This year’s Christmas was a little different due to the amount of snow Maine has received this early in the year. Christmas week we received 18″ which normally does not happen. Mom and Jack arrived on Thursday just in time for a snow storm, an even they haven’t had to live through for a few years. After their arrival we went to Weathervain’s to have supper, Robin has met the entire family now- she has been well received as well. Mom and Jack house-sat for Frankie and Annmarie while they were out of town for the week; I stayed Christmas Eve playing card games and opened my stocking. After having breakfast Christmas morning we headed to Grammy and Grandpas to open our presents- which is a first for all of us.

Robin and I exchanged gifts with each other at her apartment and then headed to my apartment to meet with mom and Jack to exchange a few more gifts.

This year for Christmas I flew to Virginia to stay with Jack and my mother for the week to celebrate Christmas and to spend some time with them during the week. I usually pick different flight routes every time to experience new terminals; this time around I flew into Logan Airport in Boston, MA. The one thing that I enjoyed most about the airport is that there was always a constant breath of fresh Atlantic Ocean water.

I waited roughly an hour in the Logan terminal I was on my way to Raleigh, NC which was another new airport to me. I’m always surprised at how nice everything looks in North Carolina; buildings, roads, landscape, etc. Jack and mom greeted me in airport and we started off towards Bedford, on the way we stopped at Hardees, my first time as Maine does not have a Hardees. I ordered a Jalapeño Angus burger which was very good, much different than the other fast-food chains.

Sunday, Christmas Eve mom and I went to Thomas Road Baptist Church where Dr. Jerry Falwell preaches. The church was newly built last July and holds 5,000 people along with many other rooms, stores, etc; the quire is 3x larger than my church I attend! When we arrived Sunday School had already started which was lead by Elmer Towns, you can listen to his class online as well if you’d like at ElmerTowns.com. Near to end of class the stadium began to fill towards 4,000 people which I’m told is lower than any other week. I really enjoyed the service; including listening to what Jerry had to talk about. After Church we made plans to see “The Nativity Story“, and then head to TRBC for the evening service.

On Monday, Christmas day we exchanged gifts with each other. As always, mom always exceeds any expectations one would have- she always gives gifts that are needed. After the gifts had been opened we took plenty of time playing with our new toys, taking down the tree and fellowshipping. Later mom treated Jack and I to dinner at Peaks of Otter restaurant that sits near the base of the mountain. Afterwards we took different route home, one that brought us winding up and down a mountain littered with mansions.

On Tuesday we braved the Roanoke Valley View mall where thousands of people were exchanging gifts or spending their Christmas money. Despite the advertisement claims on TV there were very few sales and even less that actually interested me. Mom and I cleaned up the yard, took down the Christmas decorations and put up a new bird feeder, I was able to capture this curious Tufted Titmouse.

Mill Mountain Zoo which is located on Mill Mountain in Roanoke was open for the afternoon so we set sail and browsed throughout the zoo looking and taking photos of the animals. They had two rare Snow Leopards which was a treat as I am interested in large predator cats. I met a very friendly Llama that enjoyed having her photo taken with passing visitors. Afterwards we ate at the local Red Robin Gourmet burg pub; the selection of burgers was very impressive.

A local cinema in Lynchburg was playing “Open Season”, so mom and I attended on Thursday. The movie was alright, I didn’t like the fact that they were portraying hunters as people who are hicks, bad and have no heart. On the way home to Bedford, a beautiful sunset was on display. The entire sky was painted with glowing orange-red gradient and the gray clouds looked as if they were on fire.

It seems as I am getting older I am becoming more and more aware of certain things that I was oblivious to in the past, such as world’s secularization of the Christmas holiday and its true meaning. There are only a few stores I can name that still actually support the term “Merry Christmas”. Corporate American hides behind this very statement, “Not everyone celebrates Christmas and we must be respectful of their beliefs, also we are recognizing that there are other holiday’s in this time frame”. I agree, not everyone believes that God came to earth to live among us as a man for 33 years to die for our sins, but just because they don’t believe that doesn’t mean we have to change the name of Christmas to “Happy Holidays”.

It’s absurd to advertise products with Christmas themed music / pictures and then blatantly state “Happy Holidays” or Holiday gift- nobody purchases gifts for Thanksgiving and New Years. The real reason why the name is changed is because people don’t want to hear the name of Christ in a positive way; they don’t want to know the real reason of Christmas and reason for Easter. If you don’t believe in Christmas, why celebrate it or even the skewed version of it?

