Christmas stories

My friend, Melissa, is posting Christmas stories over at her blog this week. And I've had so much fun reading them! It made me remember a few stories of my own. I would love to read your Christmas stories, too! Feel free to share them here or leave your blog address in the comments section.

favorite childhood Christmas memory: When we were little girls, my sister and I would spend hours putting together a train set that ran around the base of our Christmas tree. All of our Lego's would be puddled around the tree where we would build train stations and arches for the train to pass through. We would adjust the speed of the train so that it would zoom around the tree, causing Lego buildings to tumble which would usually send the train skidding off the track with tiny sparks flying.
We had a collection of Christmas movies that we loved to watch over and over. Our favorite was a collection of clay-mation animals singing Christmas songs.
Daddy would get a fire roaring in the fireplace and we would huddle around the tree watching movies and building Lego sets. Then on Christmas Eve we would gather around the fire in the living room and Daddy would read us the Christmas story from Luke.


favorite teen aged Christmas memory: Our church, back in the day, put on a huge dramatic production called The Singing Tree. The adult choir filled out a huge Christmas tree with all sorts of lights on it. And each year there was a new drama production to go along with the singing. The story changed each year but it always included the same nativity story. And there were lots of parts for teen aged girls! I remember dressing up as all sorts of roles and racing around back stage to get my costume changed before the next scene. Mary Kay was a huge seller in our church so the make-up room was full of Mary Kay samples that were brought in by the ladies. I remember trying on lipsticks and eye-shadows between shows. Usually we performed between 6 and 8 shows per weekend, two weekends in a row. And the tickets, which were released at the end of October would be sold out in a couple of days.


favorite adult Christmas memory: For the past few years, my favorite part of Christmas has been hosting our annual Christmas party. I love making yummy foods and setting out the Christmas serving trays. All of our guests bring gifts to swap. Gifts have ranged from steam-cookers, to toilet seat covers, to singing stuffed reindeer and everywhere in between. Then, after the gift swap, we play round after round of Mafia. So much fun! I'm almost always the first person to be killed. Sadly we weren't able to host the party this year. Maybe next year!

how I became a medical school dropout

I've been reading the blog of my swap buddy so that I can look for things to buy over the next few weeks. I'm so impressed with her consistency. My blog is sort of a hodgepodge of ideas that have stewed for a few weeks before they come together. She on the other hand seems to faithfully blog every day or two and sometimes several times in a day. It's been very helpful and I've learned so much from reading about her day to day life. So for those random visitors that might have a difficult time understanding where I've been on this blogging journey I thought I would try to explain it a little.
Here's a summary of my life since 2000.

My husband and I met the summer before our freshman year in college, despite the fact that we grew up in the same town and had many friends in common. We were pretty much inseparable for those four years and we got married within a few months of graduation. He made falling in love a hundred times better than any book I'd ever read. He gave me goosebumps on my arms and butterflies in my tummy. We dated for three months before he ever reached over to hold my hand. I still remember exactly where we were standing on campus. I was wearing a pink poodle skirt and he was wearing a leather jacket and white T-shirt because we'd just come from a 50's style dance. He was the first man I ever gave my heart to and the first one I ever kissed. And he's still the only one in both of those categories as well! While we were engaged I applied to medical school because I wanted to be a doctor and I was accepted. So after we married we moved to a new city. My husband worked full time to pay the bills while I went to school.

And life was bittersweet. I have a hard time explaining what medical school was like. We were expected to absorb huge amounts of information and were examined over minutiae. It was frustrating and depressing. During the two years I spent as a medical student I felt like I was always bracing myself to stand against huge tidal waves. There was a lot of pressure to perform at a certain level. I drew strength from my faith in Christ. It was hard to talk to my friends and family about school. So I found comfort in the Bible (you can see this in the whole first year of my blogging). I finally realized that I was not cut out to be a doctor when my resident (an MD with only 2 years of experience) in Psychiatry showed me a picture of her 6 month old son. She started crying in front of me because he didn't recognize her when she went to pick him up from daycare earlier in the week. Of all the rotations Psychiatry residents have the most time off!! So I was shocked to realize how enormous the sacrifice was going to be for me. This all occurred in July of 2006.

So I opted to withdraw from school in August to think about my priorities. I spent a few months at home painting and taking anti-depressants. And the longer that I thought about it the more I realized that I wanted to be involved in the life of my family. I wanted to have kids and I wanted to be rooted in a community. I decided I wanted to try teaching. I applied for a job teaching high school Biology in November. Then we started working on a family and I started the alternative certification program that allows you to teach while you take classes. My first day on the job was in January.

Teaching was a breath of fresh air. I loved answering questions and explaining new concepts to my kids. I loved watching them light up with understanding. It was a wonderful new world. I'm so thankful that I decided to change directions. I honestly believe this is where the Lord wants me to be but I also believe He let me experience medical school for important reasons. Now we're gearing up for the start of a new year and a fresh batch of students. I'm trying to get my classroom set up and ready to go. And my husband and I are expecting our little girl in September. And that's my life in a nutshell!

Carmen ~ Live and in Concert!

My favorite roommate from college came up to go to a concert with me last night! We had so much fun although we had to take nose-bleed seats. When I was eight years old, my mom loved to listen to Carmen tapes. And I can still sing "Lazarus, Come Forth" and "Yahweh." Melissa got saved at a Carmen concert about the time that my family moved and stopped listening to him. So it was fun to see which songs she knew that I didn't and vice versa. I was disappointed that he didn't sing "Lazarus" or the song about the witch. Those are my two all time favorites. Surprisingly, he said a few things that made me think, too. One of his big points between songs was the fact that "God inhabits the praises of His people." I had heard the verse before but it struck a new chord with me. I realized that it's really been along time since I truly worshipped God. It seems that going to church has become more of a routine and less of a time to offer up my devotion. In college there were several arenas where real worship was possible and looking back at those times I get a little nostalgic. I remember singing my heart out to "Jesus I am Resting" at the BSU and standing in line for communion with several hundred silent people at 7:22 while we reverently spent time in the Lord's presence. And I also remember singing while I did chores as a teenager and feeling close to God despite the raging craziness of life. It was always about my heart attitude. When I chose to lay down my anger or my busy-ness and focus on the greatness of God I could truly worship and I could indeed feel His nearness. Last night I came much closer than I've been in a long time. My time with God has frankly dwindled down to nothing over the last year and a half. I wonder if that might reflect the amount of time I've spent praising Him (which has also dwindled proportionately). I want to find new ways to praise Him again.

othello

Yesterday, while the Hubster and I were perusing the toy section of Wal-Mart (don't ask) I happened upon an old friend. It's a board game, called Othello, that once riveted my eigth grade colleagues. So I coerced my dear husband into not only purchasing the game (only $9.84 if your entertainment collection is also in need of such a prize) but also into playing a few rounds. Alas, he was not as enthusiastic as I had hoped. I purposefully let him win, hoping that said victory would boost his spirits and give him reason to want to play again. Unfortunately he saw through my efforts and my evil scheme backfired on me. He dubbed the game "boring" and half-heartedly started a second round that we ended up leaving. Needless to say I was disappointed. If anybody has any suggestions on coercing him to play again please comment. It's not a very fun game to play against yourself.
Check it out online at mattelothello.com