Merry Christmas from the Brittons 2016

Merry Christmas! How are you? I hope you're looking forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus and thoroughly enjoying the Advent season.

Let me get you caught up with the Brittons.

We did NOT move this year! Yay! We're still living in Bloomsburg, PA. While summer is mild and fall is gorgeous, we're not excited about the coming winter months. This year promises to be cold and snowy. But, since Allen and Davis have joined the ski club at school, they're willing to deal with it.

We're already praying for safety during those Wednesday afternoon ski trips because we've used up our injury quota for years to come. Last year during football season, Allen re-injured his shoulder but continued playing and even played a season of basketball. Near the end of basketball, he asked if we could get his shoulder checked out. Turns out he had a “slap tear” or torn labrum. His doctor recommended physical therapy instead of surgery which would have included 6 months of rehab. So, spring found him at our physical therapist once a week at 6am. He worked hard, rarely has pain in that shoulder now and played a great season of football this fall.

In the 5^th game of our football season this school year, Davis severely sprained his ankle. He couldn't walk off the field and the team trainer quickly called an orthopedic doctor, who's also a football player's dad, from the stands to the sideline. Davis was out for the next 3 games, became good friends with the team trainer because of all the hours spent icing, taping and rehabbing that ankle and now does exercises every day during his chemistry class in order to strengthen his joint.

Both boys attended Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week this summer where they, along with about 500 other high school students, tried their hand at running a company. They learned about marketing and stocks and the costs of running a business. They both enjoyed it but Davis' interest in business as a profession seemed to be particularly peaked.

Both boys started on the varsity football team, Allen at free safety and holder, Davis at defensive end and left tackle. They're considering wallpapering their rooms with all the college letters they're receiving and they're enjoying the newfound freedom of driving themselves around town in their Nissan Altima, or the Vroom Vroom Car as Bobby likes to call it. Though neither is quite sure where they want to attend college or what they want to major in, they're learning to face the future and all it's uncertainties quite bravely. They are just juniors, after all, they have some time, and we're quite proud of them.

The "Vroom Vroom" Car

Allen is taking another AP history class and planning a trip to Germany, Austria and Switzerland (and Lichtenstein, says Allen, everyone forgets Lichtenstein!) in the spring with the German Club. He worked at the Bloomsburg Fair in September. Friends of ours from church hired him for their apple dumpling stand which their family has run for years. Allen worked about 60 hours hauling drums of ice cream, taking customer orders and scooping Penn State ice cream (that's a real thing for those of you non-Pennsylvanians!).

Davis also planned on working at the fair, but since his ankle injury was the Friday before he was to begin, he had to sit this year out. This summer Davis played a lot of golf with a patient friend who's on the golf team at school. He also attended a mission trip with our church youth group to Ocean City, MD. There, they helped serve meals to international students, shared the Gospel on the boardwalk and participated in Bible studies with a local church. He recently got his braces off which makes him happy and Allen irritated in equal measure. Allen gets his braces off on February 2^nd. We're all counting the days.

Davis' Braces

At Thanksgiving, Bobby fulfilled a bucket-list dream of his by taking us to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. We spent a long weekend wandering around the Hall of Fame, reading inspirational stories, looking at team memorabilia, listening to famous clips of baseball games and watching video of incredible plays. We stayed in a cozy and comfy cabin just outside town, enjoyed the cute shops in Cooperstown and the beauty of Lake Otsego.

Bobby also really stepped out of his comfort zone when he reluctantly agreed to be the president of our high school football booster club. He did a great job and has been asked by more than one person to take on the job for another year. I'm not sure he'll do it again, but I'm so proud of him for all his hard work. I didn't realize the booster club presidency came with first lady responsibilities, but alas, it did. I ended up selling ads for the weekly football program and helping to organize senior night. It was fun to be involved, help out and get to know people better.

This year I hosted a weekly Bible study at our house and attended Moms in Prayer meetings to pray for Central Columbia schools. I was lucky to be able to make a trip back to Alabama in March to celebrate my Grandmama's 95^th birthday! And, I grudgingly had my second knee replacement in 2 years. This time my right knee needed to be replaced and the same doctor who did my left one in May 2015 did this one, too. I found this surgery harder to recover from, but am happy to report that all's well now. As my doctors continue to joke, luckily, I only have 2 knees (har har), so hopefully I'm done with major surgeries for a long while.

As you can tell from this blog, I continue to write fairly regularly and appreciate the outlet it offers. Thanks for indulging us and reading this letter here instead of receiving it in the mail. Doing our part to save the rainforests, I suppose.

Allen in the foreground, Davis with the Auburn hat

May you find a chance this Christmas to slow down, reflect on your blessings and plan for the coming year. May you feel the presence of the Almighty God down to your bones, may you swim in His love and revel in His grace. May your time in the glow of the Lord Jesus change you, grow you, and set you free to live the life you've so freely been given.

Gather 'round ye children, come

Listen to the old, old story

Of the pow'r of Death undone

By an infant born of glory

Son of God, Son of Man

Gather 'round remember now

How creation held its breath

How it let out a sigh

And it filled up the sky with the angels

Son of God, Son of Man

So, sing out with joy

for the brave little boy

Who was God,

but He made Himself nothing

He gave up His pride

and He came here to die like a man.

“Gather 'Round, Ye Children Come”

• from Andrew Peterson Presents Behold the Lamb of God

Merriest of Christmases to you, dear friend!

Amy, Bobby, Allen and Davis Britton

 

Thanksgiving


The dictionary defines Thanksgiving Day as “a day appointed for giving thanks for divine goodness.” While it strikes me as amazing that the dictionary still acknowledges the divine and not just a day to eat as much turkey and dressing as possible, I'm thankful that it does. I'm glad it's still tradition to count your blessings and express gratitude. And, I hope everyone makes that part of their Thanksgiving ritual, a time when they can openly number the goodness in their lives and the One responsible.


While we've had lots of traditional Thanksgivings with a jumble of family and we've eaten cranberry sauce from a can, our last several have been unconventional. While they've been fun, they haven't looked exactly like I think they're supposed to.


Beginning about 5 years ago, we decided that we couldn't go back to Alabama for Christmas AND for Thanksgiving. So, we've opted to stay close to home in November. One of the first times we tried this we were living in Nebraska. We were so new to the area that I still regularly got lost, we were living in a hotel and we hadn't yet found a home to rent . So, we decided to visit my Aunt Sally and Uncle Gary in Minnesota.


We spent a long weekend cooking and eating, of course, but we also played cards for hours, laughed at stories of Aunt Sally and my dad growing up and bought a huge bag of popcorn that we tried to polish off during the Auburn – Alabama game. We were comfortable and welcomed and wanted. Just how I want to feel when I step into someone else's home and just how I want others to feel when they step into mine.


The next two Thanksgivings we still lived in Nebraska, but we spent both at the home of Diane and Dallas McKellips. We were good friends with them, their kids and grandkids from church. We ate dinner at tables scattered throughout their family room and kitchen, then spent the rest of the afternoon playing card games that I never quite got the hang of. It was fun and delicious and we truly felt like part of their family. When I asked Diane what I could bring she told me to just bring whatever made it feel like Thanksgiving to us. That would have been my grandmother's cornbread dressing which is lots and lots of trouble. So, Allen decided he couldn't live without my mom's strawberry and pineapple jello “salad” instead.

Thanks Wikipedia!

 
We called my mom for the “recipe” which goes something like this: Get two small boxes or one large box of strawberry jello, not the sugar free kind. Just make the jello like the package says, but don't add quite as much water as they tell you to. Let it sit in the refrigerator until it starts to “jell”. But, not too long. Then, stir in a can of crushed pineapple, drained, and some frozen strawberries that you've thawed. But, don't put all the can of pineapple in if it looks like too much and you may need to cut the strawberries. Stir it around and put it back in the fridge and hope it sets up.


