Merry Christmas!!

I just wanted to take some time before my family gets here to eat and open presents to share some Christmas related thoughts that I've been pondering on this Christmas season.

First, here's another church doodle for you. On Sunday Ron Ayers preached about the significance of the gifts that the Magi brought. This is how I envisioned the frankincense:

Yes, I know it's cheesy, but I enjoyed it non-the-less. I think I'm going to re-do a little differently in one of my sketchbooks, make a little more subtle (and hopefully less cheesy).

I did the projection for the Christmas service at Manchester a couple of weeks ago so I spent a lot of time hearing Christmas hymns and I have come to the conclusion that we need some new ones. At the very least update the language so I know what I'm singing. It's not that I don't love the hymns we have, I very much do, but sometimes I have no clue what I'm singing. For example, in the song "What child is this?" There is a line that goes "Haste, haste to bring Him laud..." What the heck is laud? How am I suppose to bring it to the babe, the son of Mary if I don't know what it is?
Fun story, last Sunday at Manchester we sang "Silent Night" and when I saw the words " 'Round yon virgin mother and child" and I noticed the apostrophe before the word "round" implying "around." Up until that point I had thought that "round" was describing the pregnant virgin. Who knew?

One last thing I want to comment on is the fact that whenever there is a nativity scene that includes the three wise men, one of them is always black. I don't understand it. Did some historians get together back in the day and say to each other:
"Ya know, I think one of wise men was black."
"Huh, that makes sense."
"Yeah, let's alert the Christian bookstores to let them know."
But it's not just the bookstores, Brandi has a little Charlie Brown nativity set. One of wise men is black. I watched a Christmas episode of Scrubs last night. At one point J.D. had a vision of everyone as part of a nativity scene. Turk was a wise man.


All of that said, I hope you have a great Christmas.

Church Doodles 2

John 10:10 - I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full

Bob Hay talked about this in Sunday School yesterday. He said the image of "have it to the full" is that of someone who is digging a well and discovers a spring. The water would continue to rise and rise until it overflowed out of the well.

Let's play the caption game

I show you a picture, you write a caption for it.

Here's mine: "I knew I should have stayed home today...Miss Frizzle!"

Quote of the Day - Oct. 10

"I need you to get a life."

"I'm a gamer. I have lots of lives."

Best. Response. Ever.

The Awareness Test

Dan showed this video today during his sermon:

Strange But True South Carolina

I have a book that has the same name as the title of this post. It's full of quirky things about our beloved state. Local restaurants (like the Beacon), festivals (like Come-See-Me), tourist attractions/"wonders" of our state (like, of course, the Gaffney Peach), even some ghost stories.

This is one of those books that I don't have to hurry to finish. I can take my time, pick it up whenever, read a couple of interesting things, then put it back and save it for later. I picked it up the other day for the first time in a while and as I was reading about some local festivals I got this strong, sudden urge to go visit these places. I want to travel all over the state, trying local foods, experiencing local customs.

I enjoy learning about other cultures, especially of the latin american persuasion, but sometimes I think that I get so caught up in other cultures that I forget about my own.

So, who wants to go exploring South Carolina with me?

I Just Ripped a Phonebook in Half....

Thank you Mythbusters. Kevin and I just spent an entire commercial break trying to rip phonebooks after they told us how. Couldn't do the York County Book, but I got the Rock Hill Book in half.

Here's hoping for some cultural event credit....

The following is an essay I had to write about my experience in Costa Rica in order for me to get cultural event credit. I warn you now, the essay had to be about two pages, but I've tried to make this version of my essay more blogger friendly by adding pictures. I hope you enjoy....


This summer, I had the opportunity to go to Costa Rica. For an entire month I was immersed in a culture and a language that is, at times, very different than my own. I lived with a host family for the whole month so I was able to not only see, but experience what it is like to live like a typical Tican (Costa Rican). My “Mama Tica,” as I called her, fixed breakfast and supper for me every morning and evening so I was able to try different types of Costa Rican food.
Everyday, to get to school we had to take the bus, which was a new experience for me because I have never had to use public transportation on a regular basis before. I learned, though, that public transportation is the best (and safest) way to get around the city. My class was at the University of Costa Rica.

