We reclaim the church as a blessing machine not only because that is what Jesus intended from the beginning but also because serving people is the only way their perceptions of church are ever going to change. This is why it is so toxic for the gospel when Christians picket and boycott and complain about how bad the world is. This behavior doesn't help. It makes it worse. It isn't the kind of voice Jesus wants his followers to have in the world. Why blame the dark for being dark? It is farm more helpful to ask why the light isn't as bright as it could be.
- Rob Bell, writer, pastor (1970 - )

I think I said a million times how well it went on Christmas Eve - and now you can see for yourself!

Wednesday (Christmas Eve), I had work in the morning and around noon Sathish told us we could go home for the day. Best tradition ever. :-)

I went home and the loaf of bread I had started before I left for work in the morning was just finished. Garlic Herb Bread! Yum. I took it out to let it cool off, and then I finished wrapping presents, finished baking cookies, and packed up my clothes. Getting everything in the car was a royal pain in the you-know-where because it was POURING RAIN and the parking lot was a SHEET OF ICE STILL! I really don't understand it when there is rain and ice is not melting. :-( It made the drive over to my parents a little iffy on the back-back roads, but otherwise was okay.

I got to my parent's house around 3 and helped mom get things ready for the Smörgåsbord. Aunt Karin came not very long after me and we chatted while getting things ready for the evening. This year, the Smörgåsbord consisted of: rye bread, wasa bread, the bread I made, Swedish Meatballs, boiled potatoes, a small ham, pickled herring and sour cream, Gouda (cheese), Havarti (cheese), Fontina (cheese), and Bruna Bönor (Swedish baked brown beans). Karin also brought some excellent cheese spreads with crackers that we nibbled on as the food was getting ready to be served.

Lindsay (my good friend from High School) and Liz's boyfriend (Adam) joined us for dinner and we ate around 5:30. Mike had to work until 5:30, but ended up actually working until 6:30 and didn't get to my parent's house until after 8pm. He was just in time for cookies! (And we saved him some food from dinner, too.)

Much fun was had until I had to leave to be at the church at 10pm and Mom and Albert had to be there at 10:15. The church was bizarrely empty for a Christmas Eve service (Where were all the C/E-ers??!?! Don't know!) The weather had cleared up by that point and all the ice was melted and it was 40-something degrees out. Not sure what the low turn-out was about.

My solo went so well. I can not WAIT to get the video online to show all of you. It just went really well. No one set anything on fire while having the candles lit, except that Liz did mention to get wax on my camcorder. At least it was just on the top part and I could scrape it off easily.

After church, we got home at about 1:30 and Mike went straight to bed (he slept in the basement on the sectional - super comfy). Mom, Liz, and I put together the breakfast casseroles for the morning, and somehow I didn't get to sleep until 3am!!!! INSANITY. I haven't stayed up that late since probably New Years Eve last year.

Today I:
- Woke up in emense pain from carrying my yard sale finds up the stairs yesterday
- Gathered up my recyclables to take to the 'rents
- Went to church
- Made brunch
- Went through my Christmas decorations (some to keep here, some to keep at my parents, and some to get rid of)
- Took Albert to see "21" and then to dinner at Moe's. (WOO, MOES!)
- Came back here and unloaded the car
- Watched Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, and Failure to Launch
- Finished my Welcome Pineapple x-stitch (needs to be framed, but pictures will be coming soon)
- Felt like I missed out on what could have been a restful weekend, but instead was a productive one. :-P

Friday: Mike and I had an actual date which involved going out and stuff. We went to Moe's for dinner (as planned) and then went to see Spiderman 3 - which we both loved. I'm seeing that it's getting mixed reviews, but we loved it. 2 thumbs up!

Saturday: I slept in. Then I cleaned up my room and the guest room. Then I watched the end of "Corina, Corina" and the entirety of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood on TBS. I OWN both of those movies (er, no commercials on DVDs!)... Damn you, Movie and a Makeover! I stitched through all the movie-watching, so that was actually a great way to spend some time - early in the day before my eyes are all stretched out.

