"Shopping, shopping! We are shopping, shopping! Shopping, shopping (buy, buy, buy) Christmas shopping, shopping! Last minute shopping! Shopping! Shop, shop, shop, til we drop!" --THE CHRISTMAS POST
So on my day off last week, I decided it was time to do some Christmas shopping. You see, Christmas shopping is next to impossible until the musical gets done, so it's a "tradition" that after the show, I sit down and figure out who all I have to buy for and where I need to go. The problem is that means I'm shopping with all the other millions of people in the Miami Valley that have put off their purchasing until the last two weeks before Christmas! Here's some of the highlights/lowlights of a shopping day in Beavercreek:
FRIDAY, DEC. 15, 2006
Locations visited: Fairfield Commons Mall and the stores therein, Family Christian Bookstore, Kohls, Best Buy, Olive Garden, Barnes & Noble, Circuit City, Chili's
Money spent: None of your business :)
Lowlight: the insane line at Barnes & Noble
Highlight: Finding an ESPN ornament at Hallmark that plays the SportsCenter theme song (no, I didn't buy it though :)
Lowlight: The hour wait at Olive Garden
Highlight: The great food at Chili's after I decided Olive Garden wasn't worth the wait :)
Lowlight: Getting distracted so often by things that I wanted for Christmas
Highlight: The gifts I actually did come home with for other people (I'd tell you what they were, but you never know who's reading this! Top-secret stuff :)
Lowlight: Traffic
Highlight: Cardboard Heroes (it's always a highlight of mall trips :)
Lowlight: Coming home and wrapping presents (I like wrapping, I just have no talent in that area!)
Highlight: Writing tags to go on the presents...that's my favorite part of wrapping...I like to think I have an extreme amount of talent in that area :)
Lowlight: High prices
Highlight: Low prices (wow, that's confusing :)
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!! Enjoy your week!
With the busy Christmas season, we definitely haven’t done a great job keeping up with this blog! Hopefully once the new year hits, we’ll be able to get back into a regular rotation with each of the pastors posting on here. We really enjoy communicating with you on here and letting you get to know us. Today, I decided to try something different, and point the blog spotlight at another member of the church staff: our secretary, Carolyn Perks.
Carolyn has worked in the church office for as long as I have; we both started in the summer of 2004. We always enjoy giving each other a hard time…she’s one of my favorite people to pick on! Let’s see…there was the time I beat her in a card game and covered her office with sticky notes the next day to rub it in…and there was the…oh, I could go on forever! Anyway, I really appreciate all the work she does in the church office and thought I’d drop by with a few questions for her. Here goes:
My question: What do you do during a normal day in the church office?
Carolyn’s answer: Answer the phone, work on the bulletin, send out e-mails and mailings (sermon CDs, usher/nursery reminder postcards, etc.), coordinate prayer requests…and much more, depending on the day!
Q: What is in your CD player right now?
A: “All I Really Want for Christmas” by Steven Curtis Chapman
Q: What is your favorite book of the Bible and why?
A: The Psalms, because they are an outpouring of the heart and an uplifting of your spirit
Q: What is your favorite thing about Cornerstone and being the secretary here? A: I would say how many people I know and have relationships with. Knowing people in the church, their backgrounds, and their family situations helps me do my job better. That familiarity and comfort level helps me understand each person’s needs and concerns as I type up the bulletin and send out prayer requests.
Q: What is your favorite Christmas carol?
A: I like “Carol of the Bells”, as well as a song by Point of Grace called “Emmanuel- God With Us”
Q: And what’s your favorite hymn? (can you tell it’s the worship pastor asking the questions? :)
A: I like “As the Deer”.
Q: What is the best Christmas present you ever received?
A: Diamond earrings from Gene
Q: If you could have a shopping spree in any store, what would it be?
A: Bath and Body Works or Yankee Candle
Q: What are your hobbies? What do you like to do in your free time?
A: If I have a free day, I like to call up a friend and spend time with them.
Q: And last but not least, do you have any New Year’s resolutions for 2007?
A: Exercise and read the Bible through in a year.
Thanks Carolyn for taking the time to answer my questions…and for putting up with me in the office every week….and for all the work (especially behind-the-scenes) you do at Cornerstone to serve our Lord!
The Christmas Post is over! Many thanks to all of you who prayed and helped...I was very pleased with the performances, and now we just need to continue to pray for the gospel message to work in the hearts and lives of those who attended.
This week's project is two-fold:
#1 Locate my desk.
#2 Everything else.
I'm well into #1...digging through piles of jelly doughnuts, CDs, garland, salamis, and who knows what else. In fact, the computer I'm typing on is located at my desk, so I've been relatively successful :)
Then it's on to #2...getting ready for this week's service...tomorrow's choir rehearsal...and tearing down/cleaning up everything.
Saturday night, we were at Northwestern High School for my wonderful wife's induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame. She did a great job walking across the gym floor to get her plaque...didn't trip and fall or anything! I'm very proud of her...she's famous!
Sunday, I got to church a little before 8 am, and left around 6 pm. Staff meeting, special music rehearsal, choir rehearsal, Sunday School, morning worship service, Christmas banquet, clean-up, and the Christmas Post dress rehearsal. Once that was all over, we went home and had a party!
Actually, we did! The Venture group came over and hung out for a while...good times! And good food (we enjoyed partaking of the banquet leftovers!)
Monday, I was in the office all day getting projects done for the musical. Then in the evening, I went to New Carlisle Middle School to see Molly's 8th-grade girls' team win their second basketball game of the year. Since her team plays on Monday and Wednesday nights, I'm usually only able to see them play on Mondays because of choir.
Today, a bunch more projects in the office during the day, then dinner at home (doesn't happen much lately with our busy schedules...yesterday we ate at Applebees...at 9 pm!) before we go to Wittenberg to see the Cedarville men's basketball team play.
Well, I think that gets us all caught up on my life. I'll close with a multiple choice question for you.
As part of this year's Most Wanted List campaign, we're hoping to invite 1,000 friends to attend our Christmas program, The Richest Family in Town, in the 1,000 hours before the first performance. You can find more information about our production at: SpringfieldChristmas.com
"Shopping, shopping!