The University of Costa Rica
Three times during our trip, after classes, MLSA took us to different places around San Jose. The first week we went to the National History Museum, which is housed in what used to be the armory.

The National History Museum

We got to walk around and see different artifacts and pictures from Costa Rica’s history. One of the most interesting parts, for me, was the huge stones spheres that have been found in Costa Rica. No one knows where they came from or how they were made, but they have been found all over the country.

The Mysterious Spheres

The next week, MLSA took us to what used to be the capital of Costa Rica and is one of the oldest cities; Cartago. There are two main sights to see in Cartago. The first sight is ruins of an ancient church never built. The story goes that whenever they tried to build the church, something made the structure collapse.

The other sight is an old basilica. Every year, right around the time we left Costa Rica, people from all over the country and neighboring countries will walk to Cartago to participate in an old tradition, that many believe will provide healing, but only if you walk.

The third week, we went to the National Theater. We did not get to see a play because they were getting ready to open back up, but we got to walk around the theater and we had a tour guide to tell us about the history of the building.
Apart from these trips, MLSA offered us the opportunities to go visit the La Paz volcano one weekend and to go on a cruise to the Tortuga Islands the next weekend. Both of these excursions allowed us to, not only experience, but fully immerse ourselves in the beauty of Costa Rica.
My professor (Dr. Catalina Adams), who is from Costa Rica and went with us on this trip, took us to the National Art Museum one afternoon where we got to see Costa Rica’s history in and through art.

My favorite trip that we went on with Dr. Adams was the weekend we spent at Playa Hermosa, Playa Jacó and the Tu Ru Bari Tropical Park. We drove to Playa Hermosa in the morning and spent most of the day there. That evening we went to Playa Jacó. We spent the night in some cabins and the next day we drove to the tropical park. There we got to go on a canopy tour. They hooked us up to ziplines and let us fly through and above the trees in the jungle.

Probably, the quirkiest piece of culture I experienced was the CowParade. Artists from all over the country created over 130 cow statues. Each cow represents a different aspect of Costa Rican life and culture. Some were as simple as a cow statue with a mural type painting on it while others were more elaborate like a cow being hung in the air between two trees to look as though it were on a canopy tour.

After spending a month in Costa Rica, I experienced and learned so much about the culture, history and every day life of the country. If I ever get a chance to go back, I will and I would encourage anyone else to visit Costa Rica as well.

The Winthrop kids after our canopy tour.

Church Doodles 1

Dan talked on the story of Jesus walking on water from Matthew, which includes Peter walking on water as well.
He asked the question: did Peter fail?
In some ways he did, but in other ways, he didn't. He was willing to get out of the boat at Jesus' command. What of the other eleven? Maybe they let their fear get the better of them. Thus, Dan coined the term "boat potato" as opposed to "couch potato." Thus, this image popped into my head. Actually, it originally was just a regular potato, but I thought Mr. Potato Head was cooler.

Chris' Fun Fact #1

The word "burrito" literally translated into English is "little donkey." Think about that next time you go to Taco Bell or Moe's.

Quote of the Day - Aug. 8

"Every day should end with a parade."
~ Lady on the Travel Channel (talking about the Spectromagic parade at Disney World)

Overheard Conversation

Young girl: Yee-doggie!

Older woman to little girl's mother: Does she watch Beverly Hillbillies?

Little girl's mother: No.

Older woman: Where did she hear that from then?

Mother to little girl: Where have you heard that?

Little girl: Hannah Montana.

I smiled.

"There's never anything to do around here."

Maybe you've never said those words, but I have. Even though I grew up in Greenville, one of the largest cities in South Carolina, I complained many times about how there was nothing to do.

Ironically, it wasn't until I started living in a smaller town and intentionally getting involved in the Rock Hill community that my mindset began to change. I started to see that if I just did a little research (really, just checking the town's website for starters) I could find a plethora of things to do.

This blog is an appreciation of all things Rock Hill, at least for now, because that's where I live for now. I want people who live in Rock Hill to see that there are things to do. I also want to encourage people who aren't living in Rock Hill to get involved with their communities, wherever they are.