Through a Glass, Darkly

Okay, well, I should explain this. In the spring, Mike had four English classes and did nothing but read. When he’s reading, I like to be in the same room with him, and when he’s reading, he can’t have TV or music on. So I did a lot of reading myself. We didn’t go out, we didn’t have people over. We just read, both of us, a lot. So, I had hoped to get around 100 books again this year, but early on I realized I was off the charts without even meaning to. I slowed a bit this fall, but I am amazed to see I averaged a little over 11 books a month.

January
1. A Year at the Movies by Kevin Murphy (nf)
2. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (f)
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon (f)
4. The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant (bookclub) (f)
5. The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L’Engle (nf)
6. Kneeling in Bethlehem by Ann Weems (poetry)
7. 10 Sure Signs a Movie Character is Doomed by Richard Roeper (nf)
8. Living on the Boundaries: Evangelical Women, Feminism, and the Theological Academy by Nicola Hoggard Creegan and Christine D. Pohl (nf)
9. Time was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co. by Jeremy Mercer (nf)
10. The Saint of Lost Things by Christopher Castellani (f)
11. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (nf)
12. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey (nf)
13. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (bookclub) (f)
14. The Obnoxious Jerks by Stephen Manes (reread) (f)
15. Eldest by Christopher Paolini (bookclub) (f)

February
16. The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke by Suze Orman (nf)
17. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (f)
18. Six O’Clock Saints by Joan Windham (f)
19. The Friendship Test by Elizabeth Noble (f)
20. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner (f)
21. In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner (f)
22. Light from Heaven by Jan Karon (f)
23. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (bookclub) (reread) (f)
24. Why I’m Still Married essays edited by Karen Propp and Jean Trounstine (nf)
25. Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks (nf)
26. Don’t Know Much About Mythology by Kenneth C. Davis (nf)

March
27. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (nf)
28. The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris (nf)
29. Common Prayers by Harvey Cox (nf)
30. Little Bitty Lies by Mary Kay Andrews (f)
31. 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (f)
32. March by Geraldine Brooks (f)
33. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (nf)
34. To Own a Dragon by Don Miller (nf)
35. The Average American by Kevin O’Keefe (nf)
36. Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh (f)
37. True Believer by Nicholas Sparks (bookclub) (f)
38. Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman (nf)

April
39. To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever by Will Blythe (nf)
40. Miss Garnet’s Angel by Salley Vickers (f)
41. Fireweed Evangelism by Elizabeth Geitz (nf)
42. The Preservationist by David Maine (f)
43. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (f)
44. The Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society by Augusta Trobaugh (f)
45. Everyone Else’s Girl by Megan Crane (f)
46. My Life With the Saints by James Martin (nf)
47. Not Buying It by Judith Levine (nf)
48. Evensong by Gail Godwin (reread) (f)
49. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines (bookclub) (reread) (f)
50. Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith (f)
51. Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin (f)

May
52. Jane Austen in Scarsdale by Paula Marantz Cohen (f)
53. A Southern Family by Gail Godwin (f)
54. The Sunday Wife by Cassandra King (f)
55. The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King (f)
56. Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews (f)
57. The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler (f)
58. Maybe Baby essays edited by Lori Leibovich (nf)

June
59. Why Do I Love These People? by Po Bronson (nf)
60. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (f)
61. L’Abri by Edith Schaeffer (nf)
62. Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst (f)
63. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews (f)
64. A Mother and Two Daughters by Gail Godwin (f)
65. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (bookclub) (reread) (f)
66. The Whole World Over by Julia Glass (f)
67. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty (f)
68. Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty (f)
69. Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks (f)

July
70. Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty (f)
71. The V-Club by Kate Brian (f)
72. Searching for God Knows What by Don Miller (nf)
73. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (f)
74. Truelove and Homegrown Tomatoes by Julie Cannon (f)
75. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (bookclub) (reread) (f)
76. Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radich (f)
77. Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith (f)

August
78. Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack (f)
79. The Bitch in the House essays edited by Cathi Hanauer (nf)
80. Miss Misery by Andy Greenwald (f)
81. The Heart is a Little to the Left by William Sloane Coffin (nf)
82. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (reread) (f)
83. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (f)
84. Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl (nf)
85. The Revenge of Kali-Ra by K. K. Beck (f)
86. March by Geraldine Brooks (bookclub) (reread) (f)
87. Why Moms are Weird by Pamela Ribon (f)
88. My Mother’s Wedding Dress by Justine Picardie (nf)
89. Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery (reread) (f)
90. Winter’s Child by Margaret Maron (f)
91. Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson (f)
92. Intuition by Allegra Goodman (f)
93. The Monk Downstairs by Tim Farrington (f)
94. Recipes for a Perfect Marriage by Morag Prunty (f)
95. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (f)

