Life on Fast Forward

The Day of the Doctor

Saturday, November 23, was a very special day. It was the 50th anniversary of the BBC show, Doctor Who. Yes, indeed, and I will admit to being a Whovian. I enjoyed seeing the special 50th anniversary episode both on Saturday afternoon - I was house-sitting so I actually had cable! - and on Monday evening in a movie theater IN 3-D with a friend. I promise I try to do lots of actually useful stuff with my life.

Thanksgiving at Dowling Park

At the end of November, I was finally able to go up to visit my grandparents in Florida - the snowbirds have arrived down south! When I'm there, I'm the chef and the chauffeur and the IT guy and the Christmas decorator. 

We ate Thanksgiving dinner in the dining hall with relatives, but I there were some traditional family holiday foods that I just couldn't live without. Behold a delicious slice of Dutch Crumb Apple Pie a la mode. Trust me, once you've had this pie, a normal pie crust on top will never satisfy. 

And if you desire a more tart experience for your taste buds, then you might be interested in this Cranberry Apricot Lattice Pie. This family favorite can be found on pages 288-289 of The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook. And lucky for you, these pages are available on Google Books for free.

Santa's Marketing Elves

And then, last week, Christmas arrived in grand style. Wycliffe had a building-wide Christmas decorating competition. I work with a bunch of artistic, creative people. Together we decided, go big or go home. Behold the wonder of Santa's Marketing Workshop. 

The Elves have a countdown to Christmas, a live feed to Santa's reindeer, a fire and stockings with their names on them, snow falling on evergreen trees, lots of Christmas lights, lots of paper chains, 6 Christmas trees, a photo booth, Christmas cookies, hats, signs, and presents.

Peppermint "Peppy" Sugarplum is head of Santa's Letter Reading and Response department. She loves reading all the letters that children all over the world write to Santa, even those that are skeptical of his existence.

Merry Christmas!

Biking, Baking, Beach Time, Traveling

This is a two-week post, since I didn't post last week. Let's see...what's newsworthy? Well, here are some highlights:

I bought a bicycle. This fact in itself makes me super happy because I've been saying that I want to buy a bike since January. Now that I live in Florida, it's perfect that I waited until the fall to get a bike because it's way too hot to go bike riding here during the summer and now I will be able to use it all winter long. True confessions: I hate running. I don't care what you say, running is a form of torture. I love being outside and getting exercise, though, so now I can do that on my bike. And there are even several bike trails in Orlando so I can go use those. Life is good. 

When one of my coworkers left our department in September to go to grad school, her absence made everyone sad for several reasons. One of those reasons is that she's an awesome person. Another reason was that every Thursday she would bring in cupcakes or some other delicious form of baked sugar so that we could have a Sweet Thursday. Luckily, I like baking for people - and it's always better to know that other people will be there to help eat the deliciousness - so I've taken up the continuation of Sweet Thursdays upon myself.

So far I've made beaver houses (you might know them better as no-bake cookies), chocolate covered strawberries, white chocolate chip banana muffins, and pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting. Tomorrow's treat is brownies, half of which have coconut. I'll put a picture up if I make anything particularly interesting looking - then you can all drool and wish you worked with me.

Last weekend my church had their young adult retreat at a hotel in Cocoa Beach. The retreat was an awesome time on many levels, particularly on the levels of 'getting to know other people' and 'God being SUPER awesome like he always is.' The theme verse of the weekend was Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Interestingly, this was the theme verse for New England Camp Cedarbrook my last summer working there. What if followers of Christ actually took time to think about what this verse means and intentionally lived with it in mind each day?

One thing I noticed this weekend is that, in my mind, a retreat equals cabins, woods, lake, hills, and probably cooler weather. Not so in Florida. Here a retreat is hotel, sand, beach, flat, and sunny blue sky days. Not bad, just different.

And to close out with a super happy thought, in about 36 hours I will be Southern California with my mother and my youngest sister! Why? you might ask. Because I have the best job ever. A Wycliffe missionary couple, John and Bonnie Nystrom, who worked in Papua New Guinea, wrote a book called Sleeping Coconuts, and I'm going to be traveling with them around SoCal next week selling books while they speak at different college and church events as part of a book tour.

When I found out that I might be going on this trip, I called my lovely sister, who is a freshman at Biola (one of the colleges the Nystroms are speaking at), to ask her what she was doing the last weekend in October, she said, 'Oh, that's the weekend Mom's coming out to visit me.' Mini family reunion coming up!

Because of this trip, it is possible that I might not write a blog post next week - we'll see. I'm sure a post-California post will have lots of good stories, though. 

P.S. In case you were wondering, yes, I've been to California once before, but I was only six years old. I went with my paternal grandparents to visit my aunt, her husband, and my baby cousin. We stayed in a time share in San Diego. Mostly what I remember is my uncle teaching me how to do handstands in a pool. And having a tea party with my aunt and my grandmother.

Loony, I've a feeling we're not in New England anymore

You might think moving from Massachusetts to Florida wouldn't involve much culture shock because they are both part of the United States. Mostly this line of thinking is correct, but there have definitely been moments when I've thought to myself, "Oh Bethany, you are not in the Northeast anymore."

Here are some of the sights and experiences that have brought on these moments:

• Spanish Moss and Palm Trees are everywhere.
• Bird of Paradise grows right outside my front door.
• Roadkill I've seen several times is...an armadillo.
• When driving, watch out for the Sandhill Cranes, not moose.
• The ocean water is warm! Quite pleasant, but the natives think it is quite cold.
• U-turns are common - on major roads. People make u-turns all the time. We just don't drive that way in Massachusetts.
• Stores and malls are everywhere. The number of stores and restaurants I drive past every day is positively overwhelming. Especially after spending several years at Houghton College.
• There's a Christian music radio station. Oh wait, there are two! (Shhhh, don't overwhelm the girl by telling her that there are even more...)

So, I'm adjusting.

I spent the weekend with a Houghton friend and her family. They just moved down here last month from Pennsylvania, so we were able to compare notes. Among other fun-ness, we created this gem:

Chickens, beware!