Happy Feast Of The Epiphany!

How many of you knew that today, January 6th was the Feast of the Epiphany?? I feel sorry to say that I am in my 23rd year of life and am just now learning of this holiday. I am in debt to my new 2010 planner that I purchased a couple days ago. I was having quite a frustrating time finding a planner that I liked until I remembered that I had a gift card for Barnes & Noble and thought that I just might find something there. I was thoroughly excited to find a nice selection of planners all at 50% off! As I was admiring my planner that evening I saw that today was the Feast of the Epiphany. I wondered how I have never even heard of this holiday and what it could be about. Nealy and I decided maybe you just have a big gathering and share epiphanies! This sounded pretty interesting to me, especially if we got to eat some good food to help stimulate the epiphanies. However, I didn't have too much faith in my speculations so I decided to do some research on this holiday.

And here's what I've discovered:

The Feast of the Epiphany is a celebration of God's revelation of Himself to mankind through the Person of Jesus Christ. Sounds a lot like Christmas, huh? Well, it should because apparently it was and may still be celebrated instead of Christmas in some places. It is called Little Christmas by the Irish, Befana in Rome, El Dia de Reyes or Pascua de Negros (Blackman Christmas) by the those in Spain, Cuba and some Latin American countries and who know what else by all the other people of the world!

Not only is it all of those other things, it is also the Twelfth Day of Christmas! That's right, the 12 days of Christmas are after December 25th which means that we have still been in the Christmas season the last 12 days! The reason for the 12 days of Christmas is because it is believed that the wise men followed the star for 12 days to find Christ.

And to celebrate this holiday, you have to have a King's cake.

The King's cake is round to represent the circular route that the wise men took to avoid going back to Jerusalem. A plastic baby is hidden inside the cake because Mary and Joseph had to hide baby Jesus to protect Him from Herod. Whoever gets the piece with the baby in it is the one who brings the King's cake to next year's celebration.

The bottom picture is the King's cake that I made. As you can see, it is not in a circle and the reason for that is because it wasn't forming into the circle as easily as I wanted so I just threw it down in a rectangle. I didn't learn of the significance of the circle until after making it, otherwise I may have tried harder to get mine to work properly.

I have no idea if this thing will taste good but I am anxious to try it! It has a cream cheese filling and lemon flavored icing that sound absolutely delightful!

There is so much more about this holiday that I have yet to learn but I'm beginning to think it just might become my favorite holiday. To think that I have lived every other sixth day of January not knowing of the wonderful time I could be having! I tried having a big Feast of the Epiphany celebration tonight but the short notice made things a bit difficult. So it will just be Courto and I. But next year, oh man, it will be quite a wonderful celebration! You may want to save the date and start a travel fund if necessary!

Here are a few links if you all care to learn a bit more about the Feast of the Epiphany.

Religion Facts

King Cake

Three Kings Day

Baby Jesus

Mexican Bakery

Just 7 Days After Christmas!

Merry Christmas 7 days late! I hope everyone had a splendid day! I had a delightful time out in the great state of Colorado in the presence of some lovely people - Mom, Dad, Courto, Matt and Sonya.

We arrived home on Tuesday evening. When we left for Colorado, my room was in utter disarray - I couldn't even sleep in the place because my bed was loaded down with stuff. Within the hour of our return, I was whipping my room back into shape.

After cleaning my room up to a temporarily agreeable state I began making my plan of attack for the rest of my Christmas break. This past semester my life has gotten into a bit of disarray and my room was just a visual of the disorganization I put myself through. So I made myself a list of things I need to get done during break. And then I made a list of habits that I need to establish in my life to help stop the disarray from repeating itself. I'll share my habit list with you and you can ask me how I'm doing on sticking to them.

Habits To Develop/ Redevelop In 2010:

• Tithing after each pay check
• Reading up on current world events
• Praying for country & world - believers
• Praying for Estery & Rafiki
• Completing & sending mentor logs after each meeting with Suzie
• Filing statements
• Weekly checking bank accounts & credit card
• Sticking to a budget - SAVING
• Journaling daily
• Blogging weekly
• Calling family members on a regular basis
• Writing to Grandma W.
• Sharing the Gospel/ Giving testimony to what God has done and is doing for me
• Memorizing Scripture
• Exercising
• Taking vitamins twice a day
• Doing my Bible study in the morning
• Flossing teeth every night
• Giving people gifts on time

Yesterday Mom and I left to get groceries around noon and came home about seven hours later. Needless to say, we added a few extra quick little stops in to our trip. One of those "quick little stops" was Target. I wanted to get some refills for my planner so I can get my life organized but they were fresh out. So I got some wrapping paper instead. This brings up another area of my life that has gone into utter disarray! Giving gifts - I really shafted some people this year on birthday and Christmas gifts or even just a card - sorry to those of you who were on the receiving end of that. (Just added that to my habit list) But that is going to change this year because I have all my Christmas wrapping needs ready to go. And at a steal of a deal: 15 sheets of tissue paper, 5 gift bags, 16 gift cards and 1 roll of wrapping paper - all for $3.21! Amazing, huh?

Just 29 Days Until Christmas!

First off, I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving but... now that Turkey Day has come and gone, I would just like to send out an official welcome to the Christmas season! Although a large portion of the world has already begun to partake of Christmassy things, I have held back until today. Today I busted out my Christmas shirt, striped jingle bell sock and I listened to some Christmas music! And during some of the many down moments at work today I got to do some Christmas coloring. Just imagine that my picture says "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" and it will make it look a little better. 

Heaven Has Come Down!

