Thanksgiving to Advent

It has been awhile since I last posted; my schedule has been much busier than I was anticipating even though I ended up getting much less done than I was hoping. So when this week came around - which we essentially had completely off because of the Thanksgiving holiday - it was certainly gave me reason to be thankful.

Thanksgiving was very interesting this year. It was the first time I was not at home for the holiday, making me one of the few this year who stayed on campus the entire week. Quite the experience walking around campus when it was almost empty, though I have to say it was very relaxing. For Thanksgiving, I went over to a friend's pastor's house, and it was a good substitute this year. We had a big traditional dinner, and we played the dictionary game. It's basically Balderdash, except we just go through the dictionary and pick out our own words rather than using words provided for us on little cards. It's a lot cheaper too. I think the words are more interesting too when you find them yourself. You can come up with words like Dugong, Tenebrific, and Phragmocone. The best part is my spell-checker thinks they're spelled incorrectly right now. =) I felt at home when I couldn't be at home, and that was a good feeling.

So now we head into the season of Advent, and I get to preach the first sermon of the Advent season at my internship church. I'm preaching on Matthew 1:18-25, which is the birth story that focuses on Joseph. It will be a new challenge, but I have always wanted to preach during Advent, so it will be a fun experience too.

The coming of Advent also means I'll be home soon. This year my break will be unusually long, but I'm not complaining. I'll be coming home on Decemeber 8 and in CA for the rest of December, which will be good. It will be good to be home for awhile and see friends who I haven't seen for 3 months. It has occurred to me that this is the longest I've been away from home for any one period of time. Went by a lot quicker than I was expecting.

The Christmas season brings back good memories, and one is particularly on my mind. My sophomore year of high school, our band director gave us caroling music to play in concert band, since marching band season had ended and we didn't have any concert music that needed to be immediately practiced. A group of my friends decided that it would be fun to get together and play the Christmas music as a small brass quartet. We played at a retirement home, for a private party, and we even got to play in Old Town Pasadena near the Johnny Rockets. It was a lot of fun to play, but it was also fun to bond with friends and really celebrate the season with music. Something about standing playing trombone with a santa hat on in the middle of Old Town really brought the season to life.

I will probably post once more before I head back to CA, and I'll post my flight info again for anyone who missed it the first time. So check back at the end of the week. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!