Happy Christmas!

Shazam!
Hey! Unto you a child is born!

~Gladys Herdman, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

birthday special

Sharon gave me fancy muffin liners (parchment paper squares) for my birthday.

Of course I had to try them out, and they made my banana oat muffins look extra fancy!

{delectable} Orange Chocolate Scones

I discovered this incredible recipe last winter when hunting for something special to bake for a bridal tea...

These scones are unforgettable,

and I highly recommend them for an extraordinary treat.

I recently had leftover cream (I never buy cream) and chose to spend it by remaking this recipe.

The end product was amazing, just as I remembered from last year.

--Following best scone technique and using this recipe for a guide...

You won't be disappointed.

birthday fun

these little bears even played a Christmas song for us :)

The coworks Pam and Vicky invited me for a spontaneous hangout the evening of my birthday last week! We cozied up by the Christmas tree, drank tea (Christmas in Paris... oolala), ate ice cream smothered in chocolate, and savored each other's company. 

It's pretty special to have coworkers who are also friends!

Christmas Cupcakes

These mini cupcakes are about as fussy as I get when it comes to creating treats. I bought special ingredients, borrowed a hand mixer, and spent multiple days planning and creating.

Although they didn't turn out looking like the photos of the original recipe,

they still received rave reviews.

It's hard to go wrong with drizzled chocolate as a finishing touch.

St. Nicholas Day

While we were nibbling festive treats, and listening to stories of Christmas celebrations around the world, St Nicholas came to our Christmas tea party and stuffed our shoes with goodies last Thursday evening!

Oh what fun!

First Snow Day Cinnamon Rolls 2018

Two weeks ago we had our first (and rather a freak) snowstorm of the season in central Pennsylvania.

I took advantage of the perfect cinnamon-roll-baking weather while working from the sofa and watching the snow pile up out the window. ooolala.

Welcome back, snow season!

next-gen Boom-o

The Christmas we discovered Boom-o, Brian challenged Aunt Sandy to a multi-round afternoon of the game filled with hoots and hollers of laughter.

More recently, nephew Austin has been the one flipping bombs and challenging the aunts to the game at the dining room table.

Two are better than one,

because they can dink tea together.

on Transition

Four years ago I moved from Zambia to Pennsylvania. It was a time of major transition. This season, as I'm reflecting on that transition, I thought I'd share an essay I drafted a while back about processing transition after a positive ministry experience.

You're entering or exiting an intense period when you've been investing your life in something big (maybe a short term missions trip, maybe moving far away, maybe returning from several years of living across the ocean), and now... everything is changing. You're in transition, and it's worthwhile to spend some time thinking about how you're going to process the change to a new normal, whatever that looks like.

I was recently reminded of some transition pointers I've gleaned and practiced over the past ten years. Below are several things which have helped me process transition in a healthy way and learn to thrive in new experiences. Really, life is a giant series of varying levels of transitions as we're all getting older and circumstances beyond our control are always changing, so the sooner we learn to deal with transition in a healthy manner, the more satisfied and fulfilled we will be.

1. Choose something/s to anticipate
We're taught to enjoy where we are at this moment and to live in the present, and this is good. However, it is also good to anticipate the future. When I am in transition, I choose things to anticipate. For example, there were lots of things I wasn't looking forward to about moving to Pennsylvania (it was easy to make that list!), and there were lots of things I wasn't looking forward to leaving in Zambia, however, there were also things I was looking forward to about living in the States-- like hot showers, speedy and affordable internet connections, having an unlimited phone plan, spending Christmas at home, and eating favorite foods like berries and ice cream. In times of transition, it's important not to get so caught up in the past and present that we forget the future. Anticipation can assist in protecting against depression and hopelessness during transition, especially when leaving a place or situation you love.

2. Before you return to/arrive in your home/new location, prep your answers to the question, "How was your time _________?" Be ready with responses: one sentence, elevator, five minutes, thirty minutes, etc.
You'll likely be asked the classic transition question more times that you can count: "How was ________? [fill in the blank: your summer, your trip, Africa...]." You need lots of answers. You need a one-sentence answer: "It was great!" an elevator answer (30 seconds/a few sentences), a short answer: "It was so challenging, but very rewarding. One of my favorite experiences was...", and on and on. You'll likely not ever need a multi-hour answer... though I may or may not have provided one of those before... {Bless my mom, who has let me ramble on and on and on to her for multi hours when I have been in transition.}

The more experience you have with answering transition questions, the better you will be at gauging your audience and knowing how interested they are in your reply to their answer. Were they just asking you to be polite, or do they really want to hear an amazing story of how you saw God at work during your ministry context?

Sometimes your closest friends and family really, really do care, but don't know how to deal with all of the stuff you're spouting out about your experience. Often, they want to listen, and sometimes they will "get you." But if they don't, it's okay. Don't take it personally. They're probably really happy to have you back, and may not understand you are still processing things from your time away. You've returned from a deep and meaningful life experience, and part of processing that experience is something very personal. Chances are, you'll have some close friends and family who will want to walk with you through this time of processing your transition, but it's okay if they're not ready to listen to everything you learned, or care about all of the hard stuff you faced while you were gone! Your ultimate friend and care-er is Jesus, who was with you in all the experiences you had, and who is still with you now.

3. Say good good-byes
Saying good-bye is healthy and important (and often hard!). The act of physically-- even verbally-- saying good-bye is a key in processing transition. It allows emotional release and space for the new things you must embrace. Say good-bye to what and/or whoever you need to; this will not be the same for everyone. For me, it's helpful to think through things I have really enjoyed and things I will especially miss when I leave a place or season. Then, I make a plan for saying good-bye to special people/places/things. It may be as simple as writing a list of such items and acknowledging that I'm leaving them. Or, it may actually mean that I go to a particular place and say good-bye to something tangible (a person or a thing). Don't feel stupid or silly about what you say good-bye to. No one else needs to hear you actually saying "good-bye" to your favorite little corner store, or the tree you used to pass every day on your way to work...

Identify what matters to you, and say good-bye to those things that are meaningful to you in ways that are meaningful to you. I like to think of Goodnight Moon when I think of good-byes: say good-bye to the old lady if she's special to you, say good-bye to mittens and a comb and a brush if you will miss them when you leave, say good-bye to the cow jumping over the moon if you hold a special connection with it... It's all okay.

4. Seek out healthy ways to process and people who can help you do that
As I prepared to move back to the States after two years in Zambia, I realized I needed help. This was a major life change, and I didn't know how to deal with the many tough realities I had faced in Zambia plus integrate back into my home culture... which included a new job, a new place to live, a new church, a new grocery store, etc. I asked for help.

I read books, attended a debrief and renewal retreat, and met with people who allowed me to verbally process painful and challenging experiences. The mission provided someone to listen to me and pray with me... and I used more than a few hours of her available ear-time. Blessings to those who assist us in our processing.

Another way to process is to allow yourself to remember, and (if possible) to keep in touch with friends from your time away. For me, looking at pictures is a helpful way to process. I remember the people, the places, the food, the views, the smells, the way I felt. I remember good things, and give thanks. I remember hard things, and am glad they're in the past. I remember special people, and look forward to the next time we will be together.

5. Allow yourself to grieve
It's okay to be sad, and it's healthy to acknowledge your emotions, even when they're not sunny. Saying good-byes can be really challenging, and processing change takes time. Sadness might surprise you by showing up some day when you least expect it. It's okay. You can be sad about what you've left behind, and things you miss. One of the ways I have processed grief in transition is to connect with someone who also shared that same experience or love with me. For example, I might text my former teammate one day just to say, "I've been missing Zambia this week. So many good memories..."

Bonus: Give yourself grace / Be patient with yourself
This is the best advice I received in my transition from Zambia to Pennsylvania. It's advice from a friend, a seasoned cross-cultural worker who has moved multiple times back and forth across the ocean. It's also advice that's especially meaningful for someone with my personality. I'm a critic of myself, and set high standards I require myself to attain and sustain. Transition isn't the time for unrealistic expectations. It's a time for personal grace. This means that when I'm in transition, I recognize some of my personal goals (like how often I work out) may not be met, and that's okay for a season.

The first winter I lived in Pennsylvania, I cried one dark and cold night after work when I stopped at a gas station and couldn't figure out how to fill my tank after multiple failed attempts and an unhelpful sales clerk... I felt like I'd already given myself more than enough grace for the transition at hand... and yet I still needed more! When I arrived in Pennsylvania, I didn't know where I was going to live. I didn't have a car. I didn't even know how to get to my office without directions. But, God provided a house, a car, and friends who happily showed me the best routes to drive to the office. It just took some extra personal grace to move through so many small challenges all at once. Major transition doesn't last forever, and the normal transitions of life get easier to manage with practice...

extra brisk

Libby and I went for breakfast at Cafe Zinc the other morning, and then for a quick walk at Dow Gardens-- expedited by the fact our noses were freezing in the extra brisk morning air.

