Christmas with family

12/26/04
What an amazing Christmas! I got to spend it with my family – well, sort of! Through the amazing power of the internet, I was able to see and speak to my family and they were able to see and speak to me. Christmas was spent and Michael and Shinette’s this year, so once mom and dad got there, Michael set up his laptop in the livingroom on the fireplace. He hooked up the webcam to it so I could watch and see what was going on. I did the same thing. Then through MSN Messenger – an IM (Instant Messaging) service – we turned on the audio feature, and the web cams, and we were able to speak back and forth and see each other as Christmas unfolded! Lisa would run up to the computer and say “auntie, look” and show me whatever she had just unwrapped. It was sooo precious. We did this for almost 5 hours but the time just flew by. It was really amazing.

After that I ended up staying home for the rest of the day. I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything – I had opened my gifts with family, and we had sat around visiting for a while. I had my coffee and they had theirs. It was nice. What happened the rest of the day didn’t matter one bit!

update from Atlanta

12/14/04

Can you believe there are only 11 days til Christmas? I will be here in Georgia again without my family. This is Christmas #2. Sheri and Arlin have invited me to spend Christmas with them and that is what I was planning. But yesterday a friend of mine told me her hubby is working Christmas day and she was going to be all alone. So I suggested we spend the day together – and we are. We will watch movies and drink eggnog (well – I will – I don’t know if she likes it or not!). There will be no oddness over intruding on someones family time, or opening gifts, etc. It’s interesting – all of my life I have always been the one who had family – and invited others to join us. I never understood why they felt weird about coming over for Christmas or Thanksgiving. They were more than welcome and it was never an intrusion. Living so far away from family – my mom and dad always had people over for the holidays – surrogate “aunts and uncles” if you will. So now I am on the other end of things – and even though my head knows that I am welcome and would not be an interfering part of the day – my heart is not sure and feels out of place. It’s quite conflicting and I’m not sure I’m dealing with it yet – but I’ll get there. It may take some time, but that’s ok. That’s what growing is all about!


Today is very chilly – was 31* this am, and we are only scheduled to have a high of 40* today and tomorrow. Winter is here in Georgia! J Not bad comparatively I guess! I can’t complain! The sun is out so it is warm when you are in the warm car sitting in the sun – a lot like Alaska winters!

Last Saturday I spent the day with my sweet friend Neil. He is the student advisor for a fraternity Georgia Tech. Finals were the next week and he had organized for a bunch of parents to come and put together snack/goodie bags for the guys to have for finals week. I came down to help with the stuffing of the bags – it was really fun! Each guy ended up with 2 full gallon zip lock baggies of snacks! Neil put together a daily devotional packet for the week for them too – very nice!

After that was done Neil showed me around the GA Tech campus. I really enjoyed seeing the campus – not having been to school myself it is always very intruiging to see the schools and hear/learn their history. It is a pretty campus – nothing spectacular – but nice just the same. You can see the city from there – it’s right downtown – which is amazing in and of itself!

Then we were off the the Festival of Trees! This is an annual event that raises money for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. There are probably 100+ trees there – each one decorated differently! You can buy the decorated trees if you like – that is where part of the money comes from. Groups decorate trees – some are schools, some are girl scout troops, some are designers and some are just regular families that do it.

storms of sin

I was awakened this morning by the booming and crashing of thunder outside my window - yet another new experience for me in this amazing south region of the United States. I am a very deep and heavy sleeper, and have been awakened by many things, but this was the first time for thunder! It sounded right outside my window! It was so awesome - and I mean awesome as in awe-inspiring. I got up and began to make coffeee, as the rain literally poured down outside. It truly sounded like buckets of water dumping to the ground. Again - like nothing I've ever heard. As the coffee was brewing - I watched the lightning flash above the clouds illuminating the sky - but hiding the light show I was so longing to see. As the thunder became less and less prevelant - I withdrew my laptop, and I now sit by the large picture window in our dining room sharing this experience in writing - confident that it is not in danger of being damaged by an electrical surge (I am on battery though... hehe!). The rain is now simply pouring, rather than dumping, and the flashbulbs in the sky are now clicking off only every few minutes, rather than a few each minute. I believe the storm has passed already - too quickly in my estimation.

I am pondering the storms of sin in my life and how quickly and intense they come on - sometimes building for days...weeks...months - but more often than not - seeming to simply appear from nowhere - totally dominate my thoughts and life for a period of time (usually a breif period of just few days) and then it seems to pass as if the storm is over and my life will become normal again. My thoughts are once again redirected to God and I am once again at peace.

My pondering this morning is about this - the storms that come from no where - and the fact that they continue to come. When I am in the middle of it - it is so intense it is hard to focus anywhere else, yet as it passes, it is easy to redirect my attention to where it should be.

Ahhhh - the buckets of water dumping here have returned - and I believe the storm is once again preparing to pass. Not the same part of the storm - this is a new and different leg of the same system - as perhaps my sin takes shape in different forms of the same root sin.