Putting Up the Christmas Tree

It was January 1998 and I had just come back to school after the break. I looked at the wilting Christmas tree and sighed. It's great putting it up but not taking it down. My roommate and I had found a fun way to get rid of our Jack-o-lantern when the season was over. We would take it up to the top of an outdoor tall flight of stairs and drop it while yelling, "Smashing pumpkins!". Then, we watched it break into a hundred little pieces. What could I do with a tree?

Then, I got an idea! I called my friend who was always up for something crazy. "Want to blow up an old, dead Christmas tree?". He said with no hesitation, "Sure! Come on over." I did that with the tree. I watched as my friend lit the tree on fire. Wow, how that puppy burned! The flames were so high that we were afraid it was going to catch some surrounding trees on fire. Instead of getting nervous like some others watching were, this friend just began laughing. Then I started to laugh, and that was how the tradition of blowing up my Christmas tree began. I did it again today with that same friend...Brock Gill, and we still laughed.

A Rhythm

We have sort of formed a rhythm of life. As I have said before, I know how to do life on the road. However, doing life at home is a different story. I never know what to do at home. Now, we have set up some sort of schedule when we are home. Here is our week:
Monday-Date Night
Tuesday-Mentoring Group and Errands
Wednesday-Small group
Thursday-Magic Night
Weekends-Usually out of town, but if not, we hang out with friends...go to the Cocoa Tree...stuff like that.

My favorite part about this routine is that it allows us to invest into people here at home. Brock and I form a stronger bond with Date Nights. When I run errands and Brock goes to his mentoring group on Tuesdays, we connect with people in our town. In our small group, we share prayer requests and laughs with each other. On magic night, we have some cool, young, aspiring magicians come to our house where we talk about shows and how to use our art to tell others the message of Jesus Christ. It's great!

Give Extravagantly, Live Frugally

This is our New Years' Resolution or theme for the year or whatever you want to call it...GIVE EXTRAVAGANTLY, LIVE FRUGALLY. One way we plan to exorcise this plan is to camp all summer in Florida. That's right! We are buying a tent and pitching it wherever possible this summer in between our camp dates in Florida (not a bad place to camp by the way). This will save us so much money on hotels...especially in Florida in the summer. I am also excited about the adventure it's going to allow us to have. (One week into it, I might be singing a different tune...we'll see.)

Another way we are planning to save money is to take our vacation using our points that we have incurred from various hotel chains and airlines. I think we are going to Puerto Rico. The funny thing is that Brock and I have flight miles on different airlines, so we are going to have to fly there and back separately. That's okay though because it helps us stay on theme!

The giving extravagantly will just have to come to us spontaneously. We will give like we feel lead by the Lord like we always do, we just don't want to use the same motto while doing so. We don't want to pinch pennies when it comes to helping others out. I think you get what I am saying. So, now I have put it in writing and you all can keep me accountable.

Miami Pics

We stayed in Miami the night before the cruise.









We ate at our place in Miami.

It's a Cuban restaurant.

For lunch, we had piella.

Cruise Pics

Last week, we took some great people we have worked with on a cruise. It was fun!

Here is the crew. We all really bonded.

We went to Key West and ate chocolate covered key lime pies.

Yummy!



In Cozumel, some of us ate at a restaurant there.



Brock performed a close up show for our guests one night.







This was my favorite part of the boat. It was called "Serenity."

Almost Arrested

Late last night, we were driving through the sticks of Virginia after our show trying to navigate through the dark, country roads. After getting lost for the third time, we were getting more and more impatient and just wanted to get to the hotel. We turned onto a two lane highway which seemed like it should be about 65 miles per hour road. We had not been on the road a minute when Brock got pulled over.

The police officer came up to the window and I observed him shaking. He was either really cold or very angry. Either way, he was serious when he said that Brock was going 72 in a 45. Then, he told Brock to come sit in his car. I have never had a police officer do that before.

After Brock left, I looked at Andrea, our intern, and said, "I hope he does not get arrested." She thought it was funny how calm I was. She said that I sounded like it would be more of a nuisance than a crisis. After all of the experiences I have had with Brock over the years, I have learned not to freak out. I begin thinking what to do next when something crazy happens (which is rather often). I was already thinking about bailing Brock out and postponing our flights.

Andrea said, "Brock's a nice guy. He probably won't get arrested. However, 20 mph over is considered reckless driving." I looked back to the car and Brock was sitting in the front seat talking with the officer. That was somehow comforting to me. If he was not sitting in the back, he would not get arrested would he? On "Cops," they always put people in the back seat when they haul them off to jail.

After a while, Andrea and I began talking about other things. Then, Brock got out of the car and came back to the driver's seat of our rental car. It's crazy to think that I was relieved that he had a speeding ticket!

Cruise

Right now, we are on a cruise to Cozumel and Key West with some youth leaders and pastors. It's a thank you to some that we have worked with. I will tell you all about it when we get back!

Galveston

My family went to Galveston for a few days.











We went to a festival of lights

Gifts

I saw this ball and chain from Alcatrez and thought of Brock. He collects old locks and chains like Houdini would have used. This was from Alcatrez! I told mom about it and she said to get it for her to give to Brock. I sneaked it in the backseat of the truck the whole way to Texas. It was very heavy. Little did I know, Brock hid an ipad for me in the backseat! I think we were both so worried about the other one finding what we hid that we did not notice what was being hidden from us! It was comical.







Mom accidentally opened the frame that said "Papa" and dad opened the one that said "Nana"

Christmas with my Family

My sister and her family were in from Bolivia for a visit.

This is Maya. I got to meet her for the first time.

She gave great kisses!

She is a little doll

This is Jack with his papa.

They got really close.

Jack also loved mom's ipad. Actually, anything technology...



Me and my sister, Kay

This is Kay, Trent, and Maya

At the Gills for Christmas

There is always plenty of food at the Gills...and it's so good!



Here is Brock's brother, Russ, and his wife, Renetta.

The Gill guys