In love with Christmas

I feel like a little kid this week, just vibrating with the anticipation of Christmas. I can't wait to give my friends their handmade gifts. I can't wait to walk the loaves of banana pecan bread over to the neighbors (and yes, I had to cut the bottoms and sides off because they were a little extra crispy but I think they'll still taste good!). I can't wait to get to wrap my presents for Angela and my parents and put them under the tree in Michigan. I can't wait to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with my dad. I can't wait to hug my grandparents. I can't wait to wear a scarf and mittens and freeze. I can't wait to see snow and sit on the couch and stare at the mouse in the matchbook ornament I received for my very first Christmas from my other mother.

Yes, I know it's just another week in the year. But it's exciting for me. I love the idea of people getting together. Of sitting and talking and taking photographs with my cousins. I love the fact that my whole family, all four of us, make the Christmas plunkett we'll eat on Christmas morning. I love the fact that next Thursday I get to go to church and sing Silent Night and hold my candle up high, just like I've been doing my entire life. And that next Sunday we'll sing Joy to the World, all the verses.

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I come from a long line of decorators and bakers and gift givers. And I love that. I absolutely love that.

Advent

Hollywood United Methodist Church puts out an Advent Devotional each year written by members. Today's entry is written by me:

Luke 3:15 – 18

John answered, saying unto them all, “I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh…he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

When I first read my scripture assignment I thought, “Well, that’s not very Christmasy”. And then I let it sit for a while. And then, slowly, I started to realize that no, it’s not Christmasy in the way we usually think of Christmas but it’s exactly what God wants from us this time of year.

John is telling us that Jesus is coming, that he’s just preparing us for what lays ahead: the Holy Spirit and fire. Fire! Can you imagine? Jesus is coming and he’s bringing fire!

What does that mean to you? What do you think you should do to celebrate that Spirit and fire this advent season? To me, it means I need to be excited. I need to engage more and complain less. I need to not worry that most of my extended family has given up the traditional gift giving protocol and focus on doing more for those I love with what I have.

So I’m going to listen carefully to John: Jesus is coming. He’ll be here and gone (at least in the Christmas season ideal) before I know it. So I’m going to spend time with friends instead of worrying that I can’t give them shiny new trinkets and packages. I’m going to spoil my parents rotten with homemade gifts and goodies and one-on-one time. I’m not going to fret about what to get my grandparents who don’t need or want anything and instead sit with them and talk, and more importantly, listen.

This Christmas season I’m going to listen to John, I’m going to trust that he’s preparing me to enjoy this holiday of worship and I’m going to do my best to do just that. Even if it looks a little different than it has in the past. Baptism makes us new and I’m going to embrace the newness that this holiday season is laying in front of me.

My day in pictures

Yesterday Angela came home from work, where she teaches art to middle school students, and asked me what I did all day. So I showed her the dining room table where I'd set up my desk. (It has become winter in Los Angeles and the rain had set in so I needed to move closer to the lone heating vent in the house.) She was intrigued by my colored highlighters and all the little charts I'd constructed.

What I'd been doing yesterday, and what I continued today and will hopefully finish tomorrow is rewriting my Bones spec script. I had a solid second draft that needed to be put through the paces. Basically I needed to know if it met some of the television writing "rules" I'd been taught, if my plot was believable and if my "B" story and "C" story got enough screen time. So I made a big four-page outline. Then I made a plot diagram. Then I made a color chart to determine visually where I needed to put more "story". These are all tricks of the trade I've learned from classes and books and morphed into my own way of doing things. I'm a writer who needs to see things written out, sometimes it just gets to be too much in my own head so I write it down.

So here's a few snapshots of my work from the past two days. I once read or heard someone say we should take pictures not just of the special occasions and the big moments in life but also of the every day, of our homes and our regular lives. So here's my work day, here's what a television show looks like long before you ever see it in your living room: