there's no place like gnome.

On this new year’s eve, let’s review the year with a list of highlights.  [I do love a good list.]  In no particular order – 

. I made a bunch of new wonderful friends at seminary. Like awesome wonderful. One group of us went out on Thursday nights [a tradition I miss a great deal] and I learned to drink beer.

. I realized there was so much of the cities I hadn’t explored and tried to check a lot of things off my list in the last semester I was there. Snowshoeing. Roller derby. Winter carnival.  Saints game.  New restaurants.  Dance parties.  History museum.  Polar plunge.

. I graduated from seminary, moved home, and had one last summer off with lots of family and friend adventures.  Good times were had by all at the cabin, in the cousin’s pool, and at graduation parties with cakepops.

. I was ordained as a pastor – what a wonderfully lovely day.  I felt so loved.

. Hey. I drove to Alaska. That was fun/best week ever.  [Also in the travel department, I spent a long weekend in Arizona visiting college friends and completed a week-long Minnesota Tour de Friends at the end of the summer.]

. I officiated at four weddings of dear family and friends.  They were fun times of growth for me as a pastor and weddings are – in general – awesome.   [Bouncy houses, Spotted Cow on tap, and old friends!]

. Oh.  And hey – I started a new job.  I’m 28 and I finally don’t have to pay to do my laundry and I receive a steady paycheck.  [all while doing a job I enjoy]

Good job, 2011.  Here’s to 2012.

[Which begins with me likely being in bed well before midnight.  I went out to dinner at the Pour House in Stoughton – quaint and cool – with Banana Kay and her boyfriend.  Now I watch HIMYM and talk to you.  Don’t laugh – it’s not entirely lame.  I at least left the house.]

Perfect and lovely.

Here is a sampling of gifts given and received – you can’t make this stuff up.

Banana derby kit. (You take fruit or vegetables, add axles and stickers, and then race.) Banana napkin rings. (Bought at an estate sale.) Banana wine stopper. Banana luggage tag. Go Ape! card game. Raquel the Rooster. A wobbly snowman (read: groovy/likes to get down) who really likes bananas. Grow-your-own-banana kit.

I know it’s hard to believe but this part of the universe exists. The Christmas M & M commercials where the M & Ms meet Santa? “They do exist!” “He does exist!” We exist and there are Banana gifts a plenty, especially when we begin searching in February.

So then we played a major game of Spot It!  All five variations.  It was awesome and we were super loud.  The minute one of us began to lose in one of the fast-paced games, we began to say – quiet at first and ever so loudly – “Oh no!  Oh no!  Oh no!” or “Shoot!  Shoot!  Shoot!”  There never really was any hope that Dan and Marj would get sleep while the Bananas were there.

Mabel and I went for a ride today to the Milton quilt shop.  [I needed some special fabric wash for these antique yellow squares and they had special ordered some this past summer.  Kinda upon my request.  And I never went to pick any up … opps.  I intend to make a throw for my yellow & gray bedroom.  Intend being the important word in that sentence.]

Listening to the radio on the drive home, I hear Lady Gaga.  I like Gaga.  I listen to her a fair bit.  There is a Gaga song – You and I – that talks about Nebraska.  “There’s only three men I’m a serve my whole life/It’s my daddy and Nebraska and Jesus Christ.”  To be clever? annoying? obnoxious? and since I’m in the state of Wisconsin, of course, Nebraska was substituted for the cheese state.  “It’s my daddy and Wisconsin and Jesus Christ.”

I. hate. that.

I don’t care if Wisconsin has the same number of syllables as Nebraska.  I don’t like it when states insert their own name or their own city or their own preferences of some kind into songs.  Hate it.  Just like I won’t cheer when a singer or band onstage yells out the city they’re currently in.  I feel no strong need to yell and scream because a famous person said the name of the state I live in while I’m at the concert.  No need at all.  I’ll cheer when you sing the songs I paid money to hear.  

