Tonight, I’m attending the Highland Park Tour of Homes with a few friends from work, so I can get a good look at some of the homes in my own neighborhood. Since I moved in, the house next to me has been on the market. It’s a fabulous, large home just waiting for the right owners, and I am waiting for some great neighbors, too!

a burger (with feta)
onions
portabellas
boneless pork chop with dijon maple glaze
butternut squash

Fear not, I did not eat these all in one sitting (it was three meals in one), but I figured I should go ahead and use the grill space and heat while I had it.

So, here was my plate on the table for a late lunch:

Here is the butternut squash, which finished cooking while I ate the burger/onion/mushroom pita sandwich:

I’m still figuring out the vents on my grill, but the first outing was a success.

One of my favorite of more recent traditions is my annual Christmas Eve eve gift exchange, sleepover, and brunch with four of my close friends in Philadelphia. We began four years ago (I think) meeting at Joyce’s home. She decorates her home beautifully for Christmas, so we all enjoy celebrating there. We snack and exchange gifts in the evening, and then the next morning we collaborate and have a lovely brunch together. The photo above shows one of Joyce’s beautiful tea cups on the breakfast table.

Even though I’ve moved away, I hope that this gathering remains a part of my Christmas celebration in years to come. My friends gave me a particularly sweet gift this year–a scrapbook of some of our adventures together–from trips to the Adirondacks, Vermont, and, most recently, Ukraine to celebrations together to our times in choir (where we all met and became friends). It’s a special treasure!

I did buy a lovely large galvanized bucket to keep it in, but the bucket leaks, so I can’t keep it as well-watered as I would like. I’m pretty sure it’s going to die before I can replant it (not to be a pessimist or anything, and I do try to water it as well as I can, but it’s dropping needles and I have to leave it for a week while i drive to Pennsylvania for Christmas). Next year, I will get a cut tree.

Here’s a photo of my house from the outside, but you can see the tree inside:

Here’s a view from inside:

Good Christmas memories already this December:
–Lessons and Carols at Sewanee
–Reading Luke 2:1-20 in Chapel for Covenant’s (less formal) Lessons and Carols
–Getting to see Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God concert twice. One in Huntsville and one in Nashville.
–Having family visit even though I live so far from “home.” So much fun to have my house full of kids!
–Niedlov’s bakery and their Christmas stollen.

More to come as I travel north on Friday, visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Va, before heading to Philly on Saturday.

i’m excited about this new opportunity, back to working with students and helping them think about life and work. it does feel like i’m on some kind of big road trip, having packed up my car, and driven for days, visiting family and friends along the way, and staying in a place where i’m not really unpacking. it always takes a while for a place to feel like home for me, but i think a big step will be having a place to call my own. for now, i’m eating lots of prepared food and living with very white walls and institutional furniture.

i’ll list instead my best memories/accomplishments during last week’s vacation in the adirondacks:
1. sleeping in until 10:30 am one day
2. watching roman holiday
3. hiking eight miles (i have the raspberry branch scratches on my ankles to prove it)
4. sailing for the first time (ok, so i just rode, while my friend Joyce sailed)
5. quoting pride and prejudice lines with my friends [i believe it is of great doctrinal import]
6. finishing stephen ambrose’s band of brothers; starting orhan pamuk’s snow
7. studying five psalms with four of my good friends
8. eating great food–salmon, sauerbrauten, beef bbq, chicken tagine, hot dogs over the campfire
9. enjoying cold sleeping weather and clear starry nights
10. finding a great diner on our way home

i’m excited that they and their five kids might come visit me over Easter weekend.

i asked the same question when my roommate Sarah informed me of the planned event. lindsey and luke had put their heads together to determine a suitable activity for friends from our tuesday night bible study.

lindsey wrote: “Thrift Bowling includes getting together with a bunch of people, picking names from a hat & dressing the person that you picked in thrift clothes. Then, we go bowling.”

i was tired after a long week on friday night, but determined i would at least join in some of the fun, since our thrift store was the attic of a missions guesthouse just around the corner.

it turned into quite an evening . . . outfits were chosen to properly humiliate the wearer, pictures were taken, bowling alley attendants were amused, and a good time was had by all. i highly recommend it.

Luke took a bunch of pictures which are here.

A few highlights:

Trying things on (check out Tim’s white shoes and socks in the background):
Sarah’s sombrero

jeff’s leisure suit and wig:

the whole group:
luke trying the sombrero (it was a popular item):
the frey siblings:

Four Jobs I Have Had:
High School English Teacher
Hersheypark Cashier
Missions Coordinator
Pre-Medical Advisor

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
Elf
Dumb and Dumber (sue me!)
The Philadelphia Story
The Sound of Music
(Serenity may be entering this list soon–it’s too early to tell)

Four Books I Could Read Over and Over:
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (or any other, really)
JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (any volume)

Four Places I Have Lived:
Troy, NC
Elliottsburg, PA
Winston-Salem, NC
Philadelphia, PA

Four TV Shows I Watch:
Lost
Firefly (DVD only)
Arrested Development on DVD
The Simpsons

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation:
Vermont (every year)
Nashville, TN
Katmandu and Okhuldunga, Nepal
Toronto, Ontario and Georgian Bay, Ontario

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
Yahoo mail
Google
marion clark’s blog
Tenth Presbyterian Church (I have to—it’s my homepage)

Four Favorite Foods:
Ice Cream (Maple Walnut or anything chocolate)
Pad Thai
Chicken Souvlaki
Mom’s roast chicken and mashed potatoes and rolls and corn . . .

Four Places I’d Like To Be Right Now:
Wandering around Istanbul, Turkey
Enjoying a cup of coffee in front of the fire at my family’s cabin in Vermont
Hanging out with all my siblings (anywhere)
On a road trip to see Andrew Peterson playing music (it’s been too long)

Four Bloggers I’m Tagging:
chrissy
dawn
Christy
Ryia