Some favorites from Christmas 2010

There are lots of photos from this year's holiday celebrations.  It is my FIRST as a Johnson and has been so wonderful.  In Seattle, T and I celebrating by decorating our first tree and our sweet little apartment; my Christmas gift from him was seeing the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker.  We had a beautiful candlelit dinner at home, got dressed up and walked, yes, WALKED, to the ballet.  As soon as we found our seats I cried!  It was so beautiful and I was so happy to be there.  

T and I decorating our first tree in Seattle; we're donning our 

NC State and Carolina ornaments.

I flew into Charlotte Wednesday, 12/22 and then drove down to Atlanta on Thursday morning to visit my best friend, Natalie (who lived in the House of Love last year), and her family through the weekend.  This visit was certainly one of my most cherished parts of my time on the East Coast since they live so far away from Seattle.  They truly have welcomed me into their family like one of their own, which is never a bad feeling.  I got to meet a lot of important people in their lives and felt pretty much like royalty during my stay.  They took me to Cirque du Soleil (phenomenal), both bought and fixed me delicious food, and took me to see Christmas lights!  Most of the photos from my time in Atlanta are from a Christmas party their family helped put together for a community near them in Atlanta; about 350 people attended for dinner, a kids Christmas play (directed by Natalie herself), coats, and gifts.  It was pretty rockin - I was so glad to have been a part of it.  

This girl was a little sass.  Priceless expression.

Nat and I with Santa

Christmas play.

Those kids were so proud of that play - as they should have been!

My dearest friend did an amazing job with those kiddos.

My buddy, Dathajoy, and I.  Possibly the best videographer elf I know

with a laugh that will melt your heart.

Adrienne Saxon: the reason I got my flu shot this year.  

Love her to pieces.

Then I came back to NC for Marie Johnson's wedding shower and visiting with my fam.  Most of the photos below are from our Christmas Eve and Christmas day festivities.  T and I somehow managed to pull off three family Christmas's this year; while it was completely and utterly exhausting, we really loved being able to spend time with each of our families.  We spent Christmas Eve with the McCorkle's, Christmas morning with the Abernethy's, and Christmas night with the Johnson's in Virginia.  

Here we go.

Yea.

The Johnson's "Griswold" tree - notice how it's smashed against the ceiling.

You can't see it, but they literally put a hole in the ceiling trying to put the tree up.

"Clark, do you think there's enough room for the angel?"

Marie Johnson's Christmas village.  Her prized possession.

At the Johnson's.  

We failed at a "no smiling" picture.  

And their golden retriever made a brief appearance.

My sweet Thomas on Christmas eve, instructing us on how to make 

Christmas ornaments. 

Blaire covered in glitter after making ornaments at Dad's. 

My two T's. 

T snapping a photo of me. 

 My ZAK!!  Could there be a more precious companion?

 Michael and Thomas.

 T assisting my niece, Olivia, in a headstand.

Blaire, Olivia, and I playing Barbie's.  

 Blaire and our niece, Abbi - the little kids got Nerf guns.

Now T and I want Nerf guns.

 Love this picture - me, T, Blaire, and Michael (and Zak) on Christmas Eve.

 T snuggling with Thomas and Olivia.

 My Eddie in his usual spot under the tree on Christmas morning.

 Momski with her special Christmas gift.

 Best gift this year: Eric and Ross got Mom and Chip a "Jelly of the Month" membership.

"It's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year, Clark."

 Dad and Pat's tree.

 KITTENS!  I was real excited about this little calendar.   

 Love this photo of T's grandmother - she's laughing while sitting

in front of a photo of herself at age 16.

 T's uncle, Dan, out in the snow in Virginia.

 Christmas in Virginia!

 Mama J

 Sweet brothers Drew and T

 Drew

 Lots of snow on a little T.

 Snowy trees and a Carolina blue sky

 Our drive home from Virginia

 I've always loved this little church by the Johnson's house.

 Sweet Christmas church.

So, folks, those are some of the highlights from the Christmas to wrap up the first decade of the 21st century.  Certainly a memorable one.