It’s annoying and I don’t get it.  CPE me on this one but it annoys me enough to write this rant.  *end rant*  I’ll let you know how my antique quilt square throw comes out!  Now off to the Banana Christmas party!

I promised you my Matt Damon update … but first I feel like I should explain myself.

I talk about Matt a lot. He’s my favorite. [And though I may seem slightly crazed, I promise I’m not. No posters on the wall, nor do I know anything about his personal life. This is strictly professional. I just love his smile.]

It all started back in 1997 with Good Will Hunting.

I went to see the movie with my mom. It was a matinee showing after school one day. I was in middle school. I didn’t so much want to see the movie because of Matt Damon; pretty sure I had little idea who he was. I wanted to see it because in middle school and high school I was so into being a film geek/knowledgeable in all things Oscar. [A goal of mine which has since gone out the window; I no longer subscribe to People, nor know who is dating whom in Hollywood.] Good Will Hunting was nominated beyond nominated that year for statues and I wanted to see it to have my own review. And so my mom and I sat in a nearly empty theater and listened to swear word after swear word, watching sex scene after sex scene. [awkward]

And so Matt became my favorite. [It’s not his fault. Nor yours. enter sobbing I know.] The Bourne movies. The Ocean’s movies. The Talented Mr.Ripley. The Adjustment Bureau. [In recent IMDB investigation for this post, it’s also noted he was a baseball spectator in Field of Dreams. It’s like the surprise of finding Elijah Wood pre-LOTR as the space-age boy playing duck hunt in Back to the Future II.] It’s his smile. His boyhood charm. I like them apples.

Thus tonight, I had to go see about a boy. I had to check out the latest Matt Damon masterpiece with a party of twelve at the Stoughton Cinema Cafe. [Five cousins, one sister, one aunt, three friends, and one child of a friend, plus I, at the theater that serves pizza while you sit at tables and watch the flick. It’s quaint and fun.]

We Bought a Zoo. Loved by adult women and source of boredom to children. I laughed, I cried, and I swooned, while my younger cousins asked for ice cream, wondered when it was time to go home, and hopped from chair to chair. But really – it was enjoyable. Heartwarming. Sweet. And Matt Damon looks particularly becoming in a gray sweater at one point. Kay will vouch.

Turns out vacation for Lindsay also means no blogging for Lindsay.

Sunday was Christmas and a merry one at that.  Just Dance 3, the traditional card game of 31, and a Packer win.

Monday was lazy.  Movies were watched, How I Met Your Mother episodes played, and naps were had.

Target Tuesday followed with Molly and Erma Emma.  It was a game for Molly, creating as many odd and getting-inside-objects opportunities as possible.  [Please note these were all situations in which Molly said, “Take my picture!”  Provoked by Erma and I she was not.]

Today was lunch with two college friends [one who currently resides in CA and one in WA] and a spouse [one of theirs, not mine] in Madison, followed by outlet mall shopping in Wisconsin Dells with sem friend, Cassie.

Tomorrow is coffee and movie day.  Friends, aunt, cousins, and sister plus I will all venture to We Bought a Zoo.  I’ll give you the full Matt Damon report at a later date. 

Friday = Banana Christmas and Saturday = TBD.

Oh, what a lovely week of vacation.  

How was your Christmas?  The week that follows?

It’s the Christmas Eve wrap up!  [If it were Joel & Melissa, it would be a rap up.  I miss that rapping pair.]

One service this evening at 5pm at ROG.  Candlelight with Holy Communion and a whole lot of carol singing.  My sermon will also be no more than six and a half minutes long.  I’m going to talk about how Christmas is crazy.  This may also include wrapping the banana dog in a box for part of the children’s message.  Crazy is the word!

After the service, I’m heading to Owatonna for the Christmas Eve of misfits.  Paige, jD, Lauren, jD’s brother, the cats, a fondue pot, the game Spot It!, and I will comprise the misfits.  A week ago I was thinking about how sitting at home alone on Christmas Eve would not be fun.  That same day, I got a phone call from jD inviting me over.  Misfits think alike.  I’m looking forward to it with much anticipation.  It might even be a little … crazy?

