Rockin' Around the Christmas Palm Tree . . .

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Friends!!! 

Welcome to our first post of 2011!!

Please enjoy the chronicles of our holiday season:

Sorry it has taken us so long once again to update you!  I’ve actually had pieces of this written for awhile, but we haven’t gotten online in forever!  Plus, it has been a crazy month for us mall employees!  In fact, we appreciated Christmas for giving us a day off so we could actually see each other!  We had been running on minimal sleep as Gary was closing most weeknights and I was opening most weekdays and working weekends.  In work news, Brookstone is keeping Gary, but he will only be part time now, so he is back on the hunt (when time allows) for something more full-time.  I think the VS store is beginning to realize I do know what I am doing, so it is more comfortable now.  Our Semi-Annual Sale just started, so on Monday I worked a 10hr shift, until 5am!!  Oh my!!  I have been having some discussions with families recently about nannying and will hopefully begin something later this month!  Please keep it all in your prayers and we’ll certainly update you as the process continues.  Continuing on … our most interesting day at work was the Sunday before Christmas…

If you somehow avoid the news and didn't know about the ridiculous rain we had (which I'll tell you more about in a bit...) ... it caused rolling blackouts throughout SoCal.  One blackout occurred in Arcadia on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.  The mall lost power around 3:30pm, then generators kicked in, and then the generator on our half of the mall died.  So we were left to straighten our stores in the dark for about 3 or 4 hours waiting for the power to return.  And then there was another power outage . . .

…this time, at our apartment.  Our complex lost power a few nights before Christmas.  Gary was working late and I was sitting in the living room watching the intense lightning and rain.  Then it appeared that one of the buildings in our complex was smoking, so I called 911.  Firefighters were already on their way.  What I heard was something about a power line catching on fire.  They had everyone stay away in case of an explosion.  One of our neighbors was home, so she came over to feel a little safer.  Luckily, I had just gotten out candles earlier that day, so we were all set!  We watched it go on for over an hour, waiting for an evacuation (which thankfully never came).  For about five minutes it did explode over and over.  It was like watching fireworks on top of a house.  I think the rain had everything so saturated it saved the building and trees from catching on fire from the sparks and flames.  All of that subsided before Gary returned (which I was sort of glad he wasn't home, because when he was younger, they had a house fire caused by lightening, so he gets a bit nervous around those situations now) but the power did not return until the next morning.  Praise Jesus no one was hurt.

So while we don't have several feet of snow, we did get over a foot of precipitation in just one week.   We've heard that the California seasons are: Earthquake, Fire, Flood, and the Awards Season. I guess we're right in the flooding one!  Our town got some of the heaviest rain, but didn’t have too many major problems.  In other nearby areas, roads and bridges were washed away or blocked from mudslides, homes were evacuated, cars went rushing down rivers that had never before existed, and floods destroyed businesses and homes.   Thankfully we only had to deal with a few lanes of roads too flooded for driving so we are glad it wasn't any worse!

Believe it or not, amidst all of the rain and cold (a few days ago the snow level was at a record low level!), we had a few warmer-than-normal days as well in the middle of the month.  So warm that we actually headed to the beach again!  This time it was warm enough to relax in our swimsuits and try to soak up some rays!

The day we went to the beach was also the day of our church’s biggest holiday service - 12/12.  The beach and Christmas all in one day – crazy right?!  No Christmas sweaters for this service – Gary was in flip flops!  Anyway, the service was really lovely, but we felt bad about being unable to participate.  We were asked to usher and I had been asked to dance in the service.  Well, my work schedule didn’t come out until the day before, and we didn’t want to leave them not knowing, so we just said no eventually.  Since I ended up not being scheduled, we felt bad, but we’re sure God will provide many more opportunities for us to serve in the future!

On Christmas Eve I worked in the morning/afternoon, so we attended the church’s 11:00 service which was also very lovely.  We really enjoyed Pastor Steve’s message and how it connected to the purpose of Christ on earth and the communion we took at the end.

Also on Christmas Eve, we did a conference call with my parents and brother to continue one of our family traditions of reading Luke 2 and The Night Before Christmas.

