What I did on my Christmas Vacation...

Here's the promised post on the Christmas Vacation...

On December 20th, Linds and I embarked on our Christmas Vacation. We started our trip in Bone Gap, only staying their briefly, and quickly headed to Baltimore to spend time with Lindsay's sisters. Over the week that we were there, I think we celebrated Christmas (or at least had a Christmas meal) about once a day. The highlight of the Christmas festivities was the Christmas play put on by the children under the direction of my mother-in-law. It was very cute and a joy to watch. It really was just a jam packed week of hanging out with nieces and nephews.

We rode out with Lindsay's parents and her grandparents also made the trip out. And aside from sleeping on a futon for a week, it was a great trip. It had been since the wedding since we had seen most of her sisters and nieces and nephews. We had our fair share of playing Aunt and Uncle and truly enjoyed it. We can't wait to go back, although the beginning of school really makes it hard to travel longer than just a weekend.

From Baltimore, we drove back to Bone Gap and chilled for a few days before visiting Indy for the weekend. This was more Christmas for us and my family, although we really celebrated over New Years. It was very nice to be in Indy, it's a wonderful city, that I miss especially during Sundays in the football season. Go Colts!

The rest of the vacation we spent in Lincoln. We got a few weeks of rest combined with a little bit of work in the coffeeshop for me and the library for Linds.

Because it's Christmas, I ought to mention our favorite gifts. Linds is in love with her chair from Ikea bought with Christmas money from Grandma and Grandad, and I am getting frequent use out of my new coffeemaker (although the mugs seem to be in short supply after a few days of coffee enjoyment).

We have now gotten back into the swing of school. These last two weeks were the first weeks of full time school and work, and a return to the volunteer ministry gig at Jeff Street. I just started teaching the college students again and Linds is back to leading the choir. That's all for now from the frozen and windy cornfields of Lincoln. Soon, I hope to share with you what I read on my Christmas vacation.

August

Well, I almost let an entire month of the calendar go by without posting anything at all. It seems like the month went by pretty fast.

Like I said in the last post, I spent the last week of July at Little Galilee in Clinton, IL. It is a Christian camp and I am friends with the dean of that week. The week was wonderful and went very well. Probably the best part of the week was being able to spend it serving beside one of my great friends, Sam Davis. I love working with him. We spent the week making up new games and figuring out how to get campers with water balloons and them not expect it. I also spent the week teaching at the campfire times. The theme for the week was built around Gilligan's Isle. So every night I used a different lost on a desert island tv-show or movie. For example, I spoke about who you are when know one is around using Castaway as an illustration. The week went very well and a good time was had by all.

A few weeks ago, Lindsay and I went home to Indy so that I could attend the no man left behind conference and so that we could go to the state fair. It was a great weekend, I learned a lot at the conference and enjoyed attending it with my Dad and the men of the church that he serves. The state fair was HOT, but fun. We spent the afternoon with my sister and her family. It's always fun to hang out with nieces and nephews and that certainly was the case that Sunday.

It's been a long month and I'm almost ready. Before September can come, however, I'm going to be sentimental. Today was the very last day that LCC&S will be known as such. Tomorrow is the beginning of Lincoln Christian University. And so, I share with you a picture of something that will not be seen again: the entrance to LCCS with the signs for the two schools, in the future they will read, Lincoln Christian Univerity. And thus, I bid LCCS a farewell.

A few things that I've never seen in Indianapolis.

Last night, instead of having small group we did something a little bit different. We went out to see a baptism on at the ocean. It was a little bit cold, and I didn't even get into the water. It was really cold for the two the went out into the water. It was really awesome though to see a baptism right there in God's creation. Aside from a little bit of cold is was a beautiful night there on the beach. It was a really cool experience, and definitely one that can't happen quite like that in the midwest.

This morning, I also had an experience that I've not had growing up in Indianapolis. This morning there were wild turkey wondering around outside my apartment. I know that's not really important, but I found it amusing. So I thought that I'd share.

Oh, by the way, I'm putting pictures from last night online, just scroll down to the spot on the right hand side of the blog where it says, "Where have I been?" They'll be there.