christmas eve. those two words alone retrieve countless memories of years past...MANY years past, it seems. i know you'll laugh, i have to keep reminding myself that i'm only twenty as i attend the bfa christmas concert and feel ANCIENT, or as i visit blauen, remembering so many things, only to realize that those memories date back over five years. five years. does that seem long to you? it seems to have passed in an instant, in the blink of an eye. but then, sometimes, it seems an eternity. sometimes, like last night when i was wrapping a few gifts, i just let my mind go. i think and remember and my mind flashes from memory to memory to memory, and it's really...amazing. so much! i've experienced so much! and we all have, when you think of each moment as its own experience. some of them just stick out more than others.

okay, switching gears. i'm pretty sure i could fill a book with quotes from my family. of course, any of the sonne guys who lived here my parents' first year will know that my dad's are above and beyond the ridiculous. remember all of those dorm shirt ideas? he had a new "Top 10" (top 10 inane? top 10 torturous?) every night. Anyway...a few from our trip to Freiburg yesterday. you can probably guess who said them:

"If the rooster don't crow, ain't no one gettin' up!"

"If you can't sing sweet, don't sing sour."

merry christmas, world. "merry christmas, darling." don't you love that song? if you don't know that song, then go, NOW, buy a carpenters christmas cd, and bask in the rich glory of karen's vocals.

i am BACK HOME. yes, that's right. and it snowed yesterday for somewhere around twenty-four hours. i still haven't even seen the hoch blauen tower, that's how the weather has been. beautiful. today my family is going to freiburg to see the christmas market, and hopefully locate a small jewelry shop that i found once, in eleventh grade.

this trip home is almost the most normal, i think. i've felt more of a connection with bfa or with people here on other trips home. maybe this sounds sad, but i feel the most disconnected on this trip. but that's okay! it means that i get to spend more time with my family, and i don't have that strange feeling of "wow, it feels like i never left." no, i definitely left. and that's fine. =]

i leave today! i leave today! i leave today!

A Thought for Christmas

Do you know what would have happened
If it had been Three Wise Women
Instead of Three Wise Men?

They would have asked directions,
Arrived on time,
Helped deliver the baby,
Cleaned the stable,
Made a casserole,
Brought practical gifts, and there
would be Peace on Earth.

chicago in the winter is SO beautiful. and so is H&M.

i'm so tired. and i can't sleep.

Last night was so good. Sophia and I were able to play hostess for the Gulfport group. We really need a nickname, guys. We introduced the guys and Tiffany to While You Were Sleeping -- just about the best two hour investment one could possibly make. Seriously. It was a good time. (this pic isn't actually from that night, and it's only half of our group, but whatever. it fits the theme of this post.)

SPEAKING OF GULFPORT AND OTHER COOL THINGS, Tiffany and I definitely made the cover of The Record, thanks to Mary's excellent photography skills. Sorry if I've told all of my friends twice already, but dang it, after two and a half years of Record anonymity, I'll hang on to this for all it's worth.

On a serious note, the ramifications of our trip down south have been really interesting. I've talk to many people then, including people who went to other sites, and the topic of community seems to be a theme. I know that I, for one, experienced community in the way it was meant to be when I went to Gulfport. Attending that incredibly thankful church, and spending time with 20 others in service, provided some of the most genuine fellowship I've had in a while. It was refreshing, "joy-replenishing" (chuck!), and kind of enlightening of my life back here at Wheaton. And it's as if, by experiencing this community, I feel more accutely the lack of community that I've always sort of felt here. Community in its truest sense. I have friends. We do fun things. I attend church. We talk about God. But community, guys. Community. In its richest sense, community seems to be a combination of personal relationships that are capable of being both lighthearted and serious, in the context of Christ as the head of the body and ourselves as that body. How many groups of friends am I part of that have fun, and are serious, and take time to actively serve God, all the while giving him glory? I suppose that it helped that our group went south in order to perform acts of service; so that was a kind of a given aspect of the community. But I hope that, somehow, that aspect doesn't end just because we're back in Wheaton.

And how do we foster that sense of community? How do we corporately serve God and invest in each other and make sure that we don't just consistently get together for a good laugh but nothing else? Kevin reminded me that it means being purposeful, which is difficult to do. It IS difficult to do. Especially with so much going on here. Time seems to slip away. I feel that as I realize that first semester is already finished. But that's wrong, too -- there are still twelve days until I leave. Twelve days to live and encourage and serve and rest in God!! See, I don't think that I even understand what it is that I'm saying. I forget from one minute to the next.

the thanksgiving trip was amazing. i wish that i could explain why. why was it such a privilege to witness such incredible devastation? the loss was indescribable. motivating. our team worked ourselves silly. i don't know which was more piercing -- feeling the gratitude of those we helped, or feeling my own incapability to affect change that corresponded with the magnitude of the loss.

can i just testify to the blessings of the Lord? i wound up in the best team ever -- encouraging, deep, hilarious. we clicked. am i looking back on the week with rose colored glasses? i don't think so. i mean, heck yeah, the work was sometimes gross. i've lived in a third world country, and yet i saw the biggest cockroach of my life last week. NOT a fan of cockroaches. but i felt connected to this group in a way that i haven't necessarily felt connected to another group at wheaton thus far. we have so many memories and inside jokes now, and we were all totally lonely when we woke up sunday morning back in our rooms and apartments! i can't wait for our first friday morning breakfast reunion. profs, if you've connected to the wide world of xanga, you're totally invited. we think you're cool, mr. and mrs. chicago. i love maried's Best Girl Mix Ever. i'm sad that ted can't make the breakfasts because of class...but let's be honest, would he be able to wake up that early anyway? =]

okay, an unmerciful amount of homework awaits. character building, right, chuck? (i love how i'm just assuming that the xanga users from the trip are actually reading this.)

i leave in eight hours. i am so stoked. and i have not used that word for a very long time.

mississippi, here i come. give me back my southern accent.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR RACHEL, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

it's her 18th, everyone. you should all wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY here.