Since we don’t have family in SoCal nor could really afford to fly home anywhere (plus just wanting to have our own Christmas to begin our own traditions) we just decided we would hang out here together.  We incorporated some of our families’ traditions (Christmas Eve pj’s, a real Christmas tree which was expensive out here, but we had a great time decorating it to some lovely Christmas music and have enjoyed the great pine smell!, our own twist on the advent wreath, French apple pie, etc.) and planned on beginning a few new ones – such as having pizza for Christmas dinner so we could spend more time relaxing and less time in the kitchen.  Well, the last few days before Christmas, we had several offers for Christmas dinner.  We decided to accept one, and joined our community coordinators (kind of like apartment managers, but more fun, less authority) a Fuller prof and his wife and their two and a half month old son.  Believe it or not – we’re actually (sort-of) related!  The prof (James) is Gary’s aunt’s cousin!  So, we kind of spent Christmas with family!  We had a lovely dinner and then spent some time watching the Lakers game and playing Euchre!  We figured since James (and his visiting father) is from Indiana, they should know how to play!  So exciting – we didn’t know if we’d ever find people to play that with out here!  Then we went home and just relaxed and watched a movie and still ordered our pizza for dinner.

Random side note: I think everyone must be conspiring to turn me into a housewife because the majority of my gifts were kitchen gadgets!  (Okay, okay, so they were things we needed/wanted . . . but I still thought it was funny!)

While a lot of LA residents our age go out partying on New Year’s Eve, we went to bed around 8:00!  That’s right!  I mean, the party scene is not really our scene, and after working a long day, I wanted to get some good rest before waking up at 4:00am to head down to Colorado Blvd for the Rose Parade!  Many people sleep on the streets to reserve the best curbside spots, but I was not up for that.  Others purchase grandstand tickets for the convenience and view, but I don’t think they are worth it for the price.  So we figured we’d just head down before the major rush – and it worked!  We walked down (it’s just a few blocks over) and found a great spot in the middle of the parade route!  The worst part was the cold!  It was in the low 40’s all morning.  We were in several layers, gloves, etc., drinking hot chocolate, and still experienced some numbness!   We were on the better side of the street for viewing the floats, but it was also the side without really any sun :-/  Other than that, we had a really great time!  It was funny to see everyone’s reactions to different parts.  One guy near us had a Pac Man tattoo and was super excited about the Pac Man float.  The lady in front of us came to see this year’s Grand Marshall, Paula Dean.  And of course there were lots of Wisconsin and a few TCU fans pumped up for the game.  Or highlight was that one of my cousins from Texas actually marched in the parade with her high school band, so we were really excited to see her!  Check back soon for a link to my pics from the entire event!! :)

On the 2^nd, we actually got to see part of the parade again – and I don’t mean replayed on tv!  They keep the floats on display for 2 days at a local park, and then they head back down to the Rose Bowl via our street!  So everyone from our apartment complex watched them go by in the rain (partially disassembled due to height restrictions down the city streets).  They are quite a sight!

Concluding thoughts . . .

Overall, we had a lovely first holiday season together, after the business of pre-Christmas retail.  We enjoyed the few days off where we tried to forget about the errands, decorating, etc. we’ve been behind on and tried to relax and just enjoy each other's company.

Thank you all so much for your Christmas cards and phone calls and for reading this blog, letting us know we have people who care about us all over the country!  We appreciate and miss each one of you.  We’re sorry we did not send out cards for Christmas, but figured those we would send it to probably keep up with the blog anyway!  So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!  We hope you had lovely holidays and we’d love to hear about your favorite traditions or new experiences!

We praise God for an amazing 2010 as we graduated from Bethel, united in marriage, enjoyed some travel and spending time with friends and family, and moved out here to California!  We are excited to see what He has in store for us in 2011 as we settle here, meet new people, maybe get new jobs, Gary starts classes at Fuller, and we grow in God as a married couple!!

We didn’t really set “New Year’s resolutions,” but we’ve had some general goals and things we’ve been thinking about (such as, my idea to focus on capturing God’s beauty via photography to coincide with our church’s theme for 2011 of “Beauty”…and we’ve also started in Genesis trying to read the Bible from start to finish because I’ve never done that…) which I’m sure we’ll report about at some point!  We’d love to hear what your goals are for the New Year (if any) and would be happy to pray & support you in any way possible!

Here we come 2011!!

our makeshift mantle!

waiting in the cold!