it is new year's eve!

on this last post of 2004, i rejoice that in my parents' Coshocton home, there are currently 14 of my best friends in my living room and kitchen. they are staying for several days, and life is very, very good.

this evening we will have a spontaneous dance party in the Beatles room, and rejoice that 2004 has been such a lovely year.

happy new year! and i pray your day is filled with pork, sauerkraut, and lots of football :)

Praise the LORD!

I got an email from Hannah this morning, and she and Jon are fine! Hoorah! They were headed south towards Kerala, but fortunately, they did not make it that far. Also, praise the Lord, they did not spend the holiday in Sri Lanka or Thailand as they had originally brainstormed.

Whew. I feel relieved...but it's that difficult kind of relief, where you still have to realize that 22,000 people are dead, and that shouldn't be relieving at all.

Praying for Asia.

I'm a bit overwhelmed this morning as I read the news and read about the huge amounts of devastation. I'm thinking and praying about all of these peoples and countries that were wiped flat in a matter of moments.

And I am thinking about and praying for my friends Hannah and Jon, who were spending their Christmas holiday visiting beaches in Southwest India. By looking at the maps of India, it seems that they were probably out of harm's way, but at the same time, I don't know exactly what city they were in when the earthquake occurred, and I know that they intended to visit Kerala sometime during the next two weeks, which is one of the cities that already has a significant death toll. I also don't know, with downed phone lines and such, how long it could be before I hear from them.

So I'm praying for Sri Lanka, for Indonesia, for India, for Thailand, for Maldives, for Malaysia, for Bangladesh, for Burma, for Somalia...and I am praying for Hannah and Jon.

I do not know why things happen as they do....22,000 is such a big number to throw around.

A Very Merry Christmas.

and a Happy New Year.

I hope that you and your family have a very happy holiday. Also--peace on earth, goodwill to men, women, and all species of animals. May your days be filled with enough love and birdseed to make you feel truly blessed.

(Since I'm not with you to tell you a funny Christmas story, you must instead look here.)

ICE.

there is ice everywhere...apparently...i don't really know, because the only time i left the house today was to check the mail. i ran down the driveway in my bare feet, and the ice was very pointy and non-user friendly.

then i found out that many parts of ohio are without power because of the ice.

and then i found out that danara is stuck in new york city because there are no flights into columbus because of the ice.

then i lookied outside and saw the ice dangling off the ice-encrusted trees.

then i thought about how it's best not to drive in the ice, considering sean and i's vehicle is sporting a spare tire at the moment and will not maneuver well in the ice.

i'm still dreaming of a white christmas.

C-o-s-h-o-c-t-o-n !

Coshocton is cool for the following reasons:

#1--Last night, my best friend from High School, Havaleh, and my brother and his friend Nick got to see LeBron and the Cavaliers make a smashing showing against the T-wolves. I realize, though, that this does not inherently make Coshocton cool, since we drove to Cleveland, but Havaleh, Nick and Sean were the main reasons the evening was cool, and they are from Coshocton.

#2--The Serenity Tea House is open, and I have YET to return for my favorite chicken salad, which I have been missing since my last attempt in July. My chicken salad and I will be reunited very soon.

#3--Eastern Standard Time--when you don't adjust your body to a different time zone, it means that I wake up at 11:30a and go to bed at 3am. Apparently, if i keep this up for two weeks, I will have no jet lag.

Snow Days in Coshocton.

Two-thousand Coshocton Kids are rather upset that they only wiggled a 2-hour delay out of today. Even though there's about 3 inches of snow on the ground and the temperature is only about ten degrees, they are having school. I laughed this morning when I realized that for the four Baker's, snow days are a moot point. None of us go to school anymore.

So I am in Ohio, and there is snow on the ground, and it IS beautiful. Yesterday when I shouted out, "It's COLD!" Mom reminded me that I asked for a white Christmas....and so, I will complain no longer and just rejoice that I have gotten my wish.

I spent last evening singing Christmas carols to shut-in's with my home church's Youth Group. A few of them really enjoyed Sean and I's rendition of "Carol of the Bells" sung entirely by bears, but other's referred to us as "Conversation Killers." Apparently one of the youth thinks that Sean and I both have the ability to bring up random pieces of information with no relevancy to anything that kill a conversation. I laughed pretty hard, because it's true.

It was good to spend time with kids in Ohio though, and laugh to realize that I really am hanging out with teenagers wherever I go...

I (Heart) E-tickets.

Can I tell you how much I love being able to print off my boarding pass from home?! I do! I love it so much! I just breeze in to the terminal in a reasonable amount of time, with very little waiting in line, and I step onto my flight. Lovely.

Tomorrow at 4:00am, I will roll out of bed and drive myself to Sea-Tac International Airport where I will board my 757 for Ohio.

I have not yet packed a single thing. But I did enjoy a wonderful dinner at Oui's Thai Cuisine with three of my highschool girls last night. Glorious.

One of my girls gave me a Christmas card which read, "You have made a major impact on my life, and I hope we are friends forever."

Daughters

This week, I have officially admitted to myself that I love John Mayer. Two years ago, I would have been embarrassed to profess a tendency to liking anything too conventional, but today, as I'm making a new mix cd, I really want to include songs by Train, Dido, John Mayer, 3 Doors Down, and Shania Twain. I realize that if I like the songs and insist on only selecting songs by Gillian Welch, Ben Kweller, and the Idiot Pilots only because they might be more independent and less pop...well, then, I'm lying to myself and slipping into non-conformist elitism.

So this morning, I am not an elitist, and I'm telling you that I think John Mayer's song "Daughters" is amazing. You can listen to it here.
The chorus is--
Fathers, be good to your daughters.
Daughters will love like you do.
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too.

On Monday at "The Mud Hut Christmas Party" I shared a testimony/sermonette, and I was joined by one of my female student leaders, who also shared the story of her faith journey. It was wonderful to share those moments with her, and afterwards, her mother embraced me and called me "Daughter." Sometimes I feel a bit like a more grown-up version of her daughter, and it was certainly affirming to be recognized by her.

And I thought about what John Mayer was saying--and really, I think that so many of the interactions I have with students have so little to do with me--and so much more to do with the families from which they come. For all of my girls, John's song makes me want to stand beneath the windows of their homes singing it up to their parents, as a prayer for them--that they will be powerfully reminded that they are stewards of God's kids. They have been entrusted! What a load of responsibility--shaping young people into who they will become...and parents have the ability to teach kids how to love well or how to love poorly.

I have had several moments of brokenness in the past weeks, and I think that so much of my ability to persevere through it is that I have been taught how to love well. By my parents, who have shown that love requires as much commitment and perseverence as it does respect and passion, by my friends, who always have the ability to speak to me in truth and are endlessly full of affirmation and comfort, and by my Lord, who is amazingly more than we could ever even want Him to be.

Silence is the loudest parting word you never say.

~Ben Harper, "Amen Omen," Diamonds on the Inside.

I talked to Sean last night, and I said "I'll see you Saturday," and I was just talking to Havaleh, and I said, "I'll see you Sunday."

How lovely.

I board a 757 bound for Ohio at 6:30am on Saturday morning, and my heart rejoices.