A Very Handmade Christmas

Merry Christmas! Or, more accurately, Happy Boxing Day! And if you really want to get personal, Happy Half-Birthday to ME!

Christmas this year was wonderfully low-key. My favorite gift by far was the simple gift of my brother and dad removing the exercise machine that took up about a quarter of my room. They also helped me move in my desk and bookshelf, a task I couldn't do by myself.

Other highlights? Anna's gift to Ken and I of matching mini notebooks complete with golden retriever puppies on the cover, an Espresso machine from Ken (who may have purchased it mostly just to use it himself, but hey, I'm not about to complain), a beautiful scarf from Tanzania that my uncle brought back after a mission trip, and the tiniest bottle of Chambord (airplane size!) you've ever seen from Aunt Karen. It's adorable. Aunt Karen has mastered the art of stocking stuffers by stuffing them with the most useful things: chapstick, mini Tide pens, tissues, mini lint rollers, and - since my 21st birthday - wee liquor bottles. It's awesome.

As far as gifts I gave? I'll share a few:

I made a pair of fingerless glove/mittens for Ken




a scarf for Aunt Karen





and another scarf for ...someone. Not telling who, since I haven't given it yet.




So that's that! Also, since I've been home, I'm making full use of my Dad's super fancy digital camera. So that's why I've had all the pictures lately. It's fun! And what a blessing to be home right now -- I've spent all of my time with  my family and it's terrific. I love them very much.

Oh, Hi!

My name is Stef Walker, and I'm a college graduate.

I think?

We got mega snow here in PA this weekend...so much so that I drove home on Friday night and missed my graduation ceremony at Kutztown on Saturday. I was a little bummed about it at first, but after the skies stopped dumping the 11+ inches of snow on my hometown, I got over it. Wanna see what I mean?












Of course, Anna, Ken, and I had to play in it. Anna's flinching because Ken had an entire shovel-full of snow he was about to throw on her.

SO. What's next, you may be asking (you and everyone else I know...sheesh)? I cleaned my room BIG TIME on Saturday, and I'll be doing the same thing to my entire house over the next few months. I'll be substitute teaching and painting and sorting and helping my family move into their new house. I'll be knitting and crocheting like cuh-ray-zay because I acquired an incredible boon of beautiful 100% wool yarn for FREE from a company that went out of buisness in Reading, PA. You want to see that too? Oh, Okay.





Other plans for the next six months? I'll be hanging out with my brother and my grandparents. I'll probably still spend my weekends going places and doing crazy things. And I'll be looking for like, you know, a real job too. So if you hear about any of those anywhere -- let me know.

But other than that, life is excellent! And preparation for the Christmas season is in full swing. Today? Cookie baking and shopping. Good stuff :)

Advent

With all the craziness of the end of college, I haven't spent enough time really digging in to the advent season. Once in a while these little moments of wonder flare up in me, and I think to myself: "I should really be spending more time on all this stuff!" but then I rarely follow through. And the more time I actually do spend thinking about the incarnation of God as man, the crazier and crazier it seems. How magnificent, how ludicrous, how utterly unfathomable that the Lord of All, the Alpha & Omega, the great I AM would squeeze himself into this little, tiny, squishy baby. For me.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord, Emmanuel.

Sick day...

Ugh. I'm home sick today with a cough and some of that "general malaise" that comes with a cold. I don't think it's anything more serious than that, but I figured I'd better rest up instead of spread it around at school to my babies.

Speaking of my babies, they're wonderful. Really, they are. I'm teaching high school kids now, and they're...lots of things. Funny, endearing, ridiculous, lazy, surprising, and sometimes a little crazy. I taught them how to crochet, a task which they picked up (well, most of them) with incredible speed and talent. They're like little iPod cozy and hacky sack factories now!

Yesterday I had the blessing of being able to just sit and chat with one of my students for a class period. I had a prep period and was grading some projects while my co-op worked on some things in another room. One of our students came to the classroom during her study hall to work on her crochet (she's making a beret, and she's pretty much an all-star) and I got to just listen to her tell me about her family, her hopes for the future, and her faith. Like....tada! Here it is! I use the word blessing to describe that, because it really was. I'm so honored that she wanted to share that with me, and furthermore, that I would even get that experience while student teaching is just so amazing to me. It reminds me that teachers are more than people who hand out knowledge. I want to know my students, not just teach them.

So other than that, life is going well. It's moving quickly, too. I'm graduating in 2 weeks from Saturday, my senior art show opens this Sunday, and I'm finishing up the last of my homework this week.

And Thanksgiving? It was wonderful. I much-needed break to spend with my family and start to sort out some of that future stuff. While there's still much uncertainty about where I'm going to be, I think some of the pieces are starting to fall into place. And I'm content with that much.