Reason(s) for the Season

Well friends, I hope you all had lovely Christmases this year, wherever you spent them. Even though it started out just cloudy and rainy, we ended up getting a little bit of white stuff here in Davidson. :)

There's no doubt Christmas is a hectic time of year, but also inevitable are the requests to remember the "reason for the season." (Namely, the birth of Jesus of course.) These reminders are good, I think, since it's awfully easy to get wrapped up (Ha. Wrapped up? Like a present? Anyway...) in the excitement of Santa, gift-giving, and the host of other secularized traditions. I've been thinking about it though, this year...maybe all the hooplah still has it's benefits. I mean, don't get me wrong, I avoid malls as best I can in December and sometimes all the money people spend on each other seems a bit ridiculous. But Christmas Eve after church, I sat in the kitchen with my parents and brother talking about random stories from our childhood, thinking about how nice it was that we all were sitting there doing that. I feel like even though obviously the reason Christmas exists is to celebrate the birth of Jesus, maybe the not-so-religious traditions can be a benefit of the season too. I'm of the opinion that God means for us to be in community with each other, so having a big turkey dinner (or a brunch, in the case of this year for the Wehrungs) can't hurt, right?

This of course assumes that one has a family with said traditions...or that one has a "family" (whatever that may mean) in the first place. Over at Preston Taylor Ministries (roommate Mary Kate works there), they substituted their traditional angel tree for a "nativity store," where parents of kids in their programs could come pick out gifts and buy them (for a small fee). The idea was to empower the parents, and to eliminate the need for them to rely on the charity (at least as far as Christmas is concerned) of other people simply giving them gifts. We YAVs went over to help with one of the stores on a Sunday night, and it was really incredible to see how much the parents appreciated it being able to be actively involved in what their kids would get on Christmas morning. Maybe if this whole idea of gift giving every December 25th had never been thought up, these parents wouldn't have gotten to experience that. Of course this doesn't mean all of their hardships are solved, but it's something, I suppose.

So maybe this is all just me rambling, but it's just what I've been thinking about these past few days.
See you in 2011!
Love,
Allison

12 Days of YAVness, and other thoughts.

Last night 2PC's youth had a talent show fundraiser and Sally, Mary Kate, Beth and I contributed our rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas. Complete with sparkly Santa hats and tinsel scarves, we sang our lil hearts out. Unfortunately (or...fortunately?) there is no photographic/video evidence of this performance, but for your reading pleasure:

On the twelfth day of YAVness, Susan gave to us:

12 country songs

11 community nights

10 days discerning

9 honkey tonks

8 pounds of coffee

7 nonprofits

6 free dinners

5 (pretty/smart/beautiful/compassionate/brilliant/perfect/kind/modest) girls

4 Presby churches

3 brown recluses

2 smelly boys

A Cabana and a Toolshed

And yes, I did just sing that in my head as I typed it. I hope you sang as you read, as well. And just fyi, the adjective before "girls" changed each time five came along. Luckily the audience seemed to think our lyrics were as funny as we did. :)

Today, Westminster Presbyterian Church had an Alternative Christmas Market that was basically their version of AGF, except all of the nonprofits there were organizations that are supported by Westminster's outreach. So, PSF was one of them. Looking around the room, I realized that most of the groups there had been represented at AGF, and all but two organizations that have YAVs this year were there. As I talked to a couple different people, I realized that there's this little nonprofit world where people know each other (even if it just means saying hello at various alternative gift giving events). Kinda cool if you ask me.

Also, it snowed for the better part of the morning. None of it stuck at all, but I don't think I've ever lived in a place where it snowed in early December! I'm fairly certain that this is just a few days of legit cold, and then it'll warm up a little bit. But it's still next to be cozied up with a fleece blanket. Leeeet it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Love,
Allison