December Wrap-Up

It's really hard to believe that it's almost 2023! I feel like I say that every year, and I'm always used to the year number by the end of the year, but at the beginning of the year...I feel like we're living in the future! But this post isn't about that, obviously. So... this past December!

I spent a good amount of time in December playing a little game I like to call "how many sources can I possibly cite in a paper that is supposed to be 1800-2000 words (and can at least three of them be official Church documents)?" which I find great fun, but my schedule does not, and which also tends to result in papers which are twice the suggested word count (yes, really). 

I actually don't care, though. I had fun. I like writing papers, but I somehow chose a major where I hardly ever get to do so. (Maybe I should go to grad school? Or at least do a senior thesis? XD)

(For those curious minds who might want to know, the paper was meant to be an Urban Planning manifesto on The Ideal City. The sort of paper that requires a ton of parameters around political-economic philosophy, tha' knows.)

Some other things I did in December:
-Sang in a Christmas concert of all of our church choirs
-Had an allergic reaction, and then got really loopy from the benadryl (just about as fun as it sounds...which is not at all)
-Finished multiple final projects juuuuuust in time to get on the plane home (and let me tell you, it was pretty tight)
-Got back in time for our aunt & uncle's annual caroling party (I love singing Christmas carols!)
-Worked on some fun blog posts for next year, including some that Eomer is trying to force me to post earlier than I planned because he's so excited to read them. XD
-Went cross-country skiing for the first time ever! (It's very fun)
-Got to see Frodo and hold her baby (who is adorable!)
-Started a new quilt
-Took several of my family members climbing, because I got my belay certification at the climbing gym at college
-Helped to decorate our church, which looks absolutely beautiful! 
-Worked on Project Monday a bit! I have some New Ideas for the plot, so that's fun. 
-Spent very enjoyable time with family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which involved many games, reading of 80s songs like they were poetry, and much hilarity.
-Went to Lessons and Carols and Midnight Mass for the first time! It was all absolutely beautiful, and I was DEFINITELY exhausted on Christmas day. XD
-Got my wisdom teeth out two days after Christmas. I would say "fun times" in a sarcastic way, except that...even though I got three out (and I only had three, so I guess I've lost all my wisdom now), only one was on the bottom, and as of one day post-surgery, I'm actually feeling almost normal. And I have never been to complain about having an ironclad excuse to sit on the couch all day, eat ice cream, and read. For multiple days in a row. The only thing that really stinks about it is not being able to eat Christmas cookies. *shrugs*
There aren't even any embarrassing stories about me while I was sedated. My mom says that I am "boringly undramatic", but that she doesn't mind. Neither do I. XD

Fun Quotes:

Father M: "I am just a massive troll."

Katia: "Me and the Lord...we synergy."

Steve: "I don't need to find new ways to get high, I just need to hang out with Father M more!" [this was not apropos of drugs, but of a physics concept. For the record.]

Lane: "Did you just body-shame that brownie?"

Anonymous: "Something like that was on my exam." *pause* "I didn't tell you that. It's illegal."

(worth noting here: I will be doing my usual annual Good, Better, Best of many of the new books I read this year! I just can't yet, because I left part of my book list in Illinois. *facepalm*. So, look for that in the new year!)

Worth Reading...

...if you need a good devotional

The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander
I read this at the very beginning of Advent, and it's a really good Advent-y book! Houselander is really perspicacious in figuring out how we are to apply the life of Mary to our own lives, without being saccharine, &c. My favorite takeaways included the different shapes our spiritual openness might take, and the necessity of searching for Christ in our spiritual lives.

...if you need a good kick in the pants

Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer by Thomas Dubay, S.M.
Deceptively simple, Dubay's thesis is that conversion, deep prayer, authentic love, and growth in holiness are all intrinsically linked, and all linked to ridding oneself of even venial sin, not allowing oneself to confess the same sins over and over in confession for years, but rooting things out systematically. He acknowledges how difficult this is and gives a system for motivating oneself to get over that. I know that sounds simple, but it really is a transformative book. 

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
This one is by a Protestant minister, so I don't take it quite as seriously as I do the previous suggestion, but I did find it quite insightful. His main point is that the hustle and bustle and mad rush of modern life, exacerbated by the Internet and social media, is quite effective in making our lives too loud for us to hear God. (This is also something Fr. DD has talked about.) His solution is fourfold: silence, simplicity, slowing, and Sabbath, some of which I already was on my way to figuring out in my own life, and some of which was new to me. I think all of that is super valuable in the modern world! (He did commit the cardinal sin of trying to do textual analysis on The Message, but only once, so I'll let it slide. XD)

...if you're in the mood for satire

Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh
Waugh has a cutting sense of humor, and it can tend towards the cynical, but it's still absolutely hilarious. As here, where a tiny African kingdom composed of many different factions is afflicted with a new emperor who comes back from Oxford and has a whole bunch of "enlightened" "modern" ideas about how to run his own country. He's assisted in this by one of his jaded Oxford classmates, who finds that the job of civilizing the country--and reigning in the emperor--is a bit more than he had bargained for. Especially when the residents of the country insist on misunderstanding everything! (The scene around the birth control advertisement was my absolute favorite. XD)

...if you want to read more Rumer Godden, as I always do

A Fugue in Time by Rumer Godden
This was really the story of a house, but also the story of the family who lived there. It was Godden's attempt truly at a fugue, I think--the narrative feels exceedingly fugue-like, with the house as the framework, and it was very impressive, if hard to follow at times. I'd say that my only complaint about this book (besides the hard-to-follow-ness) was that it felt slightly too short for the story it was trying to tell. But I really enjoyed it anyway. (And it is rather a Christmas story, if you needed a further recommendation for reading it!)

How was your December? Have you had your wisdom teeth out, and if so, how was it? Now that I've had mine out, tell me alllllll the stories. Have you read any good devotionals lately? Have I convinced you to read Rumer Godden yet?