Cyrus

snugly little buddy

the new neph

Baby Cyrus arrived three weeks before his due date, in plenty of time for my previously booked Auntie Visit this month. Can't wait to meet this little buddy and hang out with the rest of the fam.

Celebrating Sharon

Sharon turned a quarter of a century yesterday!

Last Saturday we celebrated by hiking White Rocks and then going out for brunch.

I also may or may not have covered the table with 25 purple and yellow packages tied up with ribbon to greet her yesterday morning before work.

Sharing life with Sharon is one of my current life highlights :).

Heritage

sorry... definitely should have taken the picture without plastic wrap

Since it's October, which is family reunion month, I celebrated my heritage last week by baking Great Grandma's Molasses Cookies to share at the office for Tuesday break. The few coworkers who were not on diets and enjoy molasses (you see why I say few) gave me rave reviews on the excellence of the cookies. I'm pretty sure great grandma never had any idea where her great grandchildren would wind up or that some of us would still be baking her recipes which grandma wrote down and passed along to us (since, from what I hear, great grandma didn't really need fancy recipes with exact and standard measurements). Who knows if my cookies tasted just like hers... because I did use measurements for mine, and because we all have unique ways of creating the same recipes even when using the same ingredients... but there's nothing to remind me of my heritage quite like a giant classic cookie (molasses or sugar with nutmeg). 

I guess I have a delicious heritage :).

Replacement

When the bottom of my backpack recently sprouted large holes that grew with each walk to the office (thankfully I realized the deterioration before my laptop slipped to the pavement!), I knew it was time for an upgrade. I'm quite pleased with my new, berry colored High Sierra. I've never before owned a High Sierra pack, but based on my limited experience, I would highly recommend a backpack just like mine if you need a new one. It has a perfect place for everything... and then some! 

Getting a new backpack is like experiencing the best part of school without any of the work involved in actually going to school!

vacay day

 

Vicky, Pam, and I had a fun vacay afternoon in Florida after our conference wrapped up.

When we picked up the rental car, the gal at the counter recommended we check out the nationally famous Gideon's Bakehouse.

We did (of course).

Wow those cookies are huge!

(and, no, we definitely didn't eat them all in one sitting)

In keeping with Julie/Vicky holiday tradition, we also did some taste-testing at Kelly's Homemade Ice Cream shop. Let me just say: Kelly is doing an amazing thing with pistachios, cream, and sugar. YUM.

We wandered over to Mt. Dora, which is a super cute little town I'd actually visited a couple years ago. This time, we visited the Spice & Tea Exchange, and also a specialty shoppe filled with local artisan crafts and creations. I fell in love with the hand stamped vintage silverware (so beautiful, unique, and fun), but I didn't wind up bringing any home with me-- just a few inspirational pictures.

After dark, Vicky and I wandered the town of Celebration, which has an interesting history (established in 1994), and is engineered for those who want to experience the world as pedestrians.

In the airport on the way home, I bought a thirty-two cent cup of hot water to make this buenos everything cuppa.

oolala.

Until next time, Florida...

Florida Orchid

After attending a work conference in Florida recently, Pam, Vicky, and I booked a personal day for exploration. We discovered this lovely orchid while visiting a small gardens (which was also brimming with butterflies... and a few snakes!).

friends

so many good times with so many special people

!!!

Necessities

Complete travel pack:

water

Clif bar

mini orange

hand sanitizer

What else would one need? 

[besides maybe dark chocolate and toilet paper]

rememberings

mini ranges and gas cookers which require a match/flame to light

During my recent visit to Southern Africa, I kept noticing little every-day details which I forgot about (or mainly have no reason to typically consider/remember in the States). It was fun to see so many familiar bits and pieces of "normal" from my Zambian life.

eggs come in trays and are stored on the kitchen counter

unique and "beautiful" food warmers-- insulated to keep nshima and relishes hot

fave brand of juice ever
(South African Ceres, 100% juice)
Whispers of Summer is a delicious blend of passion fruit, mango, and orange juices.

Sunlight dish soap-- forgot that smell!

who wants some "desiccated" coconut?!
I always found this adjective for tiny bits of coconut amusing.

Eet-Sum-Mor  expat biscuits :)
(a very nice shortbread biscuit-- slightly more expensive than most other biscuits,
but much more tasty than many other biscuits as well)