September
96. Open House by Elizabeth Berg (f)
97. Thirty-Three Swoons by Martha Cooley (f)
98. The Oxford Murders by Guillerno Martinez (f)
99. Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg (f)
100. Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen (f)
101. True Fans by Dan Austin (nf)
102. Carrie Pilby by Caren Lissner (f)
103. The Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society by Augusta Trobaugh (bookclub) (reread) (f)
104. The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith (f)
105. Tolstoy Lied by Rachel Kadish (f)
106. The Moon by Night by Madeleine L’Engle (reread) (f)

October
107. London is the Best City in America by Laura Dave (f)
108. On Agate Hill by Lee Smith (f)
109. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (f)
110. Dinner With Anna Karenina by Gloria Goldreich (f)
111. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice (bookclub) (f)
112. A Tale of Two Sisters by Anna Maxted (f)
113. This Heavy Silence by Nicole Mazzarella (f)

November
114. Savannah from Savannah by Denise Hildreth (f)
115. Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) about TV by Tara Ariano and Sarah Bunting (nf)
116. Words in a French Life by Kristin Espinasse (nf)
117. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (f)
118. Evensong by Gail Godwin (bookclub) (reread) (f)
119. A Home on the Field by Paul Cuadros (nf)
120. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (out loud for my niece) (reread) (f)
121. The Birth House by Ami McKay (f)
122. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (f)
123. Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser (nf)

December
124. The Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne (f)
125. How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life by Mameve Medwed (f)
126. Home is Always the Place You Just Left by Betty Smartt Carter (nf)
127. The Handmaid and the Carpenter by Elizabeth Berg (f)
128. Dwelling Places by Vinita Hampton Wright (f)
129. The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erickson (f)
130. The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder (reread with Mike) (f)
131. Indiscretion by Jude Morgan (f)
132. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (f)
133. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (reread) (f)
134. Ida B by Katherine Hannigan (f)
135. Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper (f)

Statistics of note: Just over a quarter of my books were non-fiction (which surprised me, I thought I read more, but fiction just tends to go faster, so I can see how it happened) and I did even less rereading than last year (I planned better this year, I think). I thought I’d point out some of my favorites and least favorites, because just posting a list doesn’t tell you what I thought about them.

Favorite/memorable fiction:
-Light from Heaven by Jan Karon (I cried. A lot. Perfect ending to the series.)
-Miss Garnet’s Angel by Salley Vickers (This was just a great book.)
-Everyone Else’s Girl by Megan Crane (I like her chick lit a lot.)
-Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (I wrote about it here.)
-Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst (Liked it better, even, than Dogs of Babel.)
-Intuition by Allegra Goodman (Wrote about it here.)
-Thirty-Three Swoons by Martha Cooley (This book blew me away.)
-Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen (As did this one.)
-On Agate Hill by Lee Smith (Long review here.)
-And everything I read by Alexander McCall Smith, who continues to write fantastic books.

Fiction that disappointed:
-The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Not my thing.)
-Eldest by Christopher Paolini (So long. So long.)
-The Preservationist by David Maine
-A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
-Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radich (Hated hated hated it.)
-Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack (Crap book.)
-The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (Eh.)
-Dinner With Anna Karenina by Gloria Goldreich (So many hopes, so many characters to dislike.)
-The Birth House by Ami McKay (Popular in Canada, proof I shouldn’t be Canadian.)
-Savannah from Savannah by Denise Hildreth (Trashed it here.)
-How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life by Mameve Medwed
-The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erickson (So. Bad.)

Nonfiction that rocked:
-The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L’Engle
-Why I’m Still Married essays edited by Karen Propp and Jean Trounstine (Wrote about it here.)
-The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
-To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever by Will Blythe (Probably my favorite book of the whole year.)
-My Life With the Saints by James Martin (Wrote about it here.)
-Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl (Funny.)
-A Home on the Field by Paul Cuadros (Wrote about it here.)
-Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser (Why, yes, the movie did inspire me to read the book.)

Nonfiction that did not even come close to rocking:
-Don’t Know Much About Mythology by Kenneth C. Davis (Wrote about it here.)
-True Fans by Dan Austin (probably my least favorite book of the entire year)

Growing up, Joseph and I had a computer game which you could play as a warrior, a magician, or a thief. I always chose the thief, because I thought stealing things from people’s houses was much more fun than killing wild animals or people or whatever. And I think that using magic to get everything done is . . . kind of uninteresting. At least compared to stealing. Stop judging me.

Anyway, my favorite thing about being the thief was that you had to increase your agility so that no one would hear you. The best way to do that was to sneak around, because sneaking increases agility. In order to do that, you typed in the command “sneak” and your character would get in the sneak position - you know, hunched over a bit, arms sneakily in front of you. I enjoyed spending as much time as possible like that, just because it looked funny. (And also because “sneak” is a fun word.) (The other thing you got to do as a thief was pick a lot of locks. So I would sneak around on back alleys and pick locks. I am a fine, upstanding citizen, don’t you know.)

Perhaps you can see where this is going . . . for Christmas, my brother got Mike a copy of Burger King’s Sneak King game. We played it for the first time last night, and I got to sneak around to my heart’s content. In a rare bold move for me, I was actually the first one to play it, and I didn’t do such a bad job. We have finished several of the missions on the first level, and, you know, the game is kind of silly, but watching the King sneak around is definitely charming in its own way. I like watching him dance. If I continue to play, I’ll keep you posted. hee hee.

And I said, “What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”
He said, “I think I remember the film,
And as I recall I think
I liked it but you preferred the book.”
And I said, “Well, I guess our relationship is doomed.”

Just kidding! Our relationship isn’t based on mutual admiration of an Audrey Hepburn movie!

I read Breakfast at Tiffany’s the other night, and since Mike has never managed to make it all the way through the movie without falling asleep, he decided we should watch it immediately after I finished (since it was still early enough that he just might make it). On one hand, Audrey Hepburn was fantastic. On the other, it was a completely different story than the book, and I think they would have best been enjoyed as separate entities. I did like the story of the book better, to be honest. I think the movie was (mostly) enjoyable as a movie, and I’m glad that I have finally seen it. Mike liked the movie a lot, though, so at least I enabled him to watch it.

Other movies viewed this week: Love Actually (my second time seeing it, Mike’s first) and Little Miss Sunshine (still great, even knowing the punchline). I like it when Mike doesn’t have homework to do in the evenings.

KARI: Do they have Christmas in heaven?

MIKE: Of course! Jesus’ birthday party!

KARI: That’s nice.

MIKE: But I hear it’s probably in the spring.

KARI: Do you think they have Christmas trees?

MIKE: Yes.

KARI: White lights or colored?

MIKE: Both.

KARI: Whichever you prefer?

MIKE: Exactly. And instead of inflatable lawn ornaments shaped like Santa, you have inflatable lawn ornaments shaped like Jesus.

KARI: . . .

MIKE: What?

KARI: I’m waiting to see if you’re going to be struck by lightning.

MIKE: Jesus on a Harley. Jesus in a snow globe. A Jesus-go-round.

KARI: Holy cow.

MIKE: The angels can’t let mere mortals outdo them.

KARI: And there are presents to shake and a big meal?

MIKE: Angel choirs go from door to door, caroling.

KARI: That’s nice, too.

MIKE: Christmas there is even better than Christmas here.

KARI: Something to look forward to.

And it was just November past
She said goodbye, and breathed her last
And the great grandchildren miss her so
But if she could she would let them know …
This is my first Christmas

First time to hear the angels sing
Glory, hallelujah to the risen king
And a holy night is what this is
‘Cause this is my first Christmas
This is my first Christmas -Carolyn Arends

Merry Christmas, Daddy. I know you livened up the party.

This thing sort of made the rounds, and I decided to do it myself to distract you from the lack of actual content.

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?
Egg nog is, in a word, disgusting. Hot chocolate for me, please.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Well. We didn’t really do Santa at my house. But my mom and dad would bring out presents for us after we went to bed on Christmas Eve and set them (unwrapped) on the fireplace and stuff. The funny thing about this is that, for many years, I thought that was because my mom just didn’t want to wrap everything (or, in the case of something like a bike, it couldn’t be wrapped easily). It wasn’t until I was in college that I learned that those were supposed to be the “Santa” presents. I always thought of them as the “magic of Christmas” presents, I guess.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
On my house? White. I don’t mind colored lights on a tree, but that’s as far as I’ll go. White lights are so pretty. I like to call them twinkle lights or fairy lights, but that’s just in my head. I don’t say it out loud. But on YOUR house, I want colored lights and lots of ‘em.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
The day after Thanksgiving. Thank you, plastic tree, for making that possible.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
I don’t really have one. My family doesn’t have a traditional Christmas meal that we have every year. One of the things we do now that I like is that we have a big family breakfast and then do our presents.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?
Gosh. I don’t know. We go to my grandma’s house every year on Christmas Eve, and on the drive home, every red light was “Rudolph” and every patch of fog was “the glare off Santa’s sleigh.” That was always fun. One year that really stands out is the year that my dad told us we could get up whenever we wanted and he’d get up and open presents with us. Before that, the unspoken rule was that we couldn’t get up until Mom and Dad were up. I got Dad up at some ungodly hour, he came and looked at the tree (and the “magic of Christmas presents”) with me, and then made me go back to bed. The next year, the usual rules applied.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I was never told about Santa as a child, but when I was old enough to go to school, I was told that some children believe in Santa, and that if I ruined it for them, I would meet my doom. If by, “the truth about Santa,” you mean, “that he was the former bishop of Turkey and visits the children in the Netherlands with a posse of six to eight black men,” well, I learned that in 2004.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
No. When Mike and I exchanged gifts, we did them on Christmas Eve so it could be “our” time. But we don’t exchange gifts anymore, so we don’t do that. And it wasn’t a regular tradition of mine growing up, to open presents on Christmas Eve (except at Grandma’s house), but every once in a while we did.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
First, I would like to say that we don’t have to put lights on it. Thank you, plastic PRELIT tree for making that possible. Our ornaments are a mixture of my childhood ornaments, stuff Mike bought when he worked at the bookstore, and stuff we’ve obtained since we were married. Mike and I exchange an ornament every year, and we also get a lot of ornaments from family. Many of our ornaments are snowmen, because Mike has expressed a fondness for them in the past.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?
I like snow. More accurately, I like snow days. Watching movies, drinking hot chocolate, making snow cream. I don’t like to have to go out in it.

