Some things.

Published: December 24, 2011 / Updated: December 24, 2011 Crystal Uncategorized

1. Financially, my family is pretty much on the brink of things, but I’ve a gained a strong trust in God for taking care of us all, after going to hell and back with the big guy upstairs and having him save me every time so I’m not freaking out too much.

2. For the record, I am the best Scrabble player in my family. I need everyone to know that because I’m not the best at any other game among them.

3. I’m currently hosting my mom and my three siblings in my apartment for Christmas. My mom and I shared my bed, while one brother got the couch and then my sister and my other brother each got their own queen-size air mattresses, which are lined up end to end between the couch and the TV in my living room. We made it work.

4. I got a free kitchen table from my best friend’s boyfriend, and it came just in time to host all those people. Praise the Lord, Hallelujah! Amen! And, AND!, it even has a leaf in the middle, so it’s totally big enough for all of them to sit around and lose at Scrabble to me.

5. My amazing friend Sarah helped me pick it said table because she’s the only person I know within a 100-mile radius that has a mini-van AND enough love in her heart to drive to Timbucktoo with me and get it. She never once complained — even when the two of us were trying to carry the thing down a flight of stairs that randomly featured a left-turn right in the middle. I love you Sarah.

6. The Bears season is over then, I guess. I knew as soon as I got the text message from the Chicago Tribune that fateful night saying Jay Cutler had broke his thumb that it was all over. It still sucks though. On a brighter note, Tim Tebow seems like a genuinely nice guy. I mean, ya, I was mad when he beat the Bears, but then I remembered that everyone was beating the Bears these days, so I got over it.

7. I hid all of my sister’s gifts in a really good hiding spot and she has no clue where they are. This is especially hard because the two of us share a psychic connection and she can usually tell what I’m thinking just by looking at me.

8. I joined my church last Sunday. I know, I know, you’re all like, “Dude, Crystal, you started going/working there like 18 months ago? And you JUST now joined? What the what?!” But I take that decision very seriously and  I really wanted to make sure everything was a good fit before I said my vows in front of the congregation. A wise man once told me that it takes about 18 months to feel fully accepted as a new leader in a church. Over the past year and a half, there have been extreme highs, but there have also been days when I left there feeling like I’d been hit by a truck because I was so stressed about it all. And I just kept telling myself, 18 months, 18 months, 18 months. And you know what? It’s been 18 months and I really do feel like a genuine part of the family there now.  That doesn’t mean I don’t still stress and worry and whatnot, because you know, I’m Crystal and stuff, but it makes me feel like they’re kind of stuck of with me the way a sister is stuck with her brother. There’s a strange comfort in that.

9. I’ve been off work since Thursday for the holidays, and my company closes its office the week between Christmas and New Year’s because they rock, so I don’t go back until Jan. 3. This means I have a legit Christmas break. At 28. And did I mention the free candy? Best. Job. Ever.

10. I’m saying a formal pastoral prayer for the Christmas Eve services at my church tonight. It’s mostly a mash-up of Christmas and Advent prayers from the Methodist Book of Worship, but it’s my first time doing something like this, so I’m kind of excited about it. Usually when I pray in church, I just wing it, so this is really different. I wanted it to be formal, but also accessible, which is really hard to do. An excerpt:

“When our need for a Savior was great, you sent your Son to be born of the virgin Mary. To our lives, he brings joy and peace, justice, mercy and love. Grant that his Spirit may be born anew in our hearts tonight and that we may joyfully welcome him to reign over us.”

I love that line, “When our need for a Savior is great, you sent your Son.” It makes me think that humanity was just barely hanging off the cliff, with their fingers slipping off the edge, and God came through. Like He always does.

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My friend Stephanie

Published: December 9, 2011 / Updated: December 9, 2011 Crystal feminism?, humor

I got to chat last night with my friend Stephanie for about 8 minutes and all at once I remembered how much I miss the heck out of her.

