Christmas unofficially started for my family a month ago when we did our “secret Santa” drawing, something we’ve done since my Dad lost his job last year. This year, I drew Sarah, my sister. I’ll get back to that in a minute. The actual festivities started Christmas Eve. Mom was invited by Jerry Blanchard, our pastor from our Dunfee Missionary Church days, to sing at his current church, Anthony Wayne Church of God in Fort Wayne. The entire family went. Mom sang “O Holy Night” and “Mary, Did You Know?” Everyone loved it. We also got to hear music director Kenny Speakman’s (he was my first youth pastor) teen choir sing. Jerry then gave a short sermon talking about how the Grinch realized there was more to Christmas than just presents. Obviously, Jerry connected that to the birth of Christ. The service ended with communion and a candle lighting. But it wasn’t over for us. Jerry and his wife, Carol (who was my children’s church teacher and my babysitter when I was little), invited us to have treats after everyone had left. They had lots of cookies, drinks, and two tubs of ice cream the size of barrels (I think they were trying to give us diabetes). We visited with them for well over an hour, catching up on what’s been going on in our lives. I hope we get to see them again before next Christmas. Once we were home, we discovered Santa had come early. Our stockings were stuffed with our favorite candies. We also had one present each. We opened them. We each got a new Christmas T-shirt and handmade fleece pajama pants. Mine were mostly Indianapolis Colts logos. I say “mostly” because the elf (i.e. Mom) had run out of that material and had to finish by using some blue fabric that belonged to a wolf design. So, apparently, I’m one-quarter Indian. I’ve been threatening to throw a tomahawk into my sister’s head ever since. As for Christmas morning, I was surprised (and yet not) that half of the family (who shall remain nameless) didn’t get up at a decent hour like they always do. “C’mon! It’s Christmas Day!” I said. I’d have a better chance of waking the dead on Christmas morning. Regardless, we dragged them all out there and opened our presents. My brother Jarod was my “secret Santa.” Here’s what he got me: -“Ratatouie” on DVD -“Kingdom Hearts” for PS2 -A Transformer mini-calendar -Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (which I already had, so I returned it and bought The Four Loves) -Some mechanical pencils -The best one: “Boys Will be Boys” by the Newsboys, which is so old they still sound like an ‘80s hair band! Once that was done, Dad went to get Grandma in Columbia City and brought her over. We had lunch together as a family. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon playing “Apples to Apples,” which I’d gotten Sarah. Grandma had several funny moments playing the game: -Judging some awkward green cards, “Sexy” and “Flirtatious,” back-to-back. -Putting down “Ninjas” while Jarod was judging a green card even though I had been joking the whole game about how it was a trump card with me. I guess subliminal messages do work. We then took a family photo in front of the Christmas tree and Grandma went home. Other presents I received this year: -A Justice League T-shirt -My first ever Transformers T-shirt (that’s surprising, I know) -Lots of money and gift cards, which I used to buy the new “Star Trek” movie, season 7 of “Smallville” when it was on post-Christmas sale, and three movies from my brother Josiah -A new journal So, as you can see, it was a good Christmas. How was your Christmas? What did you get? Coming Soon: “Star Wars: In Concert.” | 
