Merry Christmas!

Technically I still have about half an hour until it's no longer Christmas. I hope everyone had a blessed holiday!!!

My family and I attended Christmas Eve service last night at 7pm ... it's always nice to see all the people at your home church whome you haven't seen in a year. After that the Bickerstaff tradition is to come home and open presents! We also drink wine, egg nog, and this year's snack was cheese ball! I think everyone got some really nice gifts. I know I loved all of mine!! :) I got a lot of swim stuff, a sweater and another shirt for work, a hand held vacuum, and season 3 of The Office! I had decoupaged some wine bottles for my parents that had a bunch of pictures of our family on them. I like to surprise people with stuff they wouldn't expect. I hope my parents enjoy them... I tried really hard to make the present special.

I got Ryan one of my favorite books of all time "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. I had read it right out of high school and think it's just an amazing book. It's one of those that after each page you literally have to stop and let the words soak in. My old Pastor in Alva got me hooked on his books. He had given me "The Screwtape Letters" my senior year of high school as a Christmas present and I loved it. I would highly recommend both of those books. In fact, I think I'm going to re-read them soon. I just hope Ryan takes the time to read it. It's hard to shop for him. We see each other about once a year and rarely ever talk -- except for birthdays. I really wish we had a better sibling relationship, but I don't know what else to do at times to make him realize that I'm an okay person. I feel like I've tried and tried but each time I feel like I just fail ... then someone told me once that sometimes you just have to accept another person's behavior and thoughts and realize that it might not be anything you did ... just how that person operates. So, perhaps Ryan doesn't hate me ... perhaps we just operate completely different in life and with people that it's hard for us to get along. At least that's what I have to tell myself so that I don't get sad.

On a happier note, though. I'm really thankful for all the calls, texts, messages, etc that I received today from all my friends. It's so nice to hear from everyone -- even if it's just a simple "Merry Christmas" greeting :)

Oh! and I'm really trying to make it back to Penn State for Blue and White weekend. It's sometime in mid-April and I'm hoping that a ton of my old roomies and alumni friends come back that same weekend. In fact, I probably won't be going unless ya'll come back ... so everyone will have to let me know their plans. A lot has to fall nicely into place in order for me to go --- plane ticket prices are outrageous! So, hopefully it'll all work out and I'll be able to spend a couple days in good ole Happy Valley with some amazing people. :)

Remember the reason for the season.
God Bless,
Sarah :)