What I did on my Christmas Vacation or Family, Friends and Food

I'm finishing up a week of vacation, sitting at the airport. There are so many wonderful blessings to share and I've been trying to think how to get it down in an organized way. The celebration actually started the week before I left St. Louis, while I was still supposed to be working but managed to get in some fun, too.

• Friends and Food - the DHQ women officers (minus 1) went out for a night on the town. We started at The Chocolate Bar. It's hard to describe but included gourmet cheeses and lots of chocolate choices. If you come to visit, we are going there! We then went to see Wicked! It's a fun musical, but probably not my favorite. The fun was being with my friends and we somehow avoided work talk the whole evening.


• Friends - I was on line searching for a Handel's Messiah concert in town and didn't find one. That's a sad part of being away from Riga and Chicago. But, I did find a Rutter 'Magnificat' concert. Carla Voeller and I went. It was beautiful and in a magnificent concert hall. Besides Magnificat, the chorus also sang a lot of traditional carols. I love them and haven't had much opportunity to sing them this year. We were both in heaven! I had an amazing moment of worship when we all joined in singing "O come let us adore Him". I'd never felt the spiritual impact of these words like I did that evening. I don't know if it was the beautiful sound in the concert hall or what moved me specifically. I found myself praying as I was singing "Lord, let this be true worship for all in this room." I believe there were some who experience the true adoration of Christ during those moments. This will become one of my St. Louis traditions.


• Food - well, sort of! The Friday before Christmas I went with an ensemble to play on a radio show (6-9 AM!!!!) I also was the spokeswoman for the Army that morning. We had such fun and while we were in the studio, a local restaurant brought in the most delicious food. Not breakfast food, but still - we all ate it! Another place to try some day.


• Family and Food - Then I was off to Livonia to be with my family. I decided to fly, rather than drive 9 hours on my own. That was nearly a disaster because of fog and snow, but I made it. However, my luggage didn't. Eventually, Chris and I went to the airport to look for it (24 hours later) and there it was, sitting with dozens of other abandoned suitcases. Oh well, it got there before Christmas with all presents safely packed. It really was nice to be with my family for the first time in 3 years during Christmas. They had finished most of their corps activities, so we actually relaxed and were stress free. I got to see Abbie and Matt in the Christmas musical. Sunday afternoon we had a Diaz family (extended) party. About 30 of us, who never all get together at once. That was so great and where the food came in - lots of it. I'll post a couple of pictures later. Christmas Day we opened presents together and it was fun and very exciting for the kids. Much different from my Christmas in Latvia, where I usually opened gifts on my own. I was a little afraid that the kids might have outgrown the fun and joy of gift-giving since I'd left. Not a chance! They were up early, excited about the Santa gifts and grateful for all they received. Since in Latvia I always spent the day with the Smiths, I missed them. They called and made my day complete! Later we went to the corps to join in with one of the corps family gatherings for a really good meal and fellowship. Again, a nice and relatively relaxing day. I was simply enjoying being with my family during those days.
• Friends and more food - I spent the last few days with the Jordans in the Chicago area. We had a big party with loads of food and lots of friends over one evening. We did a bit of shopping and a lot of eating. I also got to spend time with Gortons while there, which made my weekend even more special. My vacation ended with Sunday morning worship at Oakbrook Terrace. As always, I love being there and am so grateful for the corps family who still make me feel like I belong.

Now it's New Year's Eve and I'm lounging at home enjoying my last bit of vacation with some quiet, peaceful time on my own. If you have made it this far - how about your opinion on my continuation of this blog? I really did it to journal my Latvian adventure. As I'm 6 months past that, is anyone interested in my St. Louis life?

Praying you will experience joy and peace as we enter a new year.

Winter Wonderland or something like that

Whew! So much has happened since the little TV episode. (if you go to www.myfoxstl.com and click on Tree of Lights Campaign, then go to their videos link, you'll see me and a number of Army highlights. The best one happened this morning, click on their morning show then to the video of the bed jumping - yes, it is Army related. That's my friend Will with the painted face - our communications director.)

That same weekend on Sunday, I started at the Euclid corps for morning worship. I preached and was blessed by the people, as I always am. I look forward to actually getting involved in the corps and being a real part of their family. I ran home from there to dress warmer because I had to meet a Missouri Senator who was going to do a little bell ringing for us (yes, on Sunday - against my better judgment. "all opinions given here are mine and do not represent TSA.") I was the token Army person to ring with him. It only lasted 20 minutes and was really a photo op for him. Then I changed clothes (in the car!) and drove to St. Alphonsus Church on the Rock to hear my cousins gospel choir concert. That made my whole day. The music was amazing, the Spirit was powerful, one of the singers reminded me of Aldona! It was a new thing for me to be able to worship with my extended family. We went out for a long dinner afterward. I'm so grateful to be living near them. So, that was a wonderful day, bell ringing and all.