Blessings to all during these holidays and wishes for a prosperous New Year.

You may remember this piece I shared by David Robinson a while back, Circuitous Precipice.  As I prepare for my last day of Theology class tomorrow (and my last day of class this term!), I have to turn in some journal articles about really anything that was significant to me in the class.  So I wrote a poem about this sculpture, because I think about it a lot.


The Story of a Drop (in response to Circuitous Precipice)
     
     You fell like a raindrop,
     That was grabbed by the earth,
          Pulled out,
     From its home in the sky


     It clings to the clouds
          Thick, gray, and rolling
     Until it can grip no more
           And gives in to the tugging


Releases


     It hurtles through the air
     Slices every molecule
     We can almost hear it tear
     Down
          Down
               Down
     Until it meets the earth
     And explodes on the surface
     And soaks the surface


Seeps


     Crawls over the bumps
     Creeps into the crevices
     And it saturates
          it permeates
               it infiltrates
     Until it is called upon,
     Pulled in once again
     By the grip of those roots
     Sunk deep into the land


     It powers through the dirt
     Tosses aside boulders
          Like pebbles
     To reach the roots
     That call for it
     To save them from
     Shriveling up
          Into
               Nothing.


     And it gets to them,
          Just in time.

Every day pubescent girls and adult women across tis nation, rich and poor alike, are carving away at their bodies for the sake of beauty: tweezings, depilations, starvation diets, hair cuttings, hair permings, hair straightenings, facial scrubs and acid abrasions, nail whittlings and cuticle trimmings, liposuctions, excisions of bony tissue, breast jobs and hip jobs and nose jobs.  Are these commonplace acts that are consciously designed to repair and beautify the body unconscious self-mutilations, the equivalents of a body mutilation, a perversion?  Whenever living flesh, the living body, or part of a body is deadened into a fetishistic object, we must suspect the perverse strategy at work. 

(Kaplan, Female Perversions).

Nothing like a little light reading to study for my Sexual Disorders final this Tuesday.

Go Team Encouragement!

I saw God by the river
Panning for gold
I saw God by the river
Weary and old

He said; ‘Son,
I used to know where I put things,
I used to know’

I saw God in the forest
Teaching Tai Chi to the trees
In the wind
And bowing to the seas

He said; ‘Son,
I used to know where I put things,
I used to know’

I saw God on the mountain
Tearing at the sky
I saw God on the mountain
With tears in his eyes

He said; ‘Son,
I used to know where I put things,
I used to know
I could have shown you all the beauty in the world
but now I need you to show me
Yes, show me'


:: Ben Sollee, "Panning for Gold"

Just for one paper.  

Don't even worry about it.

Spem in Alium Nunquam Habui (The Forty Part Motet) by Thomas Tallis.

Spem in alium nunquam habui praeter in te

Deus Israel

qui irasceris

et propitius eris

et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis

Domine Deus

Creator coeli et terrae

respice humilitatem nostram

I have never put my hope in any other but in You,

O God of Israel

who can show both anger

and graciousness,

and who absolves all the sins of suffering man

Lord God,

Creator of Heaven and Earth

be mindful of our lowliness

Put on some good headphones for ten minutes and tell me you don't get goosebumps.

Let the Christmas season begin

"Every mother who, profoundly feeling what she has done in bearing a human being, knows...that the Spirit of the church, the Holy Spirit, dwells within her....Such a woman also sees Christ in her child - and this is that inexpressible feeling a mother has which compensates for all else.  And in like manner each one of us beholds in the birth of Christ his own higher birth whereby nothing lives in him but devotion and love; and in him too the eternal Son of God appears....And this is the very glory of the festival, which you wished also to hear me praise."

Friedrich Schleiermacher, Christmas Eve

Johnson's Hit Pike Place

 Marie was impressed by the lamb tongue.  And by

impressed I mean horrified. 

 T at the flying fish counter.

 Mr. J, Mrs. J, Marie, and Drew at the flying fish counter.

 Sunset outside Pike Place

 Fresh, hot, handmade doughnuts!

The first Starbucks!