Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I am celebrating with my fiance (seriously a year ago I never imagined I would have one of those), my parents, my brother & his girlfriend, my uncle, and three of my cousins. I wish it were possible for us all to get together like we use to at grandma and grandpa's but it isn't. We will utilize the joys of facetime (grandma has an Iphone and has better technology than I do, no joke) and connect in any way we can. It is crazy to think that my brother is the youngest amongst us (he's 24), although I would imagine that won't remain that way for long, my cousins, my brother, and I should be starting the next generation at some point. None the less we will still enjoy the wonder of Christmas, Santa has delivered yet again (thank God in my house we don't out grow Santa filling our socks), and we shall feast and enjoy the time together, enjoy the moments spent telling stories and playing board games.


What are you doing today?
How are you celebrating?

Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas Eve

I LOVE Christmas eve, seriously possibly more than Christmas day itself. Growing up Christmas eve was always the bigger day. It was the day when all of my family got together, had a huge meal, open gifts, and went to the eleven o'clock candlelight service. When we were really little we even went to church in our new Christmas pjs. It was glorious. To make the candlelight service even better (as if it wasn't already epic enough) we often fell asleep on Grandma or Grandpa and at the end of worship during the silent night one of us grand-kids always got to go outside with Grandpa to ring the bell. I am not sure why the tradition there is to ring the bell at the end of worship but it was and if you got to help Grandpa ring the bell it was even better.

Now that I am a pastor Christmas eve is a little different and I love it for different reasons. I love it because I get the opportunity to worship with sooooooo many people and many people we haven't seen since Easter. I love it because it is festive and we get to sing all the wonderful Christmas songs. I love Christmas eve because it is filled with such hope and anticipation.

My traditions for Christmas eve have obviously had to change, I no longer can be home in South Dakota for Christmas eve as I need to be here leading worship. My parents, brother, and his girlfriend as well as my fiance are all around this year and I believe my mom is cooking dinner to be ready for me to grab between services three and four and Christmas day is becoming a bigger deal. This year we are traveling down to Minneapolis (a couple hour drive) to meet up with my uncle and cousins for lunch. My guess is tomorrow we won't be up at the crack of dawn (or as my parents would argue before the crack of dawn when we were little), we will sleep in and enjoy a lazy morning. Santa still comes (whoop whoop) and we will exchange presents Christmas morning while chilling in our sweats. We will read the Christmas story and remember the story that claims each and every one of us.

We don't currently have any little kids who will be up crazy early and be nuts, our gifts will not contain tons of assembling (I would guess at least) or batteries that need to be found. For my immediate family we are between generations, my brother (24) is currently the youngest, and trust me he'd be happy to sleep until noon if we didn't have to be in the cities by 1.

I am thankful for God who comes to us as a human, a tiny human baby thousands of years ago. I am thankful for the promise of Jesus' return. I am thankful for the Holy Spirit who continues to meet us each and every day. I am thankful for the light of God that continues to shine in even the darkest of circumstances. I am thankful for family and friends who are willing to travel to spend Christmas with me. I am thankful for my family and friends who will travel to be present at my wedding in June. Thanks be to God for all the ways that God is working and the showering of blessings.

Mom is here

Whoop Whoop! Late last night mom arrived, seriously there is something absolutely wonderful about having Mom at my place. She has been snuggling my sweet puppy (and feeding Dakota all sorts of things I wouldn't) and hanging out and helping me with projects. We also have come up with a list of miscellaneous wedding type projects that we plan to work on during the week she is here. It is WONDERFUL to have family around. I give thanks for my family who is willing to travel to see me and understands that I can't necessarily travel home and gather like we use to.

There is something about mom's cooking, or maybe it is just that I don't have to cook. Either way it is wonderful, my dog thinks she has died and gone to heaven because she hardly ever has to go into her kennel, someone is generally home with her. I do love the holidays but I particularly love time with my family.

Now slowly but surely my family will continue to arrive, Cubby and his girlfriend (brother and girlfriend) should be arriving sometime today with Cub's dog Nala. Marc will come back to northern Minnesota tomorrow after spending a little bit more time with his family. And dad will roll in on Monday evening after working. Christmas day we will all travel to the cities to hang out with my uncle and three of my cousins. I LOVE my family.

Seriously I think having many of my favorite people together is one of the exciting things I am looking forward to about my wedding. Super excited. Now to go work on wedding type projects with mom and have her quit feeding the dog all sorts of food.



Who are you gathering with this holiday season?
Any family traditions that you look forward to every year?

Thanksgiving Weekend

I had an interesting Thanksgiving weekend for sure. I went to Marc's family for the first time. I always find going to someone else's house strange, partially because there is a certain degree that I was the outsider and it was weird to not know who everyone at the table was, to know the traditions, or what is what. His family was marvelous and very hospitable but it is always that strange moment when you have nothing to contribute to the conversation as family recalls holidays past and you have no clue what is going on. It was great to meet many of the people who mean the world to him.

It is a strange transition getting use to the idea that I can no longer function totally on my own, there has to be give and take. We did have a marvelous time in Wisconsin, while I was physically there, I couldn't help but have part of my heart and mind in South Dakota.

I must admit I was happy to return back to my house and have my sweet puppy back with me. I missed being around her. I missed being with my family this Thanksgiving [yes, I am fully aware that this kind of stuff will become more normal the longer we are married, but it doesn't take away the fact that I missed my family and my mom's cooking].

Yesterday we went out and got a Christmas tree (the branches are still settling from being bagged up) so we haven't decorated it yet, but I was loving digging out all the Christmas decorations. I also had a little photo shoot with my sweet puppy, Dakota, who was way more tolerant of it than I thought she would be.