December is now gone.
Where has 2013 gone? Christmas is
past, New Years is upon us…and every second seems to go by at the speed of
light. But it has been a marvelous
season.
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| With Gma and Gpa on Thanksgiving. |
Thanksgiving was really lovely. After celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa,
my parents and I went to the mountains where all four of the “Bailey Boys” (my
Uncle David’s sons) were there visiting their parents. I’m so lucky to have such close relationships
with my cousins and it was so great to see them all together in once place
again. We always used to spend Thanksgiving
with them, but it had been years since we were all together. We didn’t do a whole lot – lounged around,
played games, watched movies (and in the guys’ cases, watched football) – but
it was still so nice.
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| Sledding in the mountains. |
I got to go sledding on a snow-covered hill that remained
from the week before, and Michael and I got to take a ride in the 4-wheeler to
the top of the mountain where we saw the sunset over the ski mountains in the
distance. It was one of the most
beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen.
During the month of December, I had a lot on my plate. I hosted First Friday Night Dinner at my house and we had about 30 people come. I also took place in a shoe making party where you
cut patterns from cloth that are then assembled into children’s shoes for kids
in Africa to prevent them getting jiggers in their feet. It’s cool to know that shoes I cut with my
own hands will be on feet half way around the world. Erika came to visit for about 24 hours from Raleigh and we had a wonderful dinner with our lifegroup girls (she's an old member who now lives in LA), and we went out and sang karaoke together afterwards.
At work, we spent several days setting up Christmas trees in
local hospitals with tons of stuffed puppies underneath. As people have donated blood this month and
last, donors got to sign little puppy tags to be attached to the stuffed
animals. The puppies are then given out
to sick children in the hospitals around the area. I personally got to deliver puppies to some
of these children on two different occasions.
It was so rewarding to watch them light up as they snuggled with the
little red and white animals.
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| FFND with my Frisbee friends. |
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| Lifegroup dinner with Erika |
I performed in my silk aerial company’s December student
show, which Mom, Dad, Grandma and Nicole came to watch. I’m still enjoying that and it’s always nice
to show off my new skills. I also
performed a dance this time, as I’ve been taking a modern dance class through
Caroline Calouche & Co.’s studio too.
Christmas Eve my parents joined me at church for service,
then we went home and ate a delicious dinner Mom made and watched “It’s a
Wonderful Life.” It was, as always,
wonderful.
Christmas morning felt a bit lonely without Brett
there. It was like we kept expecting him
to come downstairs. But finally, we
opened our presents just the three of us around 11:30 a.m. Mom and Dad got me an under-cabinet radio/CD
player/iPod player for my kitchen, as well as a spice rack. Hopefully it will inspire me to cook… ;)
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| My silk performance |
That afternoon, Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Bob came over for
lunch and Mom had made a delicious turkey dinner with potatoes, green beans,
carrots and rolls. Grandma made yummy
sweet potato casserole. It was very nice having them all over.
That evening, I headed up to Catawba to see Tiff and
Mitch. Tiffany’s baby belly is just
starting to show, and it’s so exciting to know that I’ll be an “aunt” come
May. Tiff’s aunt, uncle and cousins were
in town visiting her, and we all had a delicious ham dinner with plenty of
fixings. The next morning, I drove to
Raleigh to see Lieselotte who was in town from Berkeley visiting her family. We spent Thursday just catching up, playing
games and watching a movie. I always
love visiting at her family’s home because it feels so much like my own. It’s always clean and cheerful and smells
good. Her mother, like mine, is always
feeding people and taking care of everyone and their whole family loves to play
games and loves music.
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| Shoe-making party. |
On Friday evening I headed over to Erika’s family’s home in
Cary. Erika was in my bible study here
in Charlotte until she moved to L.A. three years ago. She has remained one of my closest friends,
and I always go up and see her when she’s in Cary visiting her family. Her
family, also, is a lot of fun and I love going to see them. Erika’s parents made delicious chicken enchiladas
for dinner that night and then all of us (Erika, her parents, her brother Aaron
and I) played charades and other interactive games until it was time to go sing
karaoke at a local bar. Erika’s dad didn’t
feel well, but the rest of us went.
Erika went to Chapel Hill as well and sang in an a cappella group there,
so she’s an excellent singer.
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| Christmas party with about 300 of my friends. :) |
Aaron and I amused the crowd with our rendition of “Barbie
Girl” and then he and Erika sang a rap song called “Regulate” which was beyond
amusing since they are these two white kids who get up there and knew all the
words and were thoroughly impressing the entire bar. We all danced up a storm on the dance floor
and all in all, had a marvelous evening.
When we got back to the house, Barbara (their mom) put on a
Michael Jackson record and we had an impromptu dance party in the living
room.
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| Lieselotte and me. |
The next day I went back to Lieselotte’s house and spent
some time with her until she had to go to a small reunion with high school
friends. I stayed at her house with her
parents and sang songs while her mom played the mandolin. I went to bed early and slept 12 hours! (Making
up for the late night before). On Sunday
morning, Lies’ mom made a delicious oatmeal and fruit breakfast and I headed
out to see Professor Gless in Chapel Hill on my way back to Charlotte.
He’s now in need of platelet transfusions twice a week and
red cell transfusions every 3 weeks.
None of the therapies they’ve tried so far have worked to combat his myelodysplastic
syndrome (brought on by the chemo he had several years ago). Right now, it’s looking like his only option
may be a bone marrow transplant, but his sister was not a match, so now they
are trying to find a match from the donor registry. But at his age, a transplant is not a very
safe option. He and his wife continue to
stay positive, and I continue to pray for a way out of this situation. It breaks my heart to hear of his sufferings,
and I can’t imagine visiting Chapel Hill and not being able to drop by for some
tea and conversation. So, needless to
say, please keep Darryl Gless in your prayers.
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| Erika and me at karaoke |
Last night after returning to Charlotte, I spent some time
with Mom, Dad and Uncle David (who was in town) and then went to Sky High
Sports with a friend of mine. Sky High is
a trampoline gym in which a huge room is covered in connected trampolines –
even the walls. It’s a lot of fun and
GREAT exercise.
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| Aaron and me at karaoke. |
Tonight is a going away party for my dear friend Bethany who
is about to embark on the World Race for the second time. Except this time, she’s going as a team
leader and will be responsible for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs
of nearly 50 people as they travel through five third world countries over the
next five months. It will be an
unbelievable challenge, but I can’t think of anyone better for the job.
Tuesday evening my friend Zach will be arriving from NYC to
spend New Years Eve and day in Charlotte.
He is a friend I met through CouchSurfing, so it will be good to see him
again.
After that, January should slow down a bit from the last two
months. But then again, it never does
seem to work out that way. :)
