(written on Dec. 3, 2007)

They say the pathway to hell is paved with good intentions; I imagine there are a few larger-than-cobble stones marked “write more in my journal”…

I’m married now. I’m married now! It’s been a long road to get to that point, and yet we’re already reaching our third “monthiversary.” I’ve looked through our wedding album more than a dozen times already since we got it, reliving the memories of the day. But I’ll do justice to that in another post, with pictures.

It’s December now, which means I’m officially (read: according to my husband) allowed to listen to Christmas music. We’ve had our decorations up for a week now already, mostly because I insisted that a snowy Monday night was better than actually waiting until December. What could be more appropriate? Putting up the tree together, listening to Handel’s Messiah playing from the laptop, me smearing those dreaded sparkles all over Chris, to his dismay… the stuff memories are made of.

I also started a new job, just after we returned from our honeymoon in Mexico. I’m a marketing assistant for the largest Christian book distributor in Canada. For the past 2 months I’ve been training under the woman I was going to replace, and she left a week ago on maternity leave, so I’ve been filling her shoes since then. It’s a challenge, but I’m still in the “gimme all you got” mode, so I’m enjoying the variety of projects I have to work on. And the people I work with are amazing. This is the second workplace I’ve been in where I’m surrounded by other Christians, and it’s such a great experience for me to learn about these people and how they live their faith in their work. We all truly believe in our work and our company because of the common bond we have. It sounds trite when I put it down in words; I can’t seem to find the right way to say it.

We attended the Living Worship: Christmas Edition on Saturday night. I have to admit that my motivation was divided; I love Christmas music, but I was also pretty gleeful at the thought of holding my “nephew”, Jakob. Kev and Sar had a beautiful baby boy about 6 weeks ago, and since they’re both in the worship team, I was asked to take care of J for the evening. I can’t think of many things more amazing than holding a little baby in your arms, watching him sleep. I’m 22, almost 23 now, so that’s 22 Christmases I’ve had. I think this year I will look at it with new eyes – listening to the story of God coming to earth as a little baby seems so much more real when you’re holding one in your arms. That a child as small as little Jakob became my Saviour and grew up and died for me… more than once that evening I found myself unable to sing as I held back tears of awe and thankfulness.