Merry Christmas!

I would have to say that this past Christmas was the most unusual one for my family thus far. On Christmas Eve we went out to eat after the morning service. So Nisha being in town and all, we decided to go to Taco Rico which has the have the best Mexican food...even better than Mexico itself! I was pretty excited to order horchata, tacos al pastor with fresh cilantro and onions! I spent the rest of the afternoon making pies and sweet potatoe cassarole while listening to Christmas music. We went to the candlelight service at 8pm where there was a lot of good music played by the brass ensemble, Hannah and i on the flute, the handbells, and Titus singing/guitar.
Christmas day we slept in until 10am (in past years Nish, Tirz, and i would get up early and surprise my parents by making breakfast). This year my dad made a delectable brunch of blueberry pancakes, sausage, hot chocolate, and orange julius'. We then opened our presents after convincing my parents not to take any pics cuz we were still in our pjs! haha! I got a lot of great gifts as usual but i'd have to say my favorite gift was my lime green ipod nano! it's pretty spiffy! i also got a Nestor Torres cd, Pride and Prejudice dvd (the 6 hour version w/Colin Firth), a music dictionary, the Les Mis vocal/piano/guitar book and other random things.
so the rest of the day was spent cooking, cleaning, and getting ready for our guests. Two families from our church came over, the Rubios (from Guadalajara) and a Puerto Rican single mother and her two daughters. We had so much fun celebrating the birth of our Savior together! First we ate dinner, which was rather interesting since the conversation kept switching back and forth between spanish and english! After dinner we sang christmas carols in spanish next to our navity set which is Colombian and huge (as in it takes up a fourth of our living room!) We then started dancing. The little three year old, Anna, was giving the rest of us ballet lessons....it was so cute/hilarious. Then another girl wanted to show me the song she could play on the piano and then asked me if i could teach her how to play chopsticks. once she got the hang of it, she wanted her mom to come watch her play. Her mom happened to be a really good pianist and asked me if there were any piano accompaniment parts she could play with my flute. So i got out the Bach piece i'm working on for my recital and we played together for a while. it was so much fun! After everyone left, we cleaned up and watched It's a Wonderful Life.
So that pretty much concludes my Christmas! I love this time of year b/c it reminds me of the best gift anyone could ever receive: eternal life! It's so easy to to want more in this life, but God has already equipped us with everything we need to live a victorious life! I don't know about you guys, but i'm looking forward to getting to know my Redeemer better in the new year!

1 Peter 1:17-23

"If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with PRECIOUS BLOOD, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the BLOOD OF CHRIST. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the LIVING and ENDURING word of God."

mixed emotions

i'm totally confused and quite okay with that! why am i confused? here's the short answer in list format b/c i love lists! (1) finals are finally over which is great don't get me wrong but it's hard to say goodbye to friends when i feel like we just got here! (2) the weather...it confuses me. for instance, this morning it was warm and sunny so i decided to wear my bots 2 t-shirt to my noon final. when my final was over at 1pm (should be the hottest part of the day) i stepped outside of the old music building and pretty much shivered the whole way back to Botsford hall. i got a lot of weird looks from the passerbyers who of course were all bundled up. (3) i got a 98% on my theory final, the one i felt the least ready for! Dr. Trawick had posted our grades on her office door so i decided to check mine out this morning and nearly fainted on the spot. (3) i had a not so good week for flute playing b/c i was really stressed and so that negatively affected my flute playing quite a bit. I was feeling really discouraged and at some points in the week considered switching my major. I think God was showing that i need me that i can depend on Him in the midst of my fears and doubts. I'm not alone in my struggles...in fact God has given so much peace!
i hope everyone has a great Christmas break and is able to give not just material gifts but the fruits of the spirit to others!

where did the semester go?

only two weeks left, craziness! this is our last week of "normal" classes. i only have three finals this week. tomorrow is my trombone playing exam (E flat, B flat, F, and G major scales, chromatic scale, country gardens, and sightreading one piece), thursday is our dictation exam for sightear, and friday is my piano playing exam. The theme of this week is Christmas concerts!!! Tomorrow night the flute choir is performing at Westminster Retirement Home. We'll be playing an hour of mostly all Christmas music. My personal fav. pieces are the Trepak (from the Nutcracker) and the sacred ones that Kim arranged. Wednessday night I have a rehearsal at First Baptist Church. Another girl in the flute studio and I are accompanying the choir on Sunday morning. Sunday is also our Wind Ensemble concert and Christmas evening service at church, where emily and i are playing handbells. I'm not yet sure when to study for finals... I love Christmas, but sometimes it feels like the most stressful time of year. I sooooo can't wait to go home to make christmas cookies, go iceskating, sing christmas carols/broadways with Nish and Tirz, go christmas shopping, drink eggnog, see friends, read some good books (NOT theory!), and worship My Savior!!! I'm sure there is much i'm forgetting on my little list, but i only had four hours of sleep last night so....yeah. emily and i were at the music building until midnight. emily was practicing for her jury and i had filming for Joe's 3-D concert in Sursa hall. Joe (a music tech major), had a project where he asked a cellist, violinist, violist, clarinetist, bassoonist, and myself to record a piece he wrote. We each went to the recording studio at separate times to record our parts. Than last night we all met together in Sursa to film. we basically had to pretend that we were playing our parts while walking around the hall...it was supposed to look aristic. Apparently our piece will be playing some place downtown Muncie this week. If i had a car i would go see how it turned out... After filming emily and i went back to the dorm and watched "The Three Muskateers" (disney version) b/c we were much too hyper to sleep. This morning we dragged ourselves out of bed to head off to 8am theory, only to find out that Trawick was not in (sick?) and class was canceled. so emily and i being the good music students that we are went to practice piano. we would have gone back to bed but i had a 9 o'clock class and emily wanted to practice before her piano lesson. so right now i'm running on coffee and i don't even like coffee!
wow, i'm not sure this blog has a point...except that i'm sleepy...
i think i'll go practice conducting for tomorrow. Have a great last week of classes, unless you're in high school or teach high schoolers that is ( :