My craving for cream cheese smothered pickles wrapped in ham proved to be no small craving and by Monday night I had decided it was time to pick up the necessary items to create these bits of heaven. On my way home from Bible study I stopped by O'Malia's Food Market, snatched up my goods, hurried home, tore into my purchases, assembled my creations and devoured these tasty pickings. And let me tell you - they were oh sooooooooo satisfying! Completely amazing! Astoundingly stupendous! Absolutely delightful! Incredibly ambrosial! 

Modicums From My Life

A couple days ago I paid T.J. Maxx a visit and made a big purchase for myself - a pair of snowpants! Now I am not a big fan of snow, which is good since we don't get too many dumping of white fluff in Indianapolis. But for the few times that we do get snow, I thought it would be nice to be properly equipped. So when I saw these nice Columbia pants for 34.99 I thought I'd snatch them up. I'm planning on these lasting me for the rest of my life. And now, Matt and Sonya, I am prepared to visit you over Christmas if the opportunity arises! However, I'm still in need of a pair of snowboots that fit.

Last week in my Bible study I was reading John chapter 5. As some of you may know, verse 4 is left out but I did not realize this and it just blew my mind. The verse itself and the fact that it was left out caused a lengthy discussion between mom, Nealy and I. Here are the verses so you'll know what I'm talking about.

"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people

used to lie - the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to get well?' 'Sir,' the invalid replied, 'I have no one to help me into the pool when the when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.'" (Verse 4 is in italics)

So what really blew my mind was this whole angel of the Lord stirring up the water and these invalids being healed. Nealy said she remembers Sunday school stories about this but I most certainly don't remember reading this or hearing any stories about this. It all just sounded a little strange to me. I believe that God can heal people in whatever way He chooses but this method is quite different than any of the other ways seen in the Bible. Verse 4 does make verse 7 (the invalid's response to Jesus asking him if he'd like to be well) more understandable. So I don't know if verse 4 is true or not, if you have an opinion on the matter, please share your insight. Even though I didn't really understand the verse, I did find an amusing thought from it. I had this image of an angel flying in over the pool on a cloud pulling a gigantic spoon out of his robe, extending it into the pool and giving it a good mix. In the meantime I saw all of the blind and lame people pushing, shoving and stumbling over each other as they raced toward the pool to see who could get in first. This may not be good of me, but I had a nice chuckle.... or healthy laugh, as this image passed through my mind.

On Saturday I went to a friend's to have some real English tea. She's from the UK and had just gotten back from a visit home and was stocked up with good English tea. Honestly, I didn't notice much difference but I did thoroughly enjoy the tea all the same. Something else that she brought back from the UK that I am thoroughly excited about are these Happy Hippos that you see above. I first experienced these delightful little snacks when I was spending my semester in Italy. I absolutely loved these things! There are two variations: the first has a creamy milk and hazelnut filling with a thin, wafery shell. The other is milk and cocoa inside and both look like cute little hippos. You just can't go wrong with these things! I was so disappointed when I got back home and couldn't find these things anywhere. When Laura left for England she asked if I wanted her to bring anything back. I didn't remember seeing happy hippos when I was in London but thought I'd ask her if she'd seen them at home. And fortunately she had!

Since meeting Laura a couple months ago, I have been drinking a lot more tea. In fact one week instead of drinking my usual morning cup of coffee each day, I drank tea. And I do especially enjoy drinking it the British way - with milk. While I do like English breakfast tea, I think one of my new favorite teas is Earl Grey.

About four or five weeks ago I finally got another job! I am now employed by the Picture People, a photography studio in the Greenwood Park Mall. The picture on the left is what I look like at work... kind of.

Today I have been having some serious meat cravings, specifically a delectable steamed bagel sandwich from theRipple Bagel & Deli in Broad Ripple. I have only been here twice and both times I have gotten the evil doer: roast beef, cream cheese, smoke 'em out cheddar, sprouts, mustard and mayo on a sunflower bagel. It's terribly amazing and I want it right now! I think I could also settle for a couple cream cheese smothered baby pickles wrapped in ham.

Speaking of pickles, I decided to open my horizons and follow dad's example by putting some bread and butter pickles on my burger. And I have decided that I am officially a fan!

Thought I'd Pester Your Eyes A Bit More

My Imaginary Friend

The other day as I was walking to my class at IUPUI, I passed the Democracy Plaza where students, faculty and staff gather to hash out differing thoughts and views on various topics of life. I saw this written on one of the plaza columns: "Adults who have invisible friends are stupid." At first I agreed with this, thinking "Yeah, that's pretty silly for adults to have invisible friends" and then it dawned on me that it was referring to Christians being stupid for believing in God. That's when I decided I didn't agree with it so much! But it did get me to thinking. That,  and this question I was asked during my BSF lecture on Monday night, "Why do I follow God?" Later that day I saw this video:

The thought I saw written on the column at IUPUI did not make wonder if I believed in a lie or cause me to think that I simply talk to a figment of my imagination when I pray to God. When asked why I follow God at BSF, I didn't feel as though the time I've spent learning about God, seeking after God, and living to please God throughout the years have been a waste of my time. I didn't need the argument presented in the video to assure me that God exists.  

So what did these questions get me to thinking about? If I think that God is more than just a fabricated invisible friend and that learning about God, seeking after God, and living to please God is worthwhile, am I living like I believe these things? Does my life show that I believe in a God who has the power, intelligence and artistry to create the universe? Does my life show that I believe in a God that is holy, loving and merciful enough to provide a way to justify sinners, give purpose to life and promise a future with Him? Or does my life seem to say that I believe in something as weak and meaningless as a childish imaginary friend?