Christmas Spirit

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. 

To cherish peace and goodwill, 

to be plenteous in mercy is to have 

the real spirit of Christmas."

- Calvin Coolidge

I've been ruminating on this quote lately. Besides the many small pleasures of this season we're currently in (such as drinking hot cocoa in a festive cup) it also brings us numerous large opportunities to spread goodwill and extend mercy. Buying toys for children who are victims of child abuse, sending goodies to our missionary friends in faraway places, creating fruit baskets for the church shut-ins, hosting holiday parties, sending Christmas cards...the list is truly endless. If you think about the quote, though, the Christmas feeling should not be contained to just this holiday season. If one only cherishes peace and goodwill and is plenteous with his mercy simply because "'Tis the Season," he misses out on a wonderful state of mind to live in year-round.

Maybe my New Year's resolution should be to have the spirit of Christmas throughout 2011, not just towards the end. I think that's one I can get past February with! I like to think that I try my best to do this already, because Coolidge's definition of the Christmas spirit surely overlaps with the Bible's definition of the Christian spirit. Yes, I like to think that, but I know I still have a long way to go...

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, 

is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, 

and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

- James 1:27 (English Standard Version)

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith 

but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking 

in daily food, and one of you says to them, 

'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' 

without giving them the things needed for the body, 

what good is that? 

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

- James 2:14-17 (English Standard Version, emphasis mine)

What about you? What are your favorite ways to promote peace, goodwill, and mercy specifically during the holiday season? And please share if you have ideas for keeping the Christmas (and Christian) spirit alive throughout the rest of the year. =)

Savannah, GA: Vacation Wednesday

On the Wednesday of our vacation, we headed out to accomplish an exciting task...one which, just a few weeks before, I hadn't been sure if I wanted to even do. Make an in-person reservation at Paula Deen's restaurant. Apparently, eating at The Lady & Sons is one of those Savannah vacationy things that you MUST DO. And sometimes I don't really like people telling me I MUST DO something. I know it's crazy, because I even LIKE Paula Deen. I think she's an incredibly smart, savvy business woman - and I love that she's really close to her family. I buy her magazines from time to time and I have a beautiful red enamel stock pot that has her name on the bottom of it. But I buy those things and watch her show because I personally enjoy them. Not because people are telling me I should.

You see, I'm one of those people. It took me a long time to get into the Harry Potter books until my friend Ashley gave me one for my birthday, with a card that said, "You may not think you're going to like this, but I promise that you will." And I did. I've read all of them and I've watched all of the movies. But I've never even read the first word of the Twilight series. And if I hadn't watched LOST from the very beginning, I would have brushed it off as just another case of the bandwagon phenomenon. Sometimes I might miss good things because of this thing in my brain that says, "If everybody likes it, it must not be that good." Crazy, huh?

Anyway, I like Paula Deen - and here I was, considering not even visiting her restaurant when we were in Savannah. There would be long lines! And it was expensive! And it was just country cookin'! And everybody is telling me to go! So I didn't fight for it, but Jeremy seemed O.K. with going, so we put it on the list. Their website tells you that they only take reservations for big holiday meals (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) so every other day of the year, you must show up at the restaurant at 9:30ish and put your name down. I guess that's how they know you're serious. They don't do phone reservations. They don't do website reservations. But let me tell you, their business is a well-oiled machine. And it works.

We ate breakfast again at Goose Feathers and then walked over to The Lady & Sons. We put our name down for 5:00 so that we would have time to get to church at 7:00 that night. They asked us to be there at 4:45 and to line up on the sidewalk across the street from the restaurant. Okaaaay. But, sure, whatever. Then we went on about our day, with Jeremy saying things like, "We're going to see Paula! I'm STOKED."

Now, both of us had liked the food at Goose Feathers, but the coffee had needed lots of extra cream and sugar the day before, so we figured we might as well find a Starbucks. We found one a few streets over, right there on the stereotypical corner. It was the largest Starbucks I've ever seen. And it was crowded. Remember what I said about the Savannah College of Art & Design? Well, artists need their coffee. It didn't take us long to figure that one out. We enjoyed a long bout of people watching while we were there. And I figured out that I needed to stick with my favorite - pumpkin spice latte' - and not go chasing waterfalls of toffee mocha or some such nonsense. It was no good. Don't bother. And we played on the chalkboard while waiting outside the restrooms. I think all restroom areas should have one of these. It was a pretty good idea. Good job, Savannah Starbucks!