Last Friday I had one of those 'God' moments. I had a message from a woman named Lynn, who didn't even know where she had gotten my number from. "Maybe I had called her or maybe a common acquaintance had given it to her" She didn't know why she was calling me either! "Maybe to work on Dred Scott?" She is his great, great granddaughter - very cool! http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/africanamerican/scott/scott.asp. Well, I knew why she had called, even if it wasn't the original intent. I called her back and told her that I was hoping to be involved in the planning committee for Global Day of Prayer in St. Louis and I knew she was on the committee. http://www.praystl.org/ That got her very excited and we talked for several minutes. I attended their planning meeting on Monday evening. The plans are great. But, even more moving was the prayer time at the end. I felt like I was back in Latvia during a prayer conference. The Spirit was definitely working and speaking to people in that room. I don't know exactly where this will lead, but I feel like it is one of the connections from what I experienced and learned in Latvia to what I'm doing here in St. Louis.

Lots more happening, especially in my spiritual journey, but that's for another time. I finish with a little nature trip. We had a 'snowstorm' this weekend. I understand that is a relative term, based on where you live, but I've been making fun of St. Louis for a few days and will refrain here. Anyway, on my way home from church on Sunday I drove through the World Bird Sanctuary. Yes, you can laugh. It sounds crazy, but the snow was beautiful and I thought it might offer some nice pictures. Wow! It was beautiful and while I didn't see any birds, I did come across elk and bison (big ones!) Check out my pictures for the rest of the story.

During these busy days of Christmas, take some time to consider what it is all about - Who it is all about. Immanuel - God with us - even if you are counting wet kettle money or packing up from toy distribution. God is with us!
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So, my role puts me kind of 3rd string when there is something to be decided or done around divisional headquarters. Today is our big media day for the Tree of Lights Campaign. Generally, the 2 above me handle all PR stuff but today neither were available when an urgent call from the TV station came in. They wanted to do on site interviews at a few of our Army locations - could we provide an interviewee? I got handed that an hour before the filming began and with our regional social services director headed out. Since I was to be the voice of the Army, all along the way the RSSD was filling me in on what services we provide (remember, I've been in this position 3 months today!) But, back up. First, I didn't have my proper uniform - skirt and tunic. I had trousers (for my UK friends!) and an epaulet blouse. We all decided that would be fine, but in the rushing to get ready I lost a button in a very prominent spot! No one had sewing kit or pin - AUGH!!!! I ran out the door saying "I'll figure it out!" My quick solution - grab my tunic and wear it with my slacks. Not my favorite look and not especially attractive for a TV shot, but better than the alternative! I was afraid that was a sign of things to come, but fortunately the rest of the afternoon went fine. I didn't sound completely clueless and besides, they are editing most of it out anyway! And I got to visit our Booth Manor, seniors' residence, which I hadn't seen before. And I got to have a good talk with the RSSD, which I hadn't done before. And now, I'm leaving the office to study for my sermon on Sunday. A pretty good day, I think!

I just bought the new Jars of Clay Christmas CD - LOVE IT!

Catching up

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Here are the photos from Thanksgiving and my weekend in Chicago. I had a great time at the Staff Band reunion. The pictures will show there were only 3 women in the alumni band, all horn players and good friends. It was fun to be with Sherry and Jenny and my other 'old' friends. You'll also see that I got to put the angel on the top of Jordans' tree. Rachel picked me to do it this year, since I've been away so long!

The next week was extremely busy with Christmas activities. Monday - Wednesday I spent the evenings helping with Toy Lift. For those who don't know, it's a gift program for prisoners and their children. The toys are wrapped, packaged and shipped all over the country for children of inmates. It's a huge program and uses hundreds of volunteers. Fortunately, it was also very organized and I just helped out where I could. I also went to the St. Charles county Tree of Lights kick-off. Again, we have a great team who put these events together. I like to support their work. Thursday evening the divisional staff went out for dinner and the theater, "A Christmas Carol." We had a nice evening together and the women loved the theater so much, we are going again next week! To see 'Wicked' - can't wait! It's part of my Christmas present to me. I also got some of Aivis's photos framed - my other Christmas gift to myself!

After that busy week, I flew to Chicago for a day to meet my brother, Steve. He's in town for a week and I only had a day to be with him. We went shopping and ate with friends. It was a nice day. I flew back on Saturday morning and went straight to a movie theater, where canned goods were being collected for the Army. The theater management does this at all of their locations and it's huge - about 1/4 million cans. The theater I was at collected over 12,000. It was a great deal - 5 cans=free movie, 10 more=movie pass for later. Again, the volunteers were so great - we are fortunate to have such good community support. And then, Sunday I was at the Quincy corps. The morning worship was a blessing and especially because I was with some good friends. Even though I was preaching for the 1st Sunday of Advent, I managed to get some Latvia stories in and they seemed to appreciate that. I can't help talking about Latvia! After lunch, I helped them out with their Christmas visits to the Veterans Hospital. I haven't done that for a few years. It was fun to be with the corps people and as always, I was blessed as I talked with the patients. So, you can imagine I'm a little tired today. The only event was our DHQ Christmas party, which was a lot of fun. The rest of the week I'm in the office and very glad for that. Hope you are finding opportunities to celebrate this season and especially to see God at work, even in your busyness.