roommate christmas tonite

Over 10 years in the running & we’re still going strong (though 2 of us live alone and the other two have roommates demanding diaper changes).  Our quality time together is even more important these days …

 

a class act (for sure)

 I had the privilege of catching Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb tour tonite; what a treat.

giving … our extraordinary gift

You sit on your couch, beer or soda in your hand and junk food by your side watching TV for hours — that’s ordinary.  You work around the clock not because you have to feed your family, but for no other reason than to park a better car in your garage than your neighbors have — that’s ordinary.  You get up from the couch to play with your kids or you give your time and energy to help educate a prisoner or lend an ear to an elderly person — that’s extraordinary.  Why?  Because you are giving.  Every gift breaks the barrier between the sacred and the mundane and floods the mundane with the sacred.  When a gift is given, life becomes extraordinary because God’s own gift giving flows through the giver.

–Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge

looking for the perfect gift?

There’s one on-line shopping site I always find myself perusing as Christmas day approaches. 

(I’m a little embarrassed to come clean here; this shouldn’t be so funny still.)

But it is.  So here I am (at despair.com).  For those in search of that profoundly-witty-niche-gift …

denzel just may be my favorite …

Incredibly talented.  Apparently classy.  I’m eager to watch the full-version of his recent film (released on Christmas day).

it sounded like a good idea …

I love the (or should I say my) traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  Nanie’s frozen-strawberry “salad” (code for dessert come-early), Aunt Mona’s dressing, Aunt Lynne’s mashed-potatoes & cranberry, Josh’s pumpkin roll …

You get it.

It’s the Thanksgiving dinner I’ve had (give or take a couple years) since I could eat.  It’s the Thanksgiving dinner I want.  It is, in fact, the only Thanksgiving dinner I would ever need.  (Yet one more reason I’m glad God has tarried on the in-laws.)

There’s just one problem with this Thanksgiving dinner:  I only get left-overs once.  One nite, that is.  (The same nite I enjoyed the feast the first time!)  This doesn’t, I guess, diminish my enjoyment of the turkey-sandwich roll.  But it certainly limits my portions.  (And who doesn’t want at least a few turkey-sandwiches out of the deal …?!)

I don’t know if other families actually have this problem (i.e., the limited supply-factor).  I usually hear people talking about the other side of the coin.  “Aren’t you sick of turkey?  It’s turkey-this … turkey-that.”  Cooking articles and talkshows abound with tips on fighting the turkey-take-over.  (What does my family need to learn?)

Maybe I’ve got a greedy aunt/uncle secretly stashing the leftovers for later consumption.  Maybe my small family (of 12) actually devours the entire turkey-feast in one day.  Maybe my Nanie (the most generous woman you’ll ever meet) absent-mindedly forgets to send turkey & stuffing out the door with her guests.  (I did manage to scam some mashed potatoes this year, which was a first.)  But especially certain dishes (turkey being one of them) are simply altogether sparse come time to leave the Farmer-Family Home.  (My mom’s maiden name was so truly glamorous.)

Driving home to KC this year, sissy and I decided that one nite of Thanksgiving dinner leftovers just wasn’t enough.  We determined to make our own turkey — with a few other fixin’s — to quiet our insatiable appetites.

I put the turkey in the oven 5 hours ago.  It’s still not done.  A web article tells me this bird’s temp ought to raise quickly in the last hour.  (I’m just praying that’s this hour.)

Anyhow, maybe next year there’ll be take-home turkey at the Farmer Family bash.  For now, I’d better go check on that bird …

happy birthday, timothy jaymes

Hard to believe 2 years have past since I welcomed my very first nephew into this wide-world on Thanksgiving Day 2005!  What a joy you’ve been, sweet Timmy … full of creative energy and persistent personality.  (Whether dancing the Timmy-Shuffle, performing vocals, or wishing on birthday candles; your determination always leaves me admiring).  I can’t wait to know (more and truly) who you are. — Aunt Nettie

advent experiment, take 5

Nearly four years ago, just before Thanksgiving, my friend — Analisa — met me for our twice-a-month brunch at Clarke’s, hand-wrapped package in tow.  Advent hasn’t been the same since.

Ana gifted me, that morning, with a book entitled Watch for the Light.  It was a collection of readings for Advent and Christmas.  Together over coffee, we schemed a plan to make Advent “intentional” … in some small & important way.  We committed to daily readings and a weekly jaunt to Fourth Pres for a service & homily.

Taking the train into the city every week, I reflected on what it might have been like for Mary & Joseph … when they journeyed to Bethlehem.  (One week, while doing homework on the train, a girl covered in piercings and tattoos took an interest in the class reading I’d brought along.  The text was entitled What It Means To Be Free.  She thought it [looked amazing and] was a read on autonomy & self-discovery; I knew it was a barely-tolerable book on E-free church polity.)  Talk about changing the subject!

I sometimes think about the absurdity of me reading a book on polity while journeying into the city for Advent-reflection, sitting next to a tatoo, pierced girl hungry for freedom.  I suppose irony’s not far-behind any reflection on the Nativity.

Though life as a grad-student was rigorous at semester’s end, I sensed the importance of slowing and focusing on that (One) which is truly important … central to this time of year.

Since the days of Advent-experiment 101, I’ve embarked upon a variety of other books, sermons and small-pilgrimages.  (Last year’s lecture series on Advent-art, hosted by KC’s Holy Grace and Trinity Cathedral ranks among my most worshipful-endeavors.)

Advent Experiment 2007 has yet to take shape.  (I’ve just ordered Nouwen & Merton; we’ll see which … and what else in a week or so.)  I’m eager for the (train?) ride …

morning prayer

O Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine, and tarry within it until eventide.  Inspire all my thoughts.  Pervade all my imaginations.  Suggest all my decisions.  Lodge in my will’s most inward citadel and order all my doings.  Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give me grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship.

 –John Baillie, A Guide to Prayer

john keats on william shakespeare …

[John Keats] was impressed by William Shakespear’s work in making such a variety of characters in his plays, none of which seemed to be a projection of Shakespeare’s ego.  Each had an independent life of his or her own.  Keats wrote, “A poet has no Identity … he is continually … filling some other Body.”  He believed that the only way real creative will matured was in a person who was not hell-bent on imposing his or her will on another person or thing but was “capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable searching after fact and reason.”  Interesting: Shakespeare, the poet from whom we know the most about people, is the poet about whom we know next to nothing.

— Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor