God in the small

On Christmas Eve, it was too snowy to venture out to the church down the road (at least by foot). But, I found myself missing the tradition of attending church, listening to special music, and seeing the children go up to the stage for their special message. Then I remembered the last time I spend Christmas Eve away from family. I attended Woodland Hills Church and listened a message that stuck with me, "The Great and Holy Smallness of God." Thankfully, to modern technology, I was able to listen to it again since Woodland Hills keeps recorded audio files on its website.
The message started with the children being told the story of the lost sheep, and then the pastor, Greg Boyd, related it to Jesus' birth. The small part comes from the idea that we associate bigness with importance. So naturally, when the Prince of Peace was born, we were expecting a a big parade or fanfare. But, God thinks differently. Just shepherd ventures off from the 99 sheep to find the one, or as I like to call it - leave no sheep behind, Jesus came to bring all of us to the fold.
After hearing the sermon again, I decided to try to find God in the small. And, it was there if I chose to look for it. The bus driver saying, "Good morning." A phone call from a friend, and a gift of a movie that I would otherwise think to watch, but needed to see. And, that's just the past 48 hours. I'm intrigued to find where else God will pop up if I keep looking for him.

weather outside is frightful

So the weather people were right in saying that MN would be hit by a storm. From the bus stop, I walked in snow almost up to my knees. Not that we have that much, but the snow on the roads got plowed on the sidewalks, and they were not clear. Thankfully, a co-worker gave me a ride home so I didn't have to trudge through it again.
My Christmas will be rather quiet, and I'm okay with that. This season, I've been trying to pick and choose my activities so I can actually enjoy the holiday rather than running around, trying to get everything done in time, and watching it quickly pass. So I said "no" to Christmas cards. If my friends and family are reading this, I am not completely against Christmas cards. I just think the effort of finding the cards, writing in them or composing that newsy letter, and getting the envelopes addressed and mailed before the 25th is better spent listening to Christmas carols, watching holiday movies, or calling someone by phone.
I also chose to spend Christmas by myself rather than let my friends travel 90 miles on snowy and windy roads. Being great friends, they would have picked me up, but the snow has kind of dampened my ambitions to go out. In storms like this, I want a curl up on my couch with a cup of Good Earth tea with two squirts of honey in hand while watching a movie or reading a book. Not that I couldn't do that at my friends' house, but the idea of driving in slow moving traffic and adding in the possiblity of being stuck or stranded somewhere to get to that point made me decide to stay put.
So I guess that makes me a hermit. Or, "not normal" as work colleague called it since I won't be spending Christmas with my family. Yeah, maybe I am. But, its kind of been an unconventional year. I've almost lived 360 days without a car. And, last year when I attempted to do the traditional flying home for Christmas thing, I got grounded due to winter storms on the West Coast for three days. I did make it home for Christmas (just barely).
Christmas is not about being normal. Oh, there's people out there who will try to tell you a list of things that you should do for Christmas. But, I'm not one of them. Rather, I believe that it should be time to breathe. Enjoy the moment of snow falling outside the window or talking on the phone with relatives. Be present and focusing on the glass half full stuff rather than the glass half empty nonsense. I know that Christmas Day is not the actual day that Jesus was born, but when it did happen, Mary and Joseph made the most of what they had in that stable. And a King was born to bring peace on earth.

hmmm

I re-read Laura Jensen Walker's book, Daring Chloe, today, and it got me thinking about the next book in her Getaway Girls series, Becca by the Book. Looks like it was recently published so I'm planning to pick it up soon. I really don't buy a lot of books because I figure I can always get them at my public library. But, this author is an exception. She combines faith with real-life characters (most of which have interesting quirks!) so I enjoy reading them more than once.
Thoughts on Star Trek: I was bored during the first part of it. When the crew wanted to fly into the asteroid or whatever field trap like Kirk's dad had before, I was so disgusted that I logged onto Facebook while watching it. Granted, I'm not a Trekkie, and once Scottie came aboard, it got more interesting. (Tangent - Simon Pegg is hilarious.) But, I had watched Terminator Salvation beforehand, and it was the first Terminator movie that I seen so I didn't know all the back story. So overall I found Terminator Salvation more interesting than Star Trek, but before you come at me with a pitchfork, Marcus' decision to give John Connor his heart was totally predictable. And, maybe if I watched Star Trek with a more open mind, I'd enjoy it. Or, maybe not. Was it just me or was Chekov's accent/tone of voice annoying?
My Star Trek experience reminded of me of the movie Fanboys. In it, the main characters (Star Wars fans) get into a brawl with Star Trek fans. Not that I'd resort to violence (I'm a librarian for goodness sake!), but it got me thinking that perhaps I'm a Star Wars gal rather than a Star Trek one. Oh, and seeing Simon Pegg in Star Trek made me want to watch Hot Fuzz again. So I ordered it from the library.
I've been watching holiday movies, too. This Christmas was okay, but the ending was kind of blah. And, I didn't quite make it through A Sesame Street Christmas Carol, but I did watch The Grinch (Jim Carey version). I didn't think to look for the original when I ordered it from the library. It was okay except its feels like two different movies merged into one. When it comes to Christmas movies, I don't have any particular ones that I have to see before Christmas comes, but I do hope to watch a Charlie Brown Christmas soon.

more on sparks

Since my last post, I found that someone does die in The Last Song. But, I'm still not sure about Dear John. That's probably a morbid way to start this post, but I did use to copy death certificates for a living so maybe some of that rubbed off. But, I'm gathering evidence to my theory that Nicholas Sparks always kills off someone in his stories so that's why I brought it up.
I watched the latest two episodes of Dollhouse last night. Although I found the idea of two Tophers amusing, Summer Glau's character completely annoyed me. And, I worried about Echo's safety. The idea of her being killed off crossed my mind so I seriously hope that's not how Joss Whedon ends the last few episodes.
Dollhouse had left me unnerved so I thought that watching the latest episode of White Collar would lighten my mood. Wrong - they had to put a twist at the end that makes Peter Burke look like the fed who's holding Neal Caffrey's gal captive. It blindsided me because in the first episode, I had trouble buying the Peter could trust Neal since he's a con man. Then their partnership became a little more credible. But, this whole new twist of whether or not Neal can trust Pete has been a shock. There better be a good explanation for the twist come January.
I also recently watched The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It was okay, and I think if I hadn't seen the other two, I would have liked it more. Maria Bello's portrayal of Evie didn't compare to Rachel Wiesz's, and she was an author rather than a librarian! I also saw
Nothing Like the Holidays. Its a holiday drama full of food, chaos, and family. But, the ending was kind abrupt.
So what have I forgot? I read a good fluff book called Running Wild, and I'm about a quarter the way through reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies again. Not sure I'm going to see New Moon in theaters. I've been waiting for it to be out for a few weeks, and my desire to see it has kind of wavered (at least in the theater - I may wait until it's on DVD).
Oh, tomorrow is my birthday as well as National Pastry Day so I've bought some mini chocolate eclairs and probably will have a countdown tonight until I can eat them. That's way better than counting down to do my Christmas cards because my birthday is also Christmas Card Day. So take my advice, eat a pastry and leave the cards for another day!