right?).  But she did have one big decorating idea- to ice a cupcake with as much marshmallow filling as possible and then write “High On Love” on her creation.

Here it is in the making:

And here it is as all the marshmallow filling melts over the sides:

 

Ha!  We had the absolute best time!  It was the most fun party I’ve been to in a while.  It almost makes me wish for the next Valentine’s Day….. Almost.

On the 14th we went to go see the movie “Valentine’s Day” and watched a few episodes of ‘Lost’.  Then Chels had to leave, so I said goodbye to my Valentine then spent a romantic evening watching the Olympics.

There you have it.  The longest post with the least amount of actual information involved.

Happy Valentine’s Day

I hope your day is filled with love.  Remember, we love because HE first loved us.

LOVE!  Crystal

New Year, New You

I don’t typically make New Year’s Resolutions.  I’m not sure if it’s because I never keep them or because it seems silly to write them out.  As I get older, it makes more and more sense to make goals for yourself.  In school, there are always deadlines and an objective.  You have things to accomplish.  Since I’m no longer in school and I work for myself it seemed important to give myself some short and long-term goals for the year.

I won’t bore you with all of them, but here are a few things I’m looking forward to in 2010:

1. Blogging- I know that my loyal reader is sad when she checks here every other week to see that I have made no new posts.  So, my goal for the month of January is to blog 5 days a week.  This is a serious goal for me, and please don’t expect each day to be like you’re reading an excerpt from “War and Peace”.  There’s a good chance all I’ll come up with on January 17th is a link to the ‘All the Single Babies’ video on YouTube.  But, I’m gonna try.

2. Friends and Family- I’m hoping to be better about writing, emailing, calling and seeing my people this year.  I am really blessed to have such an incredible group of loved ones and I don’t want to take them for granted.

3. Gratitude and Giving- I am very lucky to live with a roof over my head and food on my table.  In February I am going on a spending fast and I won’t buy anything that isn’t a necessity.  I want to be grateful for the many blessings I do have instead of focusing on the the things I don’t.  I want to live life open-handed this year and give openly and happily to others.

4. Teaching- Be a better teacher.  Keep my students’ needs in mind as my first priority.  Think big picture.

5. Faith- Loving God, trusting Him, believing in Him.  With all that I have and all that I am.  He is my great reward.  I plan to read through the Bible in a year and spend more time in prayer. 

I have no doubt that I will fail miserably at this, but the good news is that I will be blogging five days a week in January to tell you all about it!  So sit back and relax- it’s gonna be awesome.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen 2009

Do you ever come to the end of a year and are unable to remember exactly what happened that year? 12 months is a lot of time... a lot of life. I think this year might best be remembered as a year where I had to make a lot of grown-up decisions. Had to do a lot of things I didn't want to do in order to get where I am eventually going. And had to trust God A LOT.
So, I am happily ending 2009 and looking forward to an exciting 2010. I'm planning to take life by storm in the New Year and live to the fullest. I have some big things in store for my blog (and my life) and I can't wait to get started.

Goodbye 2009. Hello Future.

Believing

When I was a kid, Santa came to our house in a BIG way. He was huge at our place! And the idea of ole Kris Kringle was made even bigger by my parents who encouraged my brother and I to believe. My parents never used the idea of Santa Claus as the "morality police"- I don't remember a single time when my presents were threatened by my behavior; I think my parents encouraged me to believe just to have fun and for the sake of believing.

Lately, I've noticed a lot of families are making less of a deal about Santa, for fear he might take away from Jesus. I don't have any problem with that- to each their own, and I certainly never want to highlight Santa over the true reason I celebrate Christmas morning- the birth of my Savior.