12. Can you ice skate?
Definitely not.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
A favorite gift? Nothing really comes to mind. As a kid, it was probably my bike or my Cabbage Patch doll or my My Little Pony castle . . . something like that. Mike got me a diamond necklace that I really like, but that’s a whole ‘nother deal.

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Spending time with family, reading our Advent book.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
I don’t really have one. I guess pumpkin pie – this is kind of the last chance to get it before people start looking at you weird. “No, I would NOT like pumpkin pie on Valentine’s Day.” (Well, I wouldn’t complain about it, but most people probably think that’s weird.)

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
This is another hard one. As a kid, it was probably the Christmas records we would always listen to as we decorated the tree. Now it’s probably our Advent book, and going to the church’s Christmas Eve service.

17. What tops your tree?
An angel. Our goal this year is to buy a new one on the day after Christmas. Or a new star. It depends on what we can find that we like. (I’m rooting for a star.)

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
Okay, this is a terrible question. Who would say “receiving”? I haven’t seen one person who did this say that they prefer receiving. I will not lie – I really like opening presents. It is so fun. However, I do, of course, love giving when it’s not out of obligation. I don’t so much like the “shopping” part of giving, but I do like knowing you’ve found something they’ll really enjoy.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
I don’t know. I am not good at “favorite” stuff when it comes to Christmas, I think. I love Christmas music, and I really like “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” and “O Holy Night.”

20. Candy canes! Yuck or yum?
Yuck. Or, more accurately, I can do without them.

I know that Alisa has had some terrible USPS adventures, and Mike has also had some run-ins with them from time to time, but I never seem to have anything but positive experiences with the folks at the Post Office. When I applied for my passport, the nicest man was in charge of taking my picture, and he and all the other employees talked to me about how I was applying for The Amazing Race, and they were all very excited with me and made the whole thing fun.

Today I was at a different post office, but I also had a nice experience, this time with a lady. I needed to mail two identical things, and I tried to scrounge boxes here at work, but only managed to find one. “That’s fine,” I thought, “I’ll just buy the other at the Post Office.”

And so at lunchtime I went to see the nice ladies who work at our Post Office, a block away from where I work. I have gotten to know them better lately, what with Christmas cards and CD Circles and whatnot. I like to at least pretend that they recognize me. I’m cute. I’m friendly. It’s possible. It would also explain what happened when I asked for a box. The lady asked to see what I was mailing (proclaiming it “cute”) and then went back to the offices and found an old box that used to contain envelopes that I could have. Have! For free! And packaged it up for me and everything! All I had to pay was postage!

Now, maybe I’m wrong, and that box will get to its destination all torn apart with the contents crushed, but the spirit of Christmas compels me to be more hopeful than that. I thanked her and wished her a very merry Christmas. It sort of made me feel like a Hallmark card, the whole, “Going the extra mile/Being nice to people just because it’s Christmas/Goodwill to men.” It wasn’t even something that was a big deal to me, to buy a box, but she certainly brightened my day.

Also: this post is my explanation for why somebody’s getting what looks like a box of envelopes in the mail. hee hee. (Sorry about that. I really tried to find something else, I swear.)

She emptied her mind of all thoughts and pictures; she held it empty till the sudden change in it gave her the consciousness of the spreading out of the stronger will within; then she allowed that now unimportant daily mind to bear the image and memory of Nancy into its presence. She did not, in the ordinary sense, “pray for” Nancy; she did not presume to suggest to Omniscience that it would be a thoroughly good thing if It did. She merely held her own thought of Nancy stable in the midst of Omniscience. –Charles Williams, The Greater Trumps

When the prayer requests roll around in their predictability, he silently questions their usefulness. Will this make any difference? Will the cancer disappear now that we’ve mentioned it? -Vinita Hampton Wright, Dwelling Places

“… I simply take him into my heart, and then put him into God’s hand.” –Madeleine L’Engle, A Ring of Endless Light

We got a lot of cards and phone calls and emails after my dad passed away, and so many people expressed that we were in their thoughts and prayers. I can be kind of skeptical about whether my own prayers for other people do much good, but I did feel very much as if I was being carried and supported by the people who were praying for me.

One card in particular, from someone I used to work with, said, simply, “I am holding you in the light.” I have since learned that that is a Quaker saying (which makes sense, as this man is a Quaker), and it deeply resonated with me. Sometimes the idea of prayer is a little more than I can manage – how could I possibly know exactly what to ask for someone? What if I get it wrong? - but the idea of lifting someone into the light, where there can be no darkness . . . that makes sense. It reminded me very much of the quotes above from Charles Williams and Madeleine L’Engle, the idea that intercessory prayer isn’t so much about me saying the right things, that it’s not really about what I do at all.

I would say that I pray every day, but lately I have not always known what to say lately other than, “Hi, I’m still here.” I have found myself taking a lot of deep breaths and focusing on God, though not necessarily saying much of anything. And I have continued to feel as if God is very close, as if he’s right next to me and I could almost touch him. Maybe he likes it when I don’t fill the silence with words all the time, when I sit in the quiet and trust that he is there, that he knows what I can’t find the words to say. This seems to me to be a more mature kind of praying than I managed when I was a teenager, demanding that God work in certain ways and not knowing how to handle it when, most of the time, he didn’t.

I know that when I pray for other people, it changes me – makes my heart softer, gives me more compassion, gives me wisdom about my relationship with them, but I wonder sometimes if it does anything at all for them. It was encouraging to feel carried along, a reminder that there are things going on underneath the surface that I can’t see.

“Prayer was never meant to be magic,” Mother said.
“Then why bother with it?” Suzy scowled.
“Because it’s an act of love,” Mother said. –Madeleine L’Engle, A Ring of Endless Light

Last night Mike and I took our annual “Christmas lights” tour. It did not start off so well, because parts of Guilford College Rd. and Market St. were inexplicably closed off. Why were these roads closed off, nice police officers? You can’t just close off a road for no reason, you know.

Anyway, the traffic and detours caused me a little frustration, and I was getting to be not so much in the mood for Christmas lights when, lo and behold, we came across a neighborhood that had a lot of those lighted Christmas tree balls (apparently made out of chicken wire, as the News and Record reports in an article too old for me to link). It was just magical enough to put me in a better mood. Unfortunately, none of the pictures came out, apparently, because Mike didn’t send me any of any of the lighted Christmas tree balls. So sad.

Also putting me in a better mood: harshly judging houses on their cheer. Embracing the tacky just makes me happier. And so, as usual, we found ourselves at our favorite cul-de-sac in Greensboro, the one where all the neighbors (except one) team up to create a cul-de-sac Christmas spectacle. I am posting the pictures, but you should know that it’s just not possible for the pictures to do these six houses justice. Their cheer-o-meter score? I can’t decide if they get a 60 (6 houses x perfect score of 10) or 1,000,000 (10^6). Either way, this cul-de-sac is something to behold. And it was warm enough last night that we could walk around and look at it up close, rather than staying in our car. So, of course, we did.

Remember, these are all one cul-de-sac. You must remember this, or nothing that follows will seem wondrous.

(My favorite thing about this cul-de-sac is the one house that clearly does not participate. You can’t really see it in any of the pictures. In the past, the house was simply dark, but there appears to be some kind of compromise that has been reached, because there are things in the front yard now, with extension cords stretching to the houses on either side. It looks like the “dark house” isn’t paying for the electricity, but at least their house isn’t obviously not participating.)

(My second favorite thing about this cul-de-sac is that so many people are always driving through. Hee hee. Plus, the rest of the neighborhood kind of steps it up, too, so the level of cheer in the entire neighborhood is raised. Well done, I say! Well done! That’s how you spread Christmas cheer!)

In traveling through other neighborhoods, we did find some other houses worth taking pictures of. Honorable mentions go to: Satan’s banister. Seriously. You could see inside this house and they had red lights on their banister! Red lights are scary!

And this house had pink and blue lights! Draped in randomness! How is that Christmassy?

Looking at Christmas lights is one of my favorite things, and it was a nice way to end our weekend. Christmas just isn’t complete without observing seemingly normal people display their crazy/tacky/white trash tendencies.

Harley Santa!

Wednesday I left work about 2:00 and went home, ate lunch, put in the first disc of Pride and Prejudice, and took a nap for a couple of hours. When I got over my nap hangover (ah, the perils of a long nap), I watched the second disc of Pride and Prejudice while finally getting into the book I checked out a few weeks ago: Dwelling Places by Vinita Hampton Wright.

The book was finally getting my attention (it starts off a bit slow but I am enjoying it), but my cold and general listlessness caused me to turn the television on. I don’t do that very much anymore, just turn on the TV (thank you TiVo), but . . . I just wanted to watch some mindless television for a while. And I happened to come across the finale of The Biggest Loser.

Now, before last night, I had never seen a single episode of The Biggest Loser. Not even ten seconds of an episode. I knew it was about losing weight through better eating and exercise, but I didn’t know exactly how it worked. I had a vague idea that, when the show was announced, I was appalled by the idea, but that it was actually something that had turned out to be okay, focused on encouraging people to make healthy choices. I don’t know from watching the finale whether that is actually true, but it was at least moderately inspiring to see how the contestants had turned their lives around, in many cases because they wanted to be around for their families.

Mike came home when I was watching it, and was completely horrified. Horrified. “Why are you watching this, turn this off, what is wrong with you?” When I said that I wanted to see who had won, he relented and worked on his iTunes while I watched the rest. He even managed a bit of interest in the final three.

But when we went to bed, he admitted that he was ashamed of me for watching it. I responded with the same argument – I just wanted some mindless TV, I hardly ever do that, let me be. I thought about that a little bit this morning, and I offered him the analogy that, for me, watching mindless TV is like reading a magazine. Normally, I read books, but sometimes I just don’t have the attention span. Sometimes nothing will do but People magazine, and reading People magazine now and then doesn’t hurt me. He said that was fine, but in his opinion The Biggest Loser is more like . . . The National Enquirer. I (maturely) stuck my tongue out at him and announced that, since I’d watched Pride and Prejudice earlier in the day, the two cancelled each other out. He indicated that he thought that The Biggest Loser more than cancelled out the five hours of Pride and Prejudice I’d watched over the course of the afternoon (half of it while napping).

Mike’s not usually so vocal about that kind of thing, so it’s really given me pause. Normally I do try to be careful about what media I take in, but is that enough? How harmful is one evening of a couple of hours of junk? It’s not like I was watching Borat (or even Joe Millionaire, which I watched obsessively its first season), after all. I’m not sure there is one correct answer, but it’s always good to be thinking about what I consume and how it affects me.

Mike took a picture for me, not of motorcycle Santa, but of another decoration I’m particularly fond of.

Every time we pass it, we say, “Kids! Santa’s drunk again!”

(It’s ALWAYS knocked over like that! ALWAYS!)

The new house in our cul-de-sac (plural? culs-de-sac, of course) (not the same house as this one) has an inflatable Santa on a motorcycle. And no other decorations whatsoever. I give it a 4. Well, maybe the motorcycle tips it over to a 5. What do you think?

(It’s a great time to be alive.)

The latest (Christmas-themed) novel by Elizabeth Berg, The Handmaid and the Carpenter, caught my eye when it came into the library. It’s pretty short, so I read most of it in the doctor’s waiting room yesterday (I didn’t wait very long, don’t worry), and I have to say that I enjoyed it.

In thinking about what I might say about this book, I went back and looked at this entry on Joseph that I wrote two years ago after seeing Andrew Peterson’s Christmas show. (I was disappointed to see I’d already used the title I had in mind for today. I guess we need more songs about Joseph for me to use as post titles.) It touched on many of the things the book explored - the kind of man Joseph must have been to marry Mary even when he didn’t have to, the kind of man God would have chosen to be Jesus’ earthly father. In this book, Joseph struggled with belief after Jesus’ birth, after the angels came to him in dreams, even after the wise men and shepherds came to pay tribute. Without giving too much away, I think I can say that Joseph struggled with believing Mary right up until the very end of the book, but then, finally, he was given the grace to believe. I really enjoyed the way it was handled.

I generally enjoy stories that flesh out Biblical characters, and this one was better than the other Mary and Joseph book I read several years ago, Two from Galilee. The Handmaiden and the Carpenter fit in with the theme of the past week, songs and stories about the people in the Bible and what it must have been like for them to be part of this miracle. It’s good to remember that these people were real, more than just the figurines that sit on top of my card catalog.

I think that I try too hard at Christmas to be in the spirit and to enjoy the season. I have to confess that I don’t really know what that looks like this year, so I’ve been back and forth between crying while making Christmas cookies and having a great time with my friends in Nashville. Maybe that’s normal. But reading this book reminded me of what I’ve been saying to myself all year, “Do the best you can with what you’ve been given.” God supplies grace enough for the rest.

Mike and Trey dance with a pickle.

Luckily Brandi caught this moment (from the greatest day of my life) on film.

On Wednesday night I found myself at Andrew Peterson’s Christmas show in Nashville, sitting with friends and listening to the story of Jesus told in song, starting all the way back in the Old Testament. On Sunday night I found myself with a very different set of friends, watching a musical that did much the same thing, yet in a very different way.

It was interesting to contrast the two - Andrew Peterson’s song about Mary, for example, focuses a little bit more on the gritty reality of what it must have been like for a teenager to give birth in a stable, while in Beautiful Star Mary sang a lullabye to Jesus and the messy stable labor was kind of glossed over. On the way home, Mike pointed out that, since Behold the Lamb of God has songs about Moses and Isaiah and Beautiful Star had songs about Noah and Abraham, it would be great to enjoy the two albums together.

Since Mike went back to school, Advent has come to be a time of concerts and plays, of luminaries and quiet nights at home. We had a nice trip to Nashville (that included the greatest day of my life) and a good time this afternoon with friends. It was another little piece of our Christmas this year.

Okay, this will have to be quick.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t part of Lorelai’s talk with the “shrink” last year about wanting to have a baby with Luke? But now . . . she’s not so sure about having one with Christopher. Well, wait! She did already have one with Christopher! And he wasn’t around! Weren’t those good times! Can anyone blame Lorelai for not wanting to relive them?

It seems more and more obvious that Lorelai is figuring out that she didn’t just want to be married. She thought she wanted to be married, that that would bring her “the whole package.” But what she wanted was to be married to Luke.

I’m not sure how I feel about what Emily said . . . on one hand, Lorelai does need to learn how to compromise. On the other, she can’t compromise on things that are . . . essential to who she is, like living in Stars Hollow. Or not being ready to have a baby. How can Christopher say that she’s the only one who gets to decide, when he was the one who decided they should get “married” in Paris. And it happened, even when she wanted to wait. Stop being such a baby, Christopher.

Anyway, cute Luke and Lorelai scene! Poor Luke keeps getting dumped on! I hate Anna so much I could spit! I wish Luke could beat on Christopher EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

I didn’t love it. It seemed kind of off. But I am not going to complain when Lorelai is counting soap instead of hanging out with Christopher. No, indeed.

I was brave and did the Christmas CD Circle this year (has it been done before? I usually avoid CD circles because I don’t really think of myself as a music person). Since I wrote out all the reasons why I picked the songs, I thought I’d post it here instead of it being lost forever.

These are songs that Mike and I listen to each year at Christmas, and it’s a good sampling of what you would hear if you were at our house this time of year.

1. “The Irrational Season” by Carolyn Arends. I have a kind of love/hate relationship with Carolyn Arends. I like some of her music, but she can be cheesy. However, the lyrics of this song are from my favorite author, Madeleine L’Engle. “This is the irrational season / When love blooms bright and wild / If Mary had been filled with reason / There’d have been no room for the child.” I think that sums up the miracle of the incarnation in a wonderful way.

2. “Silent Night/On Christmas Night All Christians Sing” by The London Festival Orchestra and The Ambrosian Singers. This is from an album called The Beauty of Christmas, which is out of print, but which is our favorite favorite favorite Christmas CD. Mike bought it the first Christmas we were together, and every year we put it on, turn on the Christmas tree, and turn off all the lights in the house. It’s one of our traditions, to listen to it by the lights of the tree. I put a few songs from this CD on here, so you could get an idea of what it sounds like, since just one song doesn’t give you a good representation. Its whole is better than the sum of its parts.

3. “O Come All Ye Faithful” by Mandy Ihrig. This is from a Christmas album called Your King Has Come that several “Square Peg” artists contributed to, including Derek and Sandra, Jill Phillips, and Katy Bowser. This is Mike’s favorite song off the CD, and it’s one of my favorite versions of this song.

4. “Miriam” by Pierce Pettis. Pierce Pettis sang this at Andrew Peterson’s show a few years ago. It’s been a staple of our Christmas mix ever since.

5. “Child of Wonder” by Sara Groves. This (like the songs from The Beauty of Christmas) is a leftover from when Mike used to work for a Christian bookstore. This came from a CD of Christmas songs all sung by women. As a woman, I think about Mary a lot this time of year, and what she went through, and I like this song because it’s from her perspective.

6. “Sing We Now of Christmas” by The London Festival Orchestra and The Ambrosian Singers. This is another from The Beauty of Christmas.

7. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Coldplay. I have to say that this is not one of my favorite Christmas songs, but I do like this version of it. Mike claims it’s the best version of this song EVER. He . . . really likes Chris Martin.

8. “Joy to the World” by Eef Barzelay. On his CD Bitter Honey, Eef closed with this song. Mike and I agreed that it was definitely going on our Christmas mix this year. I am putting it on this mix in an effort to spread the Eef love. How can you not love someone named Eef?

9. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Death Cab for Cutie. This is another song where . . . I’m not sure I like the song, but I do like this version a lot. The whole Death Cab sound goes well on this song.

10. “For Unto Us a Child is Born” by The London Festival Orchestra and The Ambrosian Singers. Another song from The Beauty of Christmas.

11. “Silent Night” by Martha’s Trouble. Martha’s Trouble is a band that some of our friends like a lot, and we went to a concert they put on a few years ago around Christmastime. We have one of their regular CDs and their Christmas CD. Their version of “O Come All Ye Faithful” is also very good.