I blogged a bit about being a pastor at Christmas here yesterday.

Mystique keeps falling over.  I’m not sure what kind of angel games she is trying to play with me.  She’s too full of glory to stay still?

Tomorrow, there is one Christmas Day service at ROG at 9am.  Immediately afterwards, this lady and her dog are Wisconsin bound because – have you heard?  I’m on vacation thru January 1st!  AND rumor has it January 2nd is a holiday.  Here’s to a week of leisurely reading, cousin time, and seeing long-lost friends. 

Merry Christmas, friends.

Christ comes as a baby in the manger not just to give us more of the life we know, but to give us new and abundant life altogether. For in Christ we have the promise that God will not stop until each and every one of us have been embraced and caught up in God’s tremendous love.  God will not stop until each of us have heard the good news that “unto you this day is born a savior, Christ the Lord.” [Oh, David Lose.  Thank you.]

Angel from the realms of glory from her box.

Here she is.

[applause?  loud gasps?  shock?  hark?  I’m uncertain of the appropriate reaction here.]

Turns out Mystique is not only 68 inches tall and has indoor/outdoor possibilities – she’s covered in glitter.  [enter vacuum]

I put her outside tonight with much struggle and many yards of extension cords.

Drive past and you’ll see her in all her glory.

Hark.

In other news, I would so be at the theater tonight seeing Girl in the Dragon Tattoo if I didn’t think it would freak me out too much to come home to an empty house alone.  [Even though I’ve read the books, I think the film adaptation might freak me.]

Also.  I began listening to Tiny Fey’s Bossypants on audiobook.  Hilarious and super entertaining.

My college roommate, Amanda, and her husband are passing through Austin tomorrow on their way to WI.  We’re going to meet for supper.  At Hy Vee.  [Don’t judge.]

And, lastly, I sent this to my brother [or rather his dog] in Alaska today:

Phone books were delivered a few days ago.  They arrived in bright yellow bags, tied shut, and flung on the ground underneath the mailboxes.  

Please help me understand why one also was dropped off at the cemetery.  

I understand the cemetery has a fire number.  Understood.  But there is no mailbox.  No office on site.  

Why?

Mabel and I took a walk to the cemetery this afternoon, joined by our neighbor dog friend, Neutron.  I debated picking the phone book up, throwing it out, thinking that would make me an environmentalist, out saving the planet.  [*cue theme music*]  But then I thought – what if there is really a reason there is a phonebook at the cemetery?  What if I picked it up and then someone came along to retrieve and had to wonder, “Where is the phonebook at the cemetery that I just came to pick up?”  Never mind the fact that it was dropped off five days ago and still sits there.

So I left it … just in case.

I’m just going to start out by admitting straight up what this post is about – I’m going to brag about my confirmation students.  There.  Now you know.

First example.  Last week, we began our time together by sharing highs and lows.  There are four seventh graders in my confirmation class – three ladies, and one gentleman.  The gentleman never says too much.  He’s pretty quiet but very considerate and cooperative.  When it came time for him to share highs and lows, he said he didn’t have any lows.  His high was that he was back at confirmation after missing the previous week.  Warms my heart!

Example the second.  Last night, we were only half a class with two of four present.  “I like coming to confirmation,” one said.  The other continued, “I like reading the Bible.  It’s really interesting.”  They both asked if they could stay later and so they texted/called their parents and stuck around an extra twenty minutes.

Third example.  With the two that were present last night, we talked a little bit about the bullying that happens in schools.  It’s real, people.  Fact is, one of the students in my class [who wasn’t there last night] is – unfortunately – a target of bullying.  A., one of the ladies last night, talked about how she stuck up for the other confirmation buddy in the middle of bullying.  She’s a petite little gal but she’s not afraid to tell a bully how it is.  Props to her.  Props to her.

Fourth.  We made graham cracker gingerbread houses in the last twenty minutes [plus the extra twenty minutes they asked to stay after].  We had fun.