"And I totally forgot; when are we doing our cookie day? Time's running out!"
This text from Amanda a few days ago reminded us that we hadn't scheduled our annual cookie baking party. Nor had we chosen a night to drink hot chocolate and drive around to look at beautiful Christmas lights. These are both important traditions!
The season didn't exactly creep up on me; it's more like it gobsmacked me in the face without warning. It's been an intense fall. Trying to keep up with eight classes at three different colleges nowhere near one another has proven just as challenging as it sounds. I only left my phone on the FrontRunner once. The second time it was Trax and it was my entire purse! My Type A, ultra organized personality flew right out the window with this semester's teaching schedule. At the same time, I was abruptly and prematurely released from my church calling, and I can't even describe the level of angst and despair that has caused. All in all, I'm ready for a new semester, and yes, a brand new year!`
But back to Christmas. We decided on this past Friday for both cookies and lights. My final grades were due Wednesday at midnight, so that gave me two days to recover, along with responding to students who expected different grades than what they earned:
"All I'm asking for is a C. I really need to pass this class."
"Dude, you finished the course with 59%, and your final research essay was 100% ChatGPT, so...."
Now that Shulamith's kids are old enough to actually be helpful, I feel like the cookie baking was more efficient than ever before. We cranked out ginger, shortbread, and chocolate crinkle cookies, all in about two hours.
After lunch and some rest time, we headed out to grab hot chocolate and look at lights. Eli is our driver and personal guide to all the best displays, and he did not disappoint. We saw so many amazing houses, all lit up, in many cases synchronized with music we could hear by tuning our radio to the posted frequencies. We saw lots of snow people, Santa and reindeer, along with several themed displays including The Grinch and Nightmare Before Christmas. All were wonderful, so much fun! But my favorite by far was the picture at the top of this page, a nativity scene with live animals (!) and an audio of someone reading the story of Christ's birth from the Gospel of Luke. It was the coolest!
Yesterday (Saturday) would be our last shopping opportunity, so Shulamih and I left early in the morning to help Santa with stockings. It has been an untypically warm fall, so when I walked outside to fresh snow, it felt sorta magical. Shulmaith's son Swen was still asleep at that point, but later when he woke up, he called Shulamith and told her that he had "prayed so hard for Jesus to send snow for Christmas, and it worked!" I don't think we'll get a white Christmas, but that dusting of Christmas snow Saturday morning was lovely, and I'm grateful Swen's prayer was answered.
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