She’s in the far off land of Springfield, Ill. raising the cutest baby girl west of everywhere, and loving her husband and working and whatnot. And I’m here in Chicagoland balancing two jobs, and trying not to eat too many french fires.

And because of those things, we hardly ever get to talk anymore.

The two of met in grad school, and bonded over our mutual love of blonde highlights. We clicked incredibly well for two people trying to find friends in an insanely competitive group of journalists.

And that friendship was solidified like the marble steps in the capital building once we started our Wednesday night dinners. It was a tradition that began as a response to the depressing Illinois winter and the exhaustion we endured from chasing around Gov. Blagojevich. At the time, I was on a diet, so it was the only day of the week I let myself drink soda. (Sweet, sweet soda, how I love thee).

Anyway, I always (always) wanted to go to Olive Garden, but sometimes I’d let her choose the place. Wherever we ended up, the evening turned into a magical night of friendship.

I miss those Wednesday night dinners with all my blonde soul.

Lucky for me, we’ve been able to stay in pretty good touch over the years (wow, years. with an s. crazy).  And I could tell from our 8 minutes of amiga bliss last night that we’ll continue to be friends for a long time.

My favorite part was that after she said she still keeps up with me on Facebook and my blog, she asked what only true friends can — tell about all the stuff you don’t post on the Internet. And I spewed out as much as I could before we had to say good-bye.

And, I’m making a promise to myself now that I will see her and her beautiful daughter in person soon. Because good friends like Stephanie are hard too find, and when you meet one, you have to hang on for dear life.

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Christmas smiles

Published: December 1, 2011 / Updated: December 1, 2011 Crystal god

I have a 6-ft. tall Christams tree standing my living room. It’s decorated with multi-colored lights the gleam like a winter rainbow in front of my patio window.

There ornaments are mostly pink, silver and blue, and the bow at the top is a big red knot left over from a gift I got once somewhere. The tree skirt was the cheapest I could find — a $3.72 white fabric that’s meant to mimic snow, but succeeds only in that it’s white.

I also have a little 1-ft. tree by my door, with a little pink star on top. It’s perfect.

Then, in the corner, is a nativity set my Aunt Sandy gave me a few years back. I set out the fragile white pieces and wooden barn on two end tables covered in a green blanket, and drizzled with the white snow flakes from Wal-Mart.

And when I carefully placed the Shepherd and his sheep on the side, Mary by her son, the wise men in a line and the Angles on high, I was reminded how mystical the whole situation really was.

In the evenings, when the deary winter nights loom over everything, tainting it all with a sort of depressive awfulness, I like to sit on my couch, in the dark, with just the two trees lit up. Then, I let them work their nostalgia magic.

They bring me back to Christmas mornings of yore, when I would wake up my brothers a 4 a.m. to go downstairs and analyze our stockings. The remind me of the glorious time before I knew that presents cost money, parents are flawed and Santa isn’t real.

The reach in my heart, and wake-up the Christmas spirit.

And all I can think about is littering the tree skirt with gifts for people I love.

And it’s not so much that I want to give them stuff, but that I want to give them a Christmas smile.

I want to see their eyes light up with surprise and excitement and joy and the knowledge that someone they know loves them enough to go out and find them the perfect vintage baseball card, or zebra pajamas, or electric Monopoly set, or Old Testament Lego book.

I want to get excited just by standing next to them.

And so, this Christmas, I will most definitely remember the reason for the season. I will spend much time reading Luke 2, listening to “Mary did you know,” and participating in Christmas mission work.

But I’ll also give into to the commercialism of it all a little bit too.

Because it’s the decorations and the gift giving and the “Jingle Bells” that help us achieve the not-so-small task of glimpsing the magical innocence of the holiday each of us beamed with in our younger years.

And it’s the twinkling majesty of the season that nudges us with the overwhelming awesomeness of our Savior being born.

tree

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