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Day’?s Verse:
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
John 1:16
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Let’?s be perfectly honest here. While at home, I spend as little time on the computer as I possibly can. Hence the long gaps and happy silences. I could list all the cool things I got from my two families, the iPod Nano, antique silver dipping pen, exercise ball, notebook, DVDs, kitchen implements. But let us again speak frankly (we know one another or we’?ll never meet; honesty behooves either case) and acknowledge that people make everything worthwhile at Christmas time. We met up with Ben and Lisa, spent time with the Fergusons’ friends at their enormously successful Christmas Eve Party, played Apples to Apples and Eco Fluxx with my family, enjoyed a Read-Aloud Party hosted by my mother, and most of all just bonding. I increasingly acutely feel time slipping away on this, my last Christmas break ever.

But lots of great things have happened. I got an exercise ball for Christmas that refuses to inflate beyond a certain point, thanks to the ridiculously flimsy inflater that came with it. The inflater makes a squeaking/wheezing noise every time you press down on it, and gasps as it draws air in: squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-gaaaaaaaaasp…squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-gaaaaaaaaasp. Imagine this for a futile half-hour, after which you realize the ball has actually lost air. I bought Colleen a Bible for Christmas, but had to exchange it for a fatter, harder-core study Bible. While doing that, I ran into an old high school friend, Julianna. We exclaimed together over the speed with which college has passed, and I learned from her that a mutual friend, Amanda, has gone to Haiti. Ian got a Toledo sword for Christmas, and we speculated together as to the best way to transport it to Worcester. I have begun digitizing some of my favorite stories on tape: The Shadow, Lord of the Rings (a 13-tape set!), Chronicles of Narnia (we saw the movie yesterday with my whole family and in-laws at the new Lincoln Square cinema. I loved the movie and found it quite LOTR-esque), and numerous Hank the Cowdog stories. This involves playing each of these tapes and recording it onto a computer, quite the opportunity for me and my sister to folic down memory lane as we hear these voices from our past. And Dad and I went for a walk in the pouring rain with the dog, all decked out in Gore-Tex jackets, pants, and shoes. Yet my shoes and pants soaked through, so I squished the last half-hour back to the car. My shoes are still wet two days later. We enjoyed ourselves greatly — a phrase that applies to the whole break.

Happy (belated) Birthday, Jesus! Thanks for being born.