We continued to walk around the city and explore some of the squares, which were strategically placed every so often. I'm telling you, what a great city plan! And while Jeremy was reading about one of the statues in the center of one of the squares, I commissioned a woman sitting on a bench to make us a Savannah rose. I can't remember what they're made out of - some kind of grass? She had several made up but she totally sold me when she asked how many years we'd been married. "Two," I said. She offered to make us a different one with two hearts (signifying two years) and two roses (signifying each of us) and well, I couldn't resist. Isn't it pretty?

Next we went to the Visitor's Center and then caught one of the bus-dressed-up-like-a-trolley tours. We did the Oglethorpe one - and I would highly recommend it. It was 90 minutes long and I would have gladly stayed 90 minutes more. The story of the city of Savannah is incredibly interesting and there are so, so many beautiful historical sites and pretty homes to see.

We got let off at the City Market area and shopped for awhile before heading back to the hotel for a quick nap. Then it was time...

Time to go to The Lady & Sons! We lined up on the sidewalk across the street, just as we had been instructed. Despite it being the first week of November and not really tourist season, there were PLENTY of people waiting with us. I can't imagine how many people there are in the summer! Yikes!

See us reflected in the window?

They called each of our party names, one at a time - then we crossed the street and accepted our ticket, which told us and the hostess inside which floor we would be seated on. All of it went seamlessly and quickly, with a minimal amount of waiting. Cheese biscuits and hoe cakes were brought to our table - at one point Jeremy said, "These need something. I can't believe there's no BUTTER on the table!" For real, Paula. =)

Then we visited the buffet across the room. This is not the place where you'll find gourmet food or even Southern fusion - it's just good ole' country cookin', y'all. And it was good! Expensive ($18 something a person) but good. Later I tried to jot down what all was offered - I might have missed a thing or two, but here's the main menu: fried chicken, turkey and dressing, green beans, creamed corn, macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes, lima beans, black eyed peas, cabbage, shredded chicken (or pork maybe?) with vegetables, and a salad bar.

As for dessert, your waitress would come around and offer you a selection on a tray. I got the gooey butter cake (of course) and Jeremy got the banana pudding. I mean, puddin'. I keep hearing Paula's voice in my head. ;)

Too bad she wasn't there that night. We kept wondering what kind of chaos would ensue if she or her boys happened to walk in the door.

After dinner, we had plenty of time to spend a few minutes next door at the extension of the Paula Deen empire - the gift shop.

There were all these Girl Scouts running around, but I was able to make my selection fairly quickly...

Aren't those Christmas bags just cute, too? Love 'em! And Jeremy's a pretty good hand model.

And then we stopped in another square to admire the fountain and take a few pictures. 

While we were there, I noticed this card on one of the benches and stopped to inspect it. 

The front:

The back:

Interesting way to put it, am I right? And very true. After we took pictures of it, I left it there for someone else to find...

We headed on to the evening services at the Central Church of Christ. As soon as we opened the door and walked in, I recognized a girl I had been in college with! Turns out that her husband is the minister there. I tell you, wherever we visit, there's always some kind of connection we can make. =) This congregation was awesome. In the short amount of time we were there, we could tell that we would love to worship regularly with them if we lived in the area. We talked to many people in our class that night and everyone was super friendly. And as usual, we were among the last ones to leave. It happens at home and it happens elsewhere, too, I guess. =)

Let me encourage you to attend church services while you're on vacation, if you don't already. I know it's not always easy to find one and it's not always easy to walk into a building you're unfamiliar with, but it's worth it. And by "worth it," I mean that you are showing God that you think He is important...that you think He is more important than relaxation, than food, than an event. And that's always worth it - whether you are on vacation or not.

More tomorrow!

Savannah, GA: Vacation Tuesday

First of all, two weeks ago on Tuesday was Voting Day. Pretty late in the game the week before, we realized that we had missed the early voting, which is what I usually do, but I tried my best to set us up to vote by mail. The lady at the election office was very helpful, but some laws in this country are crazy, so after I spent some valuable time on the phone and at the office with her, we figured out it was too late for us to vote, even by mail. It was against the law. And that made me upset. In the midst of other pre-vacation errands, I called Jeremy to tell him not to bother faxing in his info. so that they would mail him the form (which we would then have had to mail back in time for Election Day). By the way, it was also against the law for her to just hand me the forms that were sitting on her desk. Big, heavy sigh! So...I was upset when I called Jeremy. Thankfully, he reminded me that there was something we could do, even if we didn't get to vote. We would praying our votes. Praying for the leaders of our country. Praying that the right people got (or stayed) in office. Immediately, I felt 100% better. Somehow, some way, our votes would count after all!

