On Television and New Year's

Good morrow, friends! (Or good evening! It's evening right now.) I am a bit late--cough, cough--but Happy New Year!

Unfortunately, I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that it is now 2016, because I'm still in November. A few gallons of ginger ale and a lot of noise followed by a ten/eleven-hour drive hasn't helped much.

We spent the past week in Nashville. New Year's Eve brought on, oddly enough, a Twilight Zone marathon that continued into the next day. Oddlier enough, (yes, oddlier is a word now) I found out that I'm a better actor than I thought. I mean, anything is better than that one guy who was gaping around like a fish and not even trying to look afraid.

(Later on, I flipped some channels and found that The Return of the King was playing. {Thank God for that gracious happening!} Not the extended edition, but when I'm away from home I can't be picky. It was better than Twilight Zone or HGTV. I ended the night in peace and tears.)

Anyway, the point is that I had an awesome week full of headaches and backaches and emotion, and once I get my mind straight again I'll realize that I just rambled about my television tastes during a Happy-New-Year post. Then I'll probably be really embarrassed and delete the post. I've done that before. All that to say, I hope the rest of you actually feel like it's a new year, and I hope you enjoy that fact. May the following year be filled with joy and weeping and fireworks.

Grace and peace,

Erin

Pieces of Today, Jan. 1st 2016

1. A new year welcomed in with ginger ale and kisses on the cheek and really, really good chocolate.

2. Champagne and extremely crazy dancing viewed from a corner.

3. Out-of-state visits and live music in a Nashville home.

4. Alfred Hitchcock movies and old-fashioned music.

5. A weekful of food and music and Property Brothers.

6. A hard couch to sleep on and freezing nights.

7. Tiny showers and scentless shampoo.

8. Christmas-presented books and movies.

9. Meeting people you didn't know were famous once upon a time.

10. By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes, the sun shines bright on Loch Loman...

Pieces of Today, Dec. 23 2015

1. Burned skin and a nutmeg-scented kitchen.

2. Pie crusts and The Girl is Mine and guitar-picked tunes.

3. The Nativity Story. (The prophecy shall end tonight, father.) 

4. Candles and Christmas lights.

5. (How often is it that you have a Christmas at home? With no travels or relatives or friend-centered parties, just you and your family singing round the tree?)

6. The Force Awakens and the thrills it has given me. (Han! Chewie! Rey and Finn! POE!) 

7. Baseball caps and notebooks and paper towels(?) scattered across my floor.

8. Happy tears and song-filled days of preparation.

9. (Joyful, joyful, we adore thee.) 

10. Sunset-colored roses and purple grass and fireant beds and field-scented air. Because these days are filled with flora and fauna of infinite proportions and the feeling of sunshine on skin and grass underneath you is one of the best that can be felt. Oh joy for sunnied Decembers!

(Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout alond, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.)  -(Zechariah 9:9)

Merry Christmas, and a happy and blessed New Year to all of you.

Galu,

Erin

In Which There Are Glad Tidings

For unto us a child is born, and for us a sacrifice was arranged! What joy must be found in this celebration of birth and death and rebirth again!

It's almost Christmas and I'm getting giddy just thinking about it. Jesus! Gifts! Food! The three most important things ever! Who wouldn't be excited? (Okay, on that note, gifts and food are actually a bit lower on my List of Important Things. But, still. Principles, here.)

Seriously, though, I am really pumped for Christmas this year. The past year hasn't really been the greatest for me, but for one little moment I'm enjoying the huge changes and shifts in my life. Christmas makes it feel unimportant.

Because, if we're being honest here, what is important when shoved up next to blood and birth and eternal things beyond comprehension?

What immense joy it is to watch it fold out in an epic, endless tale of trust, love, and rescuement! What precious privilege to see such wondrous salvation be begun! What joy to see a King who owns and works you in the confines of a beating heart!

"Word of the Father, now in Flesh appearing..." 

Pieces of Today, Dec. 6th 2015

1. Sickness and unmade beds and mind-numbing movies.

2. The subtle sarcasm and wild situations of James Bond.

3. The scent of a well-worn and beloved teddy bear.

4. Research and research and cross-checking references and research.

5. The squirming body and hungry meaows of my cat (who is not in a mood to cuddle).

6. Peanut-butter sandwiches and giggling.

7. Disappointment, because nothing goes right for me this week.

8. Soft hair to run my fingers through.

9. It's empty in the valley of your heart...

10. Yellow paint and crepe angels and silver sweetgum-balls shining on the tree.

Pieces Of Today, Nov. 26 2015

1. The scent of turkey rising as we FaceTime relatives.

2. Grapefruit shampoo and warm water.

3. Matryoshkas with their painted faces and mini-mes.

4. Happy tidings sent by chat.

5. The comforting voices of men in the other room.

6. Misty air and the sounds of the city.

7. We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams...

8. The subtle scent of egg dye and wax mixed with the joy of the holiday and creating in me a giddy excitement...(why don't we have Thanksgiving every day? For thanks need not be contained to such an often-forgotten celebration.)

9. (And I carry in my chest a pound of flesh...)

10. Old comics and classic jokes and laughter as we lecture each other on multitudes of things. (Forget not the lectures, children, for the wisdom of family dinners is not meant to belong to family only.)

God be with you all this Thanksgiving day.

Grace and peace,

Erin