If you're smirking or laughing about now, you should ask my mom for her biscuit or cornbread “recipes.”


Grandmom's strawberry pineapple jello “salad” sat happily on the McKellip's counter where Allen ate about half of the 9x13 pan. That dish continues to make annual appearances on our Thanksgiving table where it's about the only “traditional” thing we have, and, yes, I know it's not strictly “traditional.”


Now that I'm thinking about recipes, I have to tell you this. On our first Thanksgiving living in Austria, I decided I would bless all our new missionary friends with my grandmother's cornbread dressing. So, I placed a very expensive long-distance call for her recipe and moral support. I had no idea (no idea!) that you had to MAKE cornbread and biscuits BEFORE you even mix it all up and bake it again. No idea. I've had this dressing for most of the Thanksgivings and Christmases in my life. It's what the holidays look and taste and smell like to me. But, now I usually just wait for the trip south to eat Grandmama's. It doesn't taste quite the same if she's not sitting nearby anyway.


Our last two Thanksgivings have been even more unorthodox. Last year, we took a trip to Washington DC where we ate our Thanksgiving lunch at the Museum of the American Indian. I had a “taco” which consisted of ground beef on top of some sort of round bread. Bobby had corn on the cob with gigantic kernels of corn, and at least one of our boys had a hamburger. Just like the first Thanksgiving, right?


That evening, after walking miles and visiting most of the monuments on the National Mall, we drug ourselves back to our condo near the Capitol. We made Grandmom's strawberry pineapple jello “salad” to eat with turkey and fancy cheese sandwiches. Then, we gathered at a tiny table beneath a mural of the White House to eat and give thanks and rest our tired feet.

Cooperstown, NY

 Last week, we spent Thanksgiving in Cooperstown, NY. We planned to see the Baseball Hall of Fame and wander around a cute town. Thanksgiving Day we slept in at home, ate a big breakfast (we did have biscuits, but I did NOT call my mom for her recipe) and packed peanut butter sandwiches for the road. We ate sandwiches and tiny bags of chips in the van knowing that for dinner we would again have “our” Thanksgiving tradition of fancy turkey sandwiches, this time with swiss cheese and cranberry chutney and, of course, Grandmom's strawberry pineapple jello “salad”. We ate at a table in a cabin with the Dallas Cowboys on TV in the background.


While our Thanksgivings aren't always “traditional”, there is always much to be thankful for. We've had adventures and laughter and fun. We've been blessed and hopefully blessed others in the process. What I hope my kids will remember and what I want to remember too is that there's great joy in sinking into whatever the holidays may look like for you. For us that means living too far away to get home easily, for you that may mean making the rounds to three Thanksgiving dinners at three different homes. But, for all of us, taking a minute to thank the “divine” for family, friends and good fortune is a beautiful practice.


Ann Voskamp in her book One Thousand Gifts encourages us to number those blessings we have in life, those gifts small or huge, those things that take our breath away or make us sigh. I've kept a “thankfulness notebook” for several years now. While I don't write in it every day, I do often pick it up to write new blessings or reminisce over those I've already counted.


A few gifts in my notebook are candles that smell really good, $29 basketball shoes, and Facebook birthday messages. I've included bowling with fun people, a chilly night and a snuggly sweatshirt, and Valentine decorations left up too long. New knees, Bobby who keeps on loving me, and chapstick with different flavors at each end have made my list, too.


But, the things I'm thankful for at the moment are my family, laughing with my way too grown up kids, my mom who clipped a recipe for strawberry pineapple jello “salad” a long time ago, and knowing I can thank the Divine for this crazy, beautiful life no matter what day it is.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

--Melody Beattie, author