Voting on vacation...what a concept! I wouldn't recommend it for every election, but if you're ever in this predicament, well, you know what to do. =)

So - Tuesday - we'll start with breakfast because it was a cool experience. You may remember that our hotel wanted to charge us $10.00/person for a continental breakfast...we said, "Ohyeahright" and made other arrangements. I had seen this cute ad for a breakfast/lunch place called Goose Feathers, so we put on our walking shoes (actually, mine weren't - and I paid for it by the end of the day!) and headed a few blocks over to the cafe'. Just from the looks of the place and a quick peek at the menu, I was already wishing we had a similar cafe' back home! We ordered breakfast (tomato basil avocado quiche for me - a Belgian waffle for Jeremy) and enjoyed the atmosphere while we planned the rest of our day. In the back of my head, I was already plotting to return to the cafe' at least one more day before we left.

After breakfast, we drove back toward Tybee Island to get to Fort Pulaski. I didn't really know much about the fort before we went, but I knew that Jeremy would enjoy the experience. Guns, cannons, war stories and he's a happy one. I actually enjoyed it a lot, too - my parents and I have always gone on historical tours while on vacation. Jeremy enjoyed it even more than I thought he would. And he's still been enjoying it...here's the link (I think!) to our vacation pictures that he uploaded to Facebook. He didn't get very far - just until Tuesday, when we visited Fort Pulaski. =) He got out the brochure for reference and designed his own little history lesson. I've decided he might need to look into becoming a park ranger...

We ate a late lunch on Tybee Island at a little place called The Sugar Shack. It was alright...but a totally different experience than Goose Feathers! We headed back into Savannah to explore River Street for the afternoon. Wherever I visit, I always try to find a great Christmas ornament, so I was on the hunt. No dice, though, on Tuesday because I'm pretty picky. It would be Wednesday before I would find the right one...

We had dinner at Leopold's ice cream shop, which really does have real food and not just ice cream. It's a cute little old-fashioned soda shop and that night, I had the BEST club sandwich I might have ever tasted. And, because Savannah is the home of Juliet Gordon Lowe - the founder of the Girl Scouts - I had Thin Mint ice cream for dessert! It was super delicious!

We walked around for a bit afterwards and noticed the goings-on next door at a theatre. Apparently, the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) was having a film festival that week. There will be more pictures of SCAD things later, but we found out that they have purchased/renovated 60 historic buildings in Savannah for classrooms, galleries, studios, and dorm space for their students. It's pretty impressive!

We also ran across The Olde Pink House, which is a very famous restaurant in Savannah. (When my parents and I were in Savannah yeeears ago, we ate there. And had a delicious peanut butter pie for dessert...so delicious that my mother bought their cookbook just for that one recipe.) Jeremy and I made reservations to eat there later in the week...

More later!

The Tea Party Report - Part 3: The Floods - or - A Change in Plans

On the eighth year of this annual tea party we encountered our first BIG issue. (Well, the biggest issue we'd had so far anyway - the previous year, there was a pretty big problem with receiving the wrong tea...Vanilla Green instead of Vanilla Chai. And by the time we'd realized it, there was not enough time to have the company send the right one. So, there was lots of scurrying around to purchase loose black tea to mix with the green - and finding candied ginger and other spices from Ada's in Bethel Springs - and several of us reenacted the scene from "Macbeth" as we stirred a humongous bowl full of tea and spices. "Double, double, toil and trouble..." We all knew it was a memory in the making. And the custom-blended tea was a hit. We sold out!)

Yes, every year there's something or another that throws a kink in the plans...but this year's problem was even bigger. It involved something we had no control over...The Weather.

Now, I absolutely love living in Tennessee. Except for during tornado season. Bleah. Thumbs down!

We knew there were storms on the horizon for Tea Party Weekend and, as a committee, we were telling everyone we knew to pray for sunshine. And I prayed for sunshine continuously myself. Every once in awhile, though, I'd remember that scripture in Romans (8:28 to be exact): "For we know that all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." So, several times I prayed with that specifically in mind, asking for a good result - even if it still did storm.

Here's what we were afraid of: instead of holding the Victorian Tea Party at the lovely Hardeman House, as is the perfect place for it...if it stormed too badly, we would have to move the whole event across to the street to the Henderson church of Christ building. The Activity Center, to be more precise, which has plenty of room but which = GYM. And which wouldn't have the same ambience. AND there's the whole fact that we'd have to MOVE everything. At the last minute. It wasn't a pleasant thought. Plus, if it were stormy, would our guests still come?? Would it be a whole lot of headache (and backaches - and heartaches for that matter) for nothing? We were anxious and worried, but tried not to be. All of us had spent hours upon HOURS readying every last detail for the day. I liken it to planning a huge wedding and reception. Seriously. It's literally that many details.

