January 2011 Lower Family Newsletter

[Chad T. Lower]

***NOTE: Bella just got her order form for Girl Scout cookies if anyone in interested.  Orders are due by Jan 17 and will be delivered after Feb 14. Boxes are $3.50 each.***

 

Last year, you may remember that I sang at Penn College's Christmas Card Ceremony.  Because I was in the musical, they asked us if we would sing a carol to open and close the ceremony.  This year, the play is not a musical, so they asked the same people from last year if they would be interested in doing it again this year. They only received two responses (me and another student), and at the last minute, the student got sick.  Fortunately, a student who works in the Student Activities office agreed to help, so the two of us sang two songs.  Last year, we sang the songs a'capella.  This year, we obtained karaoke tracks for both songs, and asked the audience to sing-a-long on the last song. We sang Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and Jingle Bell Rock. Overall, it went well.  Bella and I had eye appointments right before the ceremony, so she accompanied me to the event and was awesome in her behavior! She sat off to the side while we were performing and sang along with us.

 

The next week, we had finals at Penn College.  My finals schedule this year was much better than last year.  Last year, I taught 5 classes.  Finals week was Monday through Friday; I gave 2 finals Wednesday and 3 finals Friday! Grades are due Tuesday at noon regardless of when finals are given, so I didn't have much time to grade the last three tests.  This semester, I had a final Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then 2 on Friday. Unfortunately, I also had a student scheduled to take my last final exam at the last possible time on Friday who called me that afternoon to tell me that his transmission went out on his car. He would be able to borrow his wife's car, but she wouldn't be home for hours and he lives over an hour from campus (so bumming a ride off another student wasn't an option either).  He ended up taking the final on Saturday while I graded my other finals.  Never a dull moment!!

 

With Christmas being on a Saturday this year, Suzy and I had to arrange for differing holiday gatherings with extended family.  The weekend before Christmas, we went to visit my family down in Chambersburg. My Uncle John, who passed away August 2009 (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=40906864), held the Christmas festivities at his house again this year. We left Friday afternoon and arrived Friday evening in time to have dinner with my mom (Grammy Linda) and Linda who travelled up from North Carolina earlier that day.  We also ate with my Aunt Carol and her two grandsons (my 2nd cousins). We needed a table for 10. The next day, we had breakfast at "the Tracks" with momma and Linda, my sister (Lu), her family (husband and two kiddos), her father-in-law and brothers-in-law, Aunt Kathie and Uncle Roy (table for 16). Lunch and Christmas were at my Uncle John's (although my Aunt Carol currently lives there and was roommates with John before he died). I don't know what the official count was for people, but I'm guessing around 35 to 40. In a tiny house. Aunt Carol rented a porta-potty to accommodate everyone!

 

Before leaving on Sunday, we stopped by my grandmother's house (Mammaw) which is my kiddos only surviving great-grandparent. My sister and her family was there as well, so we had a good visit.  As Laurie was getting ready to leave, my Aunt Karen arrived with husband and youngest child (who isn't that young) in tow. It was great seeing them as I think the last time we visited was over 2 years ago.

 

The next week, we had Christmas at our house on Saturday. My momma surprised us by stopping by over Christmas. Linda was driving to her mom's for Christmas, which is about an hour from our house. They travelled from North Carolina to Philadelphia to pick up Linda's daughter and spend time with her son, before dropping momma off here and continuing to her mom's.  I feel bad for my momma, though; when we bought the girls bunk beds, we also bought a trundle specifically for when people (like momma) came to visit. Well, she started on the trundle, but Isabella got sick and threw-up all over the bathroom floor, so momma moved downstairs to the couch while we cleaned everything up. The next night, Ali threw up all over the trundle bed (fortunately momma was already downstairs). Not sure if the girls were sick or just ate too much.  Malachi experienced the same thing the week before. But even with all the cleaning up, the kids enjoyed Christmas and Momma enjoyed being here for it.

 

On Sunday, Linda picked Momma up early and left for their long drive. We packed up and headed to Suzy's parent's house for Christmas festivities with them. It was another great turnout for family as we had all of Suzy's siblings in attendance, along with their spouses and all their kids--and some girlfriends too.  Total count was around 25 people. Suzy's mom made a great ham dinner that we ate before opening gifts. We only did gifts for the young kiddos, but even with only 7 of them, it was a whirlwind of paper and presents. When everything was opened, everyone went home (Suzy and I are the only one's that weren't "local"). We stayed the night with no one getting sick (fortunately).

 

For New Year's Eve, we were in bed early again; this time, it was me getting sick. We did stay up later on New Year's Day to celebrate with some sparkling grape juice and a trip around the kitchen (meat, cheese, and crackers). Ready for a new year in 2011!

 

Of course, the biggest holiday in December is Christmas.  Our family celebrated it 3 different times! One thing that I have heard in years past, but for some reason seem to have heard it more this year, is that when people write X-mas instead of Christmas, that they are taking "Christ" out of "Christmas." My heavens, how untrue that is!  In fact, nothing could be further from the truth!

 

It was Christians that coined the term X-mas. The Greek word for Christ is Christos. The Greek letter that makes the initial Ch sound is the letter "chi" (pronounced just like our son's name) and looks like X (in Greek, the word Christos looks like Χριστός. From Wikipedia, "Chi or X is often used to abbreviate the name Christ, as in the holiday Christmas (Xmas)."  If you were to write down the word Xmas (or Xtian for Christian) and showed it to the disciple Luke or even to Paul, they would know exactly what you were talking about and would not be offended in any way.

 

If there are any arguments to be made about Christmas, it should probably be that Christ was not born in December (on even in the winter for that matter... but that is another topic for another day.)

 

I hope your year (2011) is full of exciting things that the Lord is doing in your life.

ChadT. Lower
a.k.a. Chopper
http://chadtlower.tripod.com/
 
Fight Spam! Join CAUCE! == http://www.cauce.org/
 
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others.
Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
                               Philippians 2:3-4