12. “Away in a Manger” by Buddy and Julie Miller. What I’d really like is a version of Buddy and Julie singing “Manger Throne” without Third Day anywhere near the song, but this is what we have instead, and it’ll have to suffice.

13. “Babe in the Straw” by Leigh Nash. Another leftover from the Christian bookstore days. I believe this was on the same CD as the Sara Groves song. I learned as I was putting it on here that Caedmon’s also did it a few years after that on the City on a Hill Christmas CD. I humbly offer my opinion that this one is miles better than that one.

14. “The Holly and the Ivy” by The London Festival Orchestra and The Ambrosian Singers. Another song from The Beauty of Christmas.

15. “Christmas Day” by Dido. This is kind of a sad song. But we had it on our mix, and I always sing along with it, so I decided to include it despite that.

16. “Christmas for Cowboys” by Jars of Clay. This is a new one for us this year. We have no idea where it came from. (I mean, we know it’s a cover, but it seems strange for Jars of Clay.)

17. “River” by Sarah McLachlan. I like Joni Mitchell (blame it on You’ve Got Mail), and I enjoy Sarah McLachlan’s cover of this song. Even though it’s another sad song.

18. “What Child is This?” by The London Festival Orchestra and The Ambrosian Singers. From The Beauty of Christmas.

19. “O Holy Night” by Tracy Chapman. When we first got together, Mike had a CD that had this song on it, so it’s always been part of our Christmas music. I like how mellow this version is.

20. “Heaven’s Got a Baby” by Sarah Masen. Another Christian bookstore leftover. This was on a mix that was put out that wasn’t very good, but I really like Sarah Masen, and I think this song is fun. I like how the song is set against the idea of a Christmas pageant.

21. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” by BNL and Sarah McLachlan. Look, I know this song has been overplayed. But it’s part of our Christmas, so I put it on here anyway. I remember driving around and listening to the radio, hoping it would come on. (This was back before you could find everything on the internets.) I still love the combination of those two songs together.

22. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” by The London Festival Orchestra and The Ambrosian Singers. From The Beauty of Christmas.

23. “One More Sleep” by Kermit the Frog. A Muppet Christmas Carol is my favorite Christmas movie. Period. It’s not Christmas without it, and it’s not Christmas unless I get to hear the songs. This one’s probably the best.

24. “The Meaning of Christmas” by Charlie Brown and Linus. Mike got this clip a few years ago. I love it. “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” “Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Lights, please.”

25. “Christmas Time is Here” by Vince Guaraldi. Has to come after “The Meaning of Christmas.” What can I say?

26. “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” by Chris Rice. The other song I associate with the Charlie Brown Christmas Special is “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” So I thought I’d put this nice instrumental version to kind of close out the “Charlie Brown” section of this CD.

27. “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” by The London Festival Orchestra and The Ambrosian Singers. To close out the CD, one last song from The Beauty of Christmas.

“But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly . . .” -Luke 21:34, RSV

“But be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise . . .” Luke 21:34, The Message

This Sunday’s New Testament reading was from Luke, and while its apocalyptic message was not exactly the tone we usually think of for the first Sunday of Advent, I liked the message of hope and renewal, of looking ahead. I read something this week that was talking about remembering Advent as a time of expectation and preparation, not as a time to get all sentimental about Baby Jesus, and I thought about that when we discussed these verses in Sunday School and heard them again during service. The verse above may be about the end of the world, but it sounds like something we should remember this time of year: Don’t let the Day catch you unprepared! Don’t get so caught up in life that you forget to be readying your heart!

The Christmas season has caught me unawares this year, I must confess. By now, I normally have planned out my list and the baking so that the season won’t feel rushed, so that I can focus on preparing my heart. I didn’t plan ahead this year, though. I have been caught up in the present and not focusing on what was ahead. And so we have parties and plays and concerts that we’re attending, things that we choose to do as part of our Advent preparation, but that, this year, are making me feel as if there’s not quite enough time to do the baking and shopping. This weekend, I felt, was a bit of a crossroads for me: Was I going to continue feeling frantic, or was I going to let things go? In thinking about the next few weeks, am I going to sacrifice going to Christmas concerts at the church in order to bake? Wouldn’t that mean my priorities are out of order?

This weekend, trying to be mindful of all of that, I spent time with friends and made the cookie dough (and froze it for later), Mike and I started our Advent book, and I tried to clear the calendar for the things that are the most important, to see the shopping and baking as part of the celebration, part of the way I love my family, but not the main event.

Every year Advent comes around and I have to learn to prioritize in a new and different way. This year I am learning about life and circumstances and how to prepare my heart in the midst of grieving. I am thankful for the hope present in today’s verses, the hope of the candle that was lit this morning, the hope of a little baby who came to save us of our sin. Hope that rises above circumstances and helps me to remember not to let that Day take me by complete surprise.