Heather arrived and YAY! Mom and Dad went to take Liz to dinner and bring some of her stuff home (she's home for the summer as of... TOMORROW!) and Heather and I went to Crossroads for dinner since there were way too many choices and Crossroads is the ultimate in closeness. Good meal. I got a Stromboli because I knew I'd only eat half and that way I'd have lunch for Monday. Heather got a very yummy looking chicken grilled sandwich thingy. We came back and then we watched Rent! YAY, Rent.

Sunday: We went to Pastor Hoyer's church in Lebanon! It was awesome. The Pastor that was supposed to officiate the service got laryngitis, SO Pastor Hoyer had to do the service -- YAYS! Oh, man, I am going to miss him. It was great to have a one-last-time, though. And he saw us during the sermon and did a little "shout-out" lol... sermon shout-out. It was awesome, the church was beautious, and they have a really awesome choir. Me wants one. :-(

After church, I ate a few pieces of cheese, a couple crackers, grabbed a banana for the car, and headed out to the Hummelstown for our 1:30 rehearsal. I stopped at Giant to get Lemonade for the reception and saw another member of the choir there (she was also doing a bit of last minute shopping for the reception!). The concert went swimmingly. I can only say that it would have been nice to have another 2 weeks of rehearsal, but say-la-vee. The reception was also the best attended one so far! YAY! It was funs.

After that, Mike followed us home and Heather, Albert, Mike and I played games. First Jumanji and then Passport (aka, best game ever). Unfortunately, the questions are either really easy (hilariously easy actually... Berlin is the capitol of Japan... true or false?) or really hard (listen to a midi-esk tune and figure out which country it is from). But then, the age range starts at 9... Anyway, lots of fun.

We had pizza from Fabio's (YESSS!) for dinner & Mom and Dad had wings, too. Ugg, wings. I will never like anything that takes that much effort at the table. Anyway, it was good food and good fun. We sat around talking for a while and then Heather excused herself to watch 7th Heaven in the basement. Of course, this is when we really broke the party out! LOLL SO MUCH FUNZ. No, just kidding. Things dissolved, Mike and I had some time to ourselves (gasp) and then Mike went home and we watched Desperate and Brothers & Sisters. Then it was bed time.

Monday: Ahh, the work week. I mean, Ahh, insanity. Well, the day started out with work. Not much to say there. My leftover Stromboli was an awesome lunch. All was well.

Then I left work and went straight over to the West Shore (Camp Hill-ish area) for our 1st Singers gig of the season. After I found the retirement place, I stopped in at McDonalds to kill time (watched CNN) and have dinner for $2.12. The gig was at The Woods at Cedar Run and the old-folks loved it! There was one lady that knew just about every word to every song. She was having a blast singing along (we told them they could since we're most doing old 'standards' type things). I talked to her afterwards and she was just so tickled to have us there. It's really nice to have an audience that appreciates the hard work you've put into rehearsing and such. Unlike the audience we had at our actual concert which was basically our family and friends. It was kind of depressing to realize that a bunch of old people who can barely hear make for a better audience than your friends and family. Sigh.

Anyway, after that, it was still light out! WOOO summer! I drove to Mike's Mall to get his keys and then worked on Albert's project for an hour and a half. I got it to work, but then it didn't work when I got home (WTF, I know I used the right save options), so I'll have to work on it again on Wednesday. Gah. Anyway, as I was leaving, I passed Mike, so I looped around and we got to chat for a few minutes which was nice. :-)

When I got home I packaged up some of the Neopets(TCGs) that I managed to sell. I got $6.50 for them and it only cost me $0.89 to send them! Sweet! I might turn a bit of profit off of selling them and get my storage space back. Since no one will play with me. *tear*

This morning: When I was at the post office this morning sending out the package, I got to see all the crazy construction in Hershey. They are doing some beautiful brick work on the new parking garage and they are putting in another (needed) traffic signal. Hopefully they are done soon, though, and will re-open Park Ave.