A Very Stuffy Christmas

Anothered scattered week for me as I try to catch up with everyone.  On Tuesday I said good bye to the Barakel people that had visited and then I left to take one of them home myself.  That lead to a whirlwind trip to St. Johns (through Holt and Haslett) where I was able to see some Barakel friends, and a Michigan Tech friend in the morning.  After that I hustled over to Ann Arbor on Wednesday morning and visited U of M.  I got to see a lot of the campus as well as visiting the tree that Tim Houston broke himself on last week.

I didn't stay there long because I had dinner plans in Battle Creek.  So in one day I started in St. Johns, drove to Ann Arbor, and eventually landed in Battle Creek.  Over this one trip I was able to see people from the most important parts of my life (High School, College, and Barakel).  From December 8th through the 22nd I've put a solid 650 miles on the car, and it'll be another 600 miles by the time I return if everything goes as planned.  While driving I've seen some interesting things, but this house that took up most of two lanes was definitely the most interesting.

I spent the rest of the week in Battle Creek.  I had a blast playing volleyball with some folks from Riverwalk church and my Dad.  They've been a joy every time I've returned from camp, always ready to catch up and hear how the work is going at camp. I also went shopping with my Floridian friends, the Knapp's.  It's neat to see them so much over 2 weeks like this.  While at Barnes and Noble I found a weird book with "tickle fingers" included.  I thought I'd try them on and the Cuddle Monster came out for bit.

Christmas Eve is always busy for me.  I went to my church for a communion service and then attended Midnight Mass at St Philip Catholic Church.  I'm not Catholic, but the service is very a very sobering yet joyful presentation.  They have a small orchestra and choir that always does a great job.  Maybe because we stayed out so late, or maybe because of all my traveling I ended up waking up sick on Christmas morning.  Me and Mom slept in til after 10am and I personally spent most of the day lounging around and resting.

So I'm looking forward to getting rid of this runny nose before the New Year rolls around.  I would honestly rather be sick now instead of at camp where I would want to be working.  Here I can rest most of the day and not feel too bad.  We'll be hosting campers at Camp Barakel in less than 2 weeks and I'm already started to get excited.  It's good God glorifying work that impacts the lives of our campers.