However, I don't think that the IDEA of Santa has to take away from the REALITY of Jesus. I truly feel that believing in Santa taught me how to believe. I learned early on that Santa wasn't a mind reader- the present I wanted worst of all, in my heart of hearts, wasn't always under the tree on Christmas morning. Yet, I was never disappointed by what was waiting for me under the tree. And even after I was told the awful truth about Santa, I didn't want it to be true and I doubted it for a long time. I don't ever want to purposefully make a child doubt the reality of Christ, but I also don't think that asking questions, no matter the age, is so terrible.

I realize you don't turn to my blog for insightful parenting tips (especially since I have zero children to parent), or hard hitting theological debates but if you can't express what you're thinking about on your own blog, where can you?

May your Christmas be filled with lots of love, happiness, warm and family. Most of all may it be filled with lots of belief.

From my (old school) family to yours:

Thankful

For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies;
For the love which from our birth,
Over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the wonder of each hour,
Of the day and of the night;
Hill and vale and tree and flow'r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind's delight;
For the mystic harmony,
Linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child;
Friends on Earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For Thy church that evermore,
Lifteth holy hands above;
Off'ring up on ev'ry shore,
Her pure sacrifice of love;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the martyrs crown of light,
For Thy prophets eagle eye,
For Thy bold confessors might,
For the lips of infancy.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For Thy virgins robes of snow,
For Thy maiden mother mild,
For Thyself, with hearts aglow,
Jesu, Victim undefiled.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For Thyself, best Gift Divine,
To the world so freely given,
For that great, great love of Thine,
Peace on earth and joy in heaven.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

Amen.

For The Beauty of The Earth
by Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1864

Happy Thanksgiving!

Easter Bunny Eggs

Each Tuesday night my friend Yumi and I have dinner together. It's a tradition that we take pretty seriously. A lot of times during our meals Yumi will ask me to explain some crazy American thing because she is from Taiwan.

Over dinner tonight we were discussing our weekends, so I told her all about going home and seeing my family. I also told Yumi about going to church on Sunday to celebrate Easter and she asked me what my church did for Easter. She wanted to know if it was a special service or if we did anything unusual for Easter Sunday.

I quickly gave an overview of the Salvation Story (if any of my Bible professors would have been there they might have cried at the convuluted mess of broken English I spewed out- but that's neither here nor there). I explained that Good Friday is good because Christ took our sins to the cross with Him and on Easter we celebrate His resurrection and our own new life.

Then, she asked me the sweetest, most wonderful question ever:

"Ok. But why is there a bunny?"

Oh man. Now that I'm thinking about it I'm a little sad that this is what people take away from the whole Easter experience, but at the time all I could think about was the laughs. I do think that I eventually managed to make up some correlation between bunnies representing new life and our new life and whatnot.

I'll be honest- I wasn't even buying it.

After all of that explanation she had just one more question:

"Ok. But why does the bunny have eggs?"

Because I'm A Woman Of My Word....

Let's just be honest. This weekend was Valentine's Day and I am a single lady. Typically, this- combined with the fact that I had no plans would culminate in what I like to call "the perfect storm". However, God took pity on me this year and reminded me of all the love I do have in my life. I am blessed beyond measure by truly deep and meaningful friendships, as well as a great family whose love is never ending. Plus, armed with Beyonce's hit song "Single Ladies" I was ready to face down my Valentine's Day demons (I promise that I am just being dramatic- I don't have any demons. I swear).
Anyway, I managed to keep busy this weekend because my AMAZING friend Miranda invited me over to her casa to hang out on VDay (Shout out Miranda!). We had a ton of fun hanging out with Mir's crew from her Single's Group. As always, the highlight of our time together was eating and laughing together. One of the reason's I love Miranda so much is that when she starts to giggle she quickly gets carried away and can't stop- which is really infectious. It's the best. Anyway, I told her I would send her a little online holler and so, here it is!
Now I am off to finish my laundry and a little work for tomorrow, wish me luck.

Love.

P.S. If anyone reads this blog they should say a little prayer for me Monday evening because I'm going to this thing at my church and I'm going to have to meet a lot of new people and not be shy and I am a little nervous about it. Eek! Thanks.