haha

"5. Simon & Garfunkel: “Star Carol” 1960’s.
This is my choice for the sweetest Christmas lullaby of all time, and their version is my favorite. I like to sing it and change the lyric “bed” to “bit” so that the phrase reads “Sweetly asleep on a bit of hay.” It makes it so that Jesus is so tiny that he can’t even fit on a whole piece of hay! The Ultimate preemie!"

Christmas Under The Stars

Watching Hillbilly dance to live music on the wet pavement, lit only by a torch hanging on a tent...

That moment was magical. And how I will make it through a long day of work tomorrow.

{edit}
DEAR KELLY

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! I HOPE YOU HAVE THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!! I LOVE YOU SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!!!


LOVE MOLLY

P.S
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

P.S.S
TELL AUNT KAREN I DO NOT REMEMBER HER NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS OR CAN YOU SEND IT TO ME.
{how cute is she}

I hate titles.

This has been an interesting season for me. I've never worked so often in a week, much less the week before Christmas. I've started to notice how much less I feel like it is Christmas than normal. Upon further thought, I've decided this not all unfortunate, as Christmas is very commercialized and perhaps this commercialized Christmas is the one I've connected memories with, not the reason why this is a time for celebration. I've slowly made a false connection between spiritual wonders and the artificiality Christmas tends to be rooted in- red & green, lights, carols, wrapping paper, santa, etc. These things aren't necessarily harmful (though often they completely are), but I ought to feel the same about Christmas with or without them. They need not be essential to my awe of the savior's birth and the purpose born in him, for us.

I hate for this to be a standard Christian-remembering-the-reason-for-the-season revelation. Mostly, because I hate that these things are regular occurrences. I realize it is fairly normal this time of year to stumble upon a moment of clarity where the meaning that the existence of Jesus bears pushes its way to the front of one's mind, only to retreat hours later when gifts are in need of wrapping, and hey--Macy's is having a two-hour sale!, but remember that "giving" stands independently, not coupled with "getting" like salt and pepper. Giving also does not require extravagances. We are not called to raise money to buy the biggest, best and most beautiful to then turn over into the hands of someone other than ourselves, but to give what we do have to those who do not have.

There is always grace, an extension of love. If you have nothing else to offer this season, I assure you it is one of the best gifts, though sometimes the hardest to give. But we must-- as it was lavished upon us, and trusted with us.

[thankyoukeepshowingus]

nice

"Mr. Ennes, a former English major who reads Thomas Paine and wears a black and white neckerchief with a turquoise clasp, might be the best soup kitchen chef in New York City. On Thanksgiving, when most of the cooks at the city’s other 470-some soup kitchens simply roasted turkey, he prepared “turkey four ways,” including one with mango-ginger glaze and tropical fruit stuffing.

There will be no canned green beans or bologna sandwiches. Mr. Ennes insists on homemade stocks, oils without trans fats, organic peanut butter and local produce when he can get it. (That’s not to say he won’t stretch a meal with some frozen turkey patties or use a little powdered soup base in a pinch.)

Despite the care he puts into his cooking, he doesn’t mind a little criticism.

“They’re still customers, whether they’re paying $100 a plate or nothing,” Mr. Ennes said. “One thing we do here is listen to people and let them complain. Where else can a homeless person get someone to listen to them?”

Mr. Ennes, 55, cooks about 500 meals a week for people who come to the church on the corner of Broadway and 114th Street in search of a free breakfast or lunch. At night, a handful of women in need of shelter sleep upstairs. He feeds them, too."
Kim Severson, nytimes.com

Joey

A little bit of why I love my writing professor:

Joey: Ideally, you want the audience hurtling toward your "big idea," so you need to build momentum. Sometimes this means that you drop a bomb in the last paragraph or so, as to get a nuclear shock value from your big idea. And sometimes it means that you drop the bomb early on and spend a good chunk of time telling the audience how they're going to die a gruesome death by blistering radiation poisoning.
Me: Does this even make sense? [referring to my proposed thesis]

Joey: It makes sense to me, but then again, I've never been accused of being sane. See the prior paragraph for evidence (essay = nuclear armageddon)

[edit, or rather, addition]
Today I turned in my paper to Joey and we talked for twenty minutes about Russian lit (namely bulgakov), comics, Professor King, Kafka (compared to cheesecake), and other general wonderfulness. What I mean to say is, let's be best friends with Joey, but more so, why aren't other teachers as cool?