When mom was up last week for Mother’s day I purchased the book in my title to compliment the book mom gave me for last Christmas, A man, a can, a plan. I decided to try out one of their recipes on this patchy & cool day. The name is “Greenhouse Grinder”, it consists sour dough crusty bread, pesto, caponata, tomato and mushrooms. Top it with butter and grill it for 5+ minutes. It was very filling. A few nights ago I made a spicy burger consisting of Angus hamburger (80/20) mixed with pepper, crushed red peppers seasoning, A-1 steak sauce, topped with American cheese, honey mustard, sweet pickles (to counter the spice) and tomato. I had a chocolate and banana smoothie to wash it down.

My Sunday school class at Cornerstone Baptist starting on the “The way of the Master” study plan, it basically gives you the knowledge and courage to witness to others. I’m really excited about it and hope that I will be able to use whatever I learn in class.

Obligatory photos: Spicy burger | Greenhouse Grinder

This Christmas I was invited to Chicago, by Aaron and TJ. TJ is Jack’s (my mother’s husband) daughter and I have met them in the past. So, Friday, I flew out of Bangor, Maine. I packed only one suit case full of cloths and gifts and had my high school backpack as a carry on. I got up at 6:30 in the morning, before the sun had rose, Chris, my neighbor gave me a ride to Bangor International Airport. BIA is a small airport, but was actually quit full, due to Christmas only two days away. I got on the plane and could not look out the window like I normally do due to overcast, so, I took out a new book, Left Behind (the first book) and started to read it. I could not help but think as I was reading it that, What if Christ came back at this very moment as I’m reading this book, and only my cloths and book were left in my seat, and the person beside me happened to pick up the book and have the answers right in her hand, assuming she was not saved.

After an hour and half, I arrived at Detroit, Michigan. The airport is enormous! I read that it is a major airport and I quickly found out that the statement was true. I arrived in the “A” section for the airport and needed to get to the “B” section, which was probably a half of mile from where I was. I quickly headed down the moving walkway, which is very neat, and descended down a flight of escalators which brought me into a tunnel under one of the runways. The tunnel was illuminated with black lights which made the jog a little more pleasant. The airport also had an Amtrak, trees and birds inside. After 10 minutes of traversing through the airport, I made it to my destination and got on the jet. I arrived to O’Hare an hour later. O’Hare is very large though I was not as impressed as I was with Detroit. After finding my way to the security gate, mom greeted me and we were off to the luggage area and than to the car. The drive from O’Hare to Oswego, a suburb of Chicago took almost an hour due to heavy traffic. We stopped at Boston Market and had a bite to eat; sales tax is 9% which is pretty high compared to Maine’s 5%. After, we headed towards their housing development, which I must say is very impressive. It was good to see Aaron and his family again. Their kids are great; I had a really good time with them. I think that spending time with them has changed my mind about having children of my own, with the right woman of course That night mom, Aaron, Josiah and I went to see “The Chronicles of Narnia”, We all really enjoyed the movie.

Saturday, we headed towards the city. The weather was overcast and a little rainy, but we still walked the streets. We walked down Miracle Mile, Marshal Fields and Sears Tower. Marshal Fields has a restaurant called “The Walnut Room”, which is supposed to be a really nice place to eat, but the wait time was 3 hours- we decided to leave and eat at the Navy Pier which was interesting, it was a Jazz club, although the musicians were not playing. The Sears Tower was really interesting to see. We watched a five minute video on Chicago’s history and than headed up to the top of the building. When we got up to the top we were not so pleasantly surprised at the zero visibility. If you pressed your face to the glass you could see down to the bottom. Chicago is nice, but its way too busy and parking is extremely expensive to park! I like the suburbs of Chicago more. That night we attended a Christmas service at their local church.

Sunday, which was Christmas, we got up early, due to the kids. We started out by reading the Christmas event and asked the kids questions about Christ’s birth. It’s such a nice feeling to hear kids answer the questions and be excited about Jesus. Shortly after we all opened our stalkings and presents. Mom and Jack got me some really nice gifts. One of my favorites is a hand carved wooden duck and a recipe book named “A man, a can, a plan”. We spent the day hanging around the house playing with our gifts, talking, etc. I called Dad and wished him a Merry Christmas.

Monday, Aaron and I went to see “King Kong” by Peter Jackson. What an amazing movie! I was a bit upset that Kong died in the end; I had never seen the original movie or the other iterations.

Tuesday marked the end of my visit and I headed home to Bangor, Maine. I already miss everyone, especially my Mom. I am looking for a job in Lynchburg, Virginia. I have been for a few months now, I really like that area, and it’s not too far from Mom.