Alaska According to Marie
Friday, April 25, 2008
#176 Giving Open Flames to Kids on Christmas Eve
I found a new blog that I have been reading and laughing with. (Thank you Sarah!) Jon Acuff has been writing a series called "Stuff Christians Like". He has been listing activities that those who have been attending Christian churches are familiar with, and have probably thought about themselves, but haven't quite put the wandering thoughts in written words. I have been smiling and giggling at my computer screen for awhile now reading his commentary. One of his more recent entries is about kids and Christmas candles. Let me share...
Imagine if one night a year, your church held a special service and when you walked in, they gave you a Ninja Throwing Star. That would be a nightmare right? Just throwing stars stuck in hymnals and Bibles and legs as far as the eye could see. It would be a bloody mess. But it's not that different from what a lot of churches do on Christmas Eve.
My favorite part of this service is when we light the candles and sing a few songs with the lights off. It is honestly a really beautiful experience, but it's also funny. The other 364 days of the year, parents work diligently to keep their children away from torches. We put covers on our electrical outlets, hide matches and lighters in hard to reach places and yell if they get anywhere near a hot oven. But on Christmas Eve, it's fire time.
Here are a few ways to multiply the fun of having a lit Christmas candle in a church setting:
1. Blow out other people's candles.
I don't think I have to explain this one, but I promise, it is delightful. My brothers and I turned this into an art, because you can't just come on out and blow it. You have to do this weird, breathe out of the side of your face move in which you send a gust of wind with the accuracy of a sniper at someone else's candle.
2. Play with the wax.
In addition to melting your candle on the shoes of family members, it's also fun to see how long you can get the wax without it breaking off. You have to hold it at the right angle though. Tilted enough to make it all pool like one of those stilagtitesdifficulttospellcorrectly things in caves but not so tilted that the weight of the wax breaks it off.
3. Try to keep the candle.
As soon as that last song is finished, it's like the spell that convinced your parents it was OK for you to have fire in church is broken. And it's nearly impossible to keep the candle. I never actually executed this move, it's like the holy grail of candle tricks. There are three people you need to watch out for: Your parents, the ushers and that guy with the box that collects them all at the end. I don't like that guy. I think all that power went to his head. He didn't consider himself the "guy with a candle box," instead he was always kind of smug and seemed to think he was the "gatekeeper of flame."
You can find more from Jon Acuff here. I also have his link on my sidebar "Prodigal Jon".
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Gunner's Birthday
Gunner and AJ were born on the same day 6 years ago, April 20. On Saturday we celebrated Gunner's birthday. We are going to celebrate AJ's when Tony gets home from working on the slope. It was a fun afternoon. We had hamburgers and hotdogs, cake and ice cream, and there was even a pinata!! I bought Gunner a fishing vest and a little container of glow-in-the-dark dinosaur bones. When he saw the dinosaur bones he exclaimed "Just what I always wanted!!". Who knew? Made me want to go out and get 5 more of those containers for him.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Birthdays
On March 25, my nephew Calvin turned 3. It was a fun little party at Karla's house. It was the typical dinner, then cake and ice cream, then presents, then wrapping paper fight. Matthew finally made it up to Alaska after his long drive from North Carolina and was able to come and participate.
April 12, was Matthew's birthday. We went to McHugh Creek and hiked the mountain trail for awhile and had a picnic lunch with a magnificent view. Then we drove to Whittier (mostly for the tunnel) and what a winter wonderland it is over on that side of the mountain! Then we came back and had a nice dinner in Anchorage and ended the day with a nice sunset drive back to the valley. It was a beautiful day!
Monday, April 14, 2008
quizzes.
I always think that personality quizzes are kinda fun to do. My results are usually all the same as far as the type of person I am, but I like to see how people match those up with different things. Like animals, flowers.... punctuation marks. Ha. So I did one that I found on my mom's site and I found out I am the punctuation mark that gets along the best with hers. She is a colon, I am a semi-colon.
You Are a Semi-Colon |
 You are elegant, understated, and subtle in your communication. You're very smart, but you don't often showcase your brilliance. Instead, you carefully construct your arguments, ideas, and theories until they are bulletproof. You see your words as an expression of yourself, and you are careful not to waste them. You friends see you as enlightened, logical, and shrewd. You excel in: The Arts You get along best with: The Colon |