On Saturday morning, everything was ready to be set up, but we didn't know where to set it up. Debbie and I were back and forth on the phone, watching the weather and looking outside at the stormy skies. I was at the home ec. building on FHU's campus with several other ladies who were helping make the last-minute frostings for two of our food items...Jeremy had already been calling from work to tell us to be careful and get in a safe place because the sirens kept going off (he, perhaps, should have been a meteorologist - he checks all the real radar stuff, not just weather.com). Debbie and some volunteers were already at the Hardeman House, where we'd gone ahead and rented the big white tents and tables and chairs in hopes that the storm would pass up by, as it sometimes does. But finally we realized that it wasn't going to pass us by. So, even though we'd had the presence of mind to rent the sides to the tents, too (Debbie's good idea) in case of regular (not crazy) rain, we had to finally say, "Let's move it." It stung a little to know we were going to have to eat the costs of the tent this year, but it was also a relief. We knew what we had to do and we had to get started fast. And immediately.

Now, pay attention. Here's where things started falling into place. We got over to the church building and we had plenty of extra helpers because, get this, lots of able-bodied people were waiting in the church basement...because of said storms. Bonus! So we had volunteers that hadn't even signed up. And we didn't have to move the tables and chairs over...because there were plenty already there. Double bonus.

Also, we were dreading the whole lack of ambience because who wants to have a tea party in a gym? Not this girl. But my mother, who always has good ideas regarding ambience, suggested setting up the tea tables in the handsome Commons area, which is where many baby and bridal showers are now held. Because that's where we'd had our rehearsal dinner for our wedding. It was perfect - check!

We set up the little girls' dress-up venue in a large classroom right off of the Commons.

And we set up the rest of the venues in the Fellowship Hall on the other side of the Commons. The kitchen was right there and everything...and several long-time tea party kitchen workers noted that they had more room to spread out this year. Good to know.

As our first guests (yea, guests!) arrived, the electricity went out. Seriously. It was like clockwork. But since the tea tables were in the Commons area, each end of the room was flanked in ceiling-to-floor windows, so it let in any available light. Which admittedly wasn't an incredible amount because it was pretty dark outside, but it was something. If we'd only known, we'd have had some candles ready, but now we know if we ever have a "next time." =) The ladies who ate first "ate by Exit light" instead.

Enough hot tea had just been brewed to last for quite awhile, so we celebrated each time more ladies arrived and laughed about this year's tea party conditions, one of which later told us that it helped transport us back to Victorian times. =) Thanks for the smile, Susan. We still served about 125 guests, which was truly amazing to me. It was about half of the guests we'd had last year at 250, which was our largest group yet, but it was perfect. Yes, we would have been happy with even more, but we were so relieved that half of the people still came. Sweet Mrs. Jean Marilyn said, "Only us silly ladies would be out in this!" There were some people who still would have come if they only could have, but areas of Tennessee had some serious flooding that weekend and there were sinkholes and closed roads and all that. It's not been pretty.

Almost halfway through the tea party, I caught wind of an impending problem...we'd almost run out of hot tea. And unless the electricity came back on, we had no way to heat more water. Someone notified Dr. Shull, an FHU teacher who also leads a Boy Scout troup, and he came up, in his yellow rain jacket and toting his camp stove, to save the day. Of course, about the time he got it started up...the electricity came back on. Of course. But we appreciated the gesture so much, nevertheless!

So we did get to finish up the tea party being able to see exactly what we were eating, and the little girls were able to see much better to color their butterfly wands and design their paperdolls. We got so very many nice compliments about the event and I was grateful for each one who helped and who attended. It really did all "work together for good." We might not often see such immediate results of things working together like that. Often we find out months (or even years) down the road that things really did work out the way they should have.

I continue to be thankful for the opportunity to watch the good things unfold that very day. Perhaps the best thing about it is that now we know how to do it and when and where things should be set up...you know, the answers to all of those important questions. And that takes away our fear of the unknown. Which gives me peace of mind. And that's such a relief to me, because I'm supposed to be the chair of next year's tea party because Debbie will be...in Europe for the semester! Yikes! (I'm not sure I can allow that to happen, but she tells me it's a done deal.)

Here's to hoping that next year's tea party is as wonderful as this year's turned out to be, if the Good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise. ;)

The Why Behind the Tea Party

Yesterday I posted about an upcoming event that is near and dear to my heart: The FHU Associates' Victorian Tea Party. (And almost blew a mental fuse over incomprehensible formatting issues. But that's entirely beside the point. Moving on.) I first fell in love with this tea party eight years ago, the very first year it was held. My friend Ashley and I went together, to celebrate her birthday, I think, which was a few days later. I remember that it was perfect-beyond-perfect weather and we sat, for HOURS, at a tea table in the backyard of the elegant Hardeman House. A portion of the time we sat with Beverly and Olivia Bradford, I also remember. It was so nice to sit and enjoy talking and trying cute little foods and sipping tea. So nice that, not even a month later, I told the committee chair, Debbie McLaughlin, that I would love to be on the committee. And I've been on it ever since.

There have been years that I've thought, "I'm SO incredibly busy that I can't possibly have time to be on the tea party committee this year, too. HOW will I get everything done?" But I just couldn't imagine not being involved. And we have the most fun committee meetings EVER. In the history of the world. I cannot lie. There are scones involved. This year we even had a scone party at one of our meetings, which I think we could present as a separate event at another time - and raise money at that, too! Yes, we audition our recipes - we make notes and tweak and experiment separately and together. At one of our meetings we have a tea-tasting to select which two teas we will serve that year. Debbie, the Queen of the tea party, a rare person whose CPA tendencies intersect quite well with her creativity, has made a spreadsheet to keep track of which teas are the most popular at our tea-tastings. This year we will be serving Madame Butterfly Jasmine, a green tea with jasmine. It is impossibly delicious. It almost reminds me of taking a sip of honeysuckle. Normally, I am not a green tea person. It is much too bland...but with jasmine or citrus or peppermint, well, that's a whole 'nother story! And the other tea we're serving is Norfolk Blend, a more streamlined black tea, which is also very good. Streamlined = no flowers or fruity flavors, for those of you who cannot stand to drink anything flowery. And that's O.K., I previously did not enjoy fruity or flowery teas. And some...I still don't. For instance, rose tea...ah, wouldn't you think it would taste so delightful and sweet? Sigh. It doesn't. It soooo doesn't. It tastes pretty icky. Also, strawberry tea tastes like Robitussin...I am here to warn you. You learn lots of things at many years of tea-tastings. =)

Well, anyway. The actual event is lovely, the hours of planning are lots of fun (for the most part), and I just adore a good tea party. But, over the years, this tea party has become...more than that for me. It represents spending a part of yourself...your time, your energy, your ideas...on something important. Something that's not over with after the event is over. See, the whole point of everything that the Freed-Hardeman University Associates do, all year long, every year...is to raise money for the school. Specifically for student scholarships. Over the years, the Associates have raised over THREE million dollars for FHU. That's nothing to shake a stick at. They've provided money for building buildings and other projects, but mostly, there are the scholarships. Money given to worthy students who would like to receive a Christian education, but might not be able to afford it otherwise. I have fallen completely in love with that idea. I love it because I loved being a student at FHU. And while my dad is a professor there and I received free tuition and, yes, I was one of the lucky ones, I know that if I hadn't been in that situation, I would have done everything I could have to still attend FHU. Which would have meant scholarships, in a big way.

The tea party has become of utmost importance to me because it's something that I enjoy, that I can do, that I'm good at...and it's something that truly MATTERS. It makes an actual difference in young adults' lives. And when you're a teenager and you're trying to "find yourself," it's an excellent time to also find God, if you haven't already - or to get to know Him more deeply. I have always been partial to one of FHU's logos: Learning How to Live and How to Make a Living. How perfect is that?? Because, when you get down to it, you've got to make a living. For many people, the answer is college. But when you can attend a college that also shows you how to LIVE, how can you turn that down? Sure, some godly people have attended state schools and community colleges. Of course they have. (My husband is one of them. He's one of four kids and he didn't think he could afford FHU, even though he knew a lot of people who came here to school. I so wish he had known about Associates' scholarships.) Speak of the "bubble" if you will, but you've got the rest of your life to live outside it. And the Bible charges us with taking the gospel to everyone we come into contact with. It's a beautiful thought that young adults have the opportunity to be strengthened - and then to strengthen in return. When you consider the whole scheme of things...the big picture...that we're here only a very short time and for a very specific purpose, well, Christian education seems one of the most worthy causes to work toward.

No, I don't get paid for my work with the FHU Associates...I don't get paid with actual green money anyway. But never you fear, I do get paid nonetheless.