Highlights since we began our trip last Thursday:

• Staying in a beautiful cabin in Carbondale and enjoying a relaxing time with Darby between the stress of school and the (good) craziness of our Christmas trip.
  
• Seeing Kalyn and BJ and holding sweet baby Shepherd in Kentucky.
  
• Spending time with all the Arkansas cousins, but especially Alison and Joey, who let us stay at their apartment and kick their butts at Mario Kart. :)
  
• Meeting Jeremy and Janice for lunch at Gloria's in Dallas.
  
• Many delicious meals and chats with Darby's parents.
  
• Meeting Brittany and Erin at Magnolia Cafe in Austin for dinner and a long chat.
• Trading in books at our favorite used bookstore, Book Rack.
  
• Staying up late playing Settlers of Catan and Dominion with Hannah and Matt.
• Dinner, dessert, and gifts with our family friends the Joneses and Hasslers. We've been getting together with them since I was a toddler.
  
• Getting a pedicure with my sister. We both got like a 20-minute foot and leg massage. It was awesome!
  
• Making cake balls with my mom.
• Watching this video dozens of times and cracking up. It might be a "have to be there" type thing, but my family is now obsessed with saying "I like turtles."
• Christmas dinner at La Fiesta and gift-opening with my family.
  
• Time with the frousins, aunts and uncles, and grandma in Dallas. We had some intense CatchPhrase games.
• Exchanging gifts with Darby's parents tonight.

Whew. Now that I wrote it all out, it seems like a lot to cram in to 10 days, and I guess it has been busy. But it's been super-fun and fairly relaxing, too. Now, we're getting ready to leave on our CRUISE!! I'm so psyched!

I love everything about the Christmas season: the food, the decorations, the gifts, the shopping, etc. And I don't think it's bad to enjoy those things. But I also want to be sure I take time to remember what's behind the sparkly lights and shiny paper, the true wonder of Christmas. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

To 15-year-old Kayla

I really like the second part of this prompt, so I'm going to focus on that.

December 21. Future Self. Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?) (Author: Jenny Blake)

Dear Kayla,

I'm writing this to you from the year 2010, at age 25. First of all, let me say that 25 will not seem nearly as old when you actually get to it. :)

If I could give you only one piece of advice, it would be: stop worrying. So many things that seem like a big deal now will not matter at all in 10 years. I know that's hard to believe, but if you can believe it, it will save you so much heartache.

Stop caring so much about what other people think of you. Ten years from now, you will not wish you had been more popular; you will wish you had been more confident. Be kind to the "weird" kids. When you're 25, you'll see the way teenagers treat outsiders, and it will make you so angry. You'll be ashamed to know that, when you were in their shoes, you didn't act much better.

Stop worrying so much about the future. I don't want to ruin it for you, but I don't think you would be able to guess right now who you're married to, where you're living, and what you're doing (and have done) at age 25. Everything will work out. In fact, much of it has worked out in spite of your planning, not because of it. So, relax a little.

When people say high school is the best time of your life, they're either lying or they have a pretty lame life. You'll have a lot of good times during the rest of high school, but don't be discouraged if these years seem difficult. The best is definitely yet to come.

Love,
Kayla

Moment and Wisdom

Here's a couple more Reverb prompts.

Dec. 3. Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)

Hmmm...this is a tough one. I'm not sure if the moment I'm about to describe is the one in which I felt most alive, but it is a small moment that has stayed with me.

One afternoon in October, I was walking home from the bus stop. It was a beautiful sunny fall day, and I was admiring the orange and red leaves of the trees against the bright blue sky. All of a sudden, this verse popped into my head: "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it." (Psalm 24:1). Now, that hasn't been one of my favorite verses, and I hadn't been reading Psalms at the time. I really felt like it was God who gave me that verse in that moment to remind me that I should be praising him for the beauty that surrounds me. I don't have those feelings very often; I have a very intellectual faith. So, I am always grateful when I feel like I have those reassurances of God's presence.

Dec. 10. Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? (Author: Susannah Conway)

I think the wisest decision I made in 2010 was to apply to graduate school. Now, I sort of made this decision in 2009. But, the process didn't end until 2010, so I'm counting it. It's my blog; I can do what I want to. ;) The decision was a tough one for me. I went back and forth about what I wanted to do; my confidence had been shaken by my denial the previous time I had applied (for a different program); I had to really push to get all of my application materials in on time. But here's the part of the decision where I think wisdom came into play: I really wondered, "Is it even worth it to go back to school?" Because, when I have children, I plan to stay at home at least at first. So I might not have the opportunity to use my degree in the traditional sense for very long before I become a stay-at-home mom. But I finally came to the realization that I need to make the best decision for my life now because I just don't know what the future will bring. We might not be able to have children. I might stay home for a while and decide I want to go back to work. We might not be in a financial position for me to stay at home. I decided I can't let what might or might not happen in the future prevent me from being happy now. (Obviously this position can be taken to the extreme, such as not saving any money, but I'm in much more danger of the other extreme.) I'm so glad I made the decision I did. I love what I'm doing now. And, I'm realizing that there are a lot of opportunities for part-time ESL teaching and tutoring. So, it will be a great career to have if and when I have children.

One Word

So, I recently found out about an online project called Reverb '10, which encourages bloggers to reflect on the past year and think about what's ahead by answering daily prompts for the entire month of December. Now, I think it's more of a project for serious writers, which, obviously, I am not. But I'm a sucker for self-reflection (and predetermined blog topics). So I thought I'd take a look at a few of the prompts.

December 1. One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you? (Author: Gwen Bell)

I think my one word for 2010 would be "purpose". Starting graduate school has really helped me feel that my life has a specific purpose again. I really missed that feeling.

Also, I feel like I really strove to live more purposefully in general in 2010. I set a lot of goals for myself, and I accomplished quite a few of them. One thing I'm really trying to be mindful of is that I have control over my time. I'm trying to eliminate the phrase, "I don't have time" from my vocabulary. Because, really, we all make time for the things we want to do. And I don't think there's anyone who doesn't spend at least some time each week watching TV, playing video games, or browsing the Internet. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but it just proves the inaccuracy of the "I don't have time" excuse. A more accurate expression is, "I'm choosing not to spend my time that way." Just my little soapbox for the day. ;)

I would like for my word for 2011 to be "contentment." I want to spend less time complaining and more time being grateful for the blessings I have. I want to continue to set goals for myself and achieve them but also remember that my life is fulfilling even if I don't cross everything off my "to cook" list and I have to run around frantically cleaning up every time someone's coming over.

Merry Christmas!

Well, we're in the full Christmas spirit at our house. When we got back from Texas, we put up our tree and other decorations. After Christmas last year, we brought back Darby's nutcracker collection, so we were able to display those this year. I think they look great on our ledge.


It is looking very Christmasy outside, too. This weekend, we got about 8 inches of snow (they had predicted 1–3). The snow is pretty, and we can actually enjoy it as we haven't had to live with it for very long yet. It is VERY cold (highs around 20 and strong north winds). This is the first winter that I've actually had to spend much time outside. Even with triple layers on, it's a very cold walk to the bus stop. I'm surviving, though.

Last night, we hosted a little Christmas party for our ACU group. After Christmas last year, Debby and I went shopping and she bought me these adorable Christmas plates, so I needed an excuse to use them. :) I fixed a few appetizers and desserts, and it was a lot of fun.

The boys: Austin, Daniel, Darby

The girls: Me, Liz, Erin

Thankful Wrap-Up

Well, we made it back to Urbana this afternoon. It was a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving break. Now, we just have 3 weeks until we head back to Texas for Christmas! :)

I really enjoyed focusing on thankfulness this month, and I think it did help me appreciate the holiday in a deeper way. I'll wrap up the last few days of thankfulness in this one post (since I don't seem to do too well at posting everyday).

I'm thankful for:

• Being able to see Darby's brother Jeff and his wife and two sons. We don't see them very often, so it was nice to be able to spend some time together. Darby's nephews, Josh and Joey, just adore him, and it's fun to see him play with them.
• Darby's grandpa, Elmer. He came down to Waco for a couple of days, so we were able to talk with him some. He is 90 years old but seems much younger. He goes on trips all the time with an LCU alumni group. I got to see pictures from his most recent trips to Philadelphia/Niagara Falls and Alaska. He is such an interesting person, and I really hope Darby inherits his genes so he'll live to at least 90. :)
  3 generations of Hewitt men

• My wonderful high school girlfriends. I had coffee with Jessica and Whitney on Friday night. I love that we are able to maintain our friendship even though we don't see or even talk to each other all that often. It's so nice to catch up on each others' lives, but I really appreciate that we can move beyond small talk and share stories about the difficulty of making friends, the challenges of supporting significant others through grad school, and post-college job disillusionment. That makes it sound like we're all really depressed people; we're not! It's just nice to have people that you know you can be open with. Hopefully, I'll be able to see Krista and Stephanie at Christmas.
• The news that my cousin Amy is expecting her first baby in June! For her whole life, Amy has dreamed of being a mom. She used to carry around Matt like a baby when he was far too old to be carried. I'm so excited for her and her husband, Matthew, and I can't wait to have a new little frousin around!
• Being able to see our friend Jon, who just returned from Marine boot camp, tonight. He's been gone for 16 weeks and will be gone off and on for the next few months, then he and Katy will move to Massachusetts for 7 months, and then who knows where. :( I'm so glad we made it back in time to see him and hear about some of his boot camp experiences. I know he and Katy are going to do great things wherever they end up, but we sure will miss them here.

Since I tried to be timely with my Thanksgiving posts, there are some things I didn't mention. I'm thankful for all of my extended family: my Grandma Katherine, my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I'm thankful for our church family and all of our friends. I'm thankful for our health and our financial security. I think it's wonderful that I have too many things to be thankful for; I can't get to them all in one month!

Of course, I could write for pages about how thankful I am for my family and Darby's family. Every time we go home, we are reminded of how truly blessed we are. We love spending time with our families. And, even though I mentioned him once before, I feel like I should emphasize how incredibly grateful I am for Darby. I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure he's the best husband in the world.

Thankful #24

Today, I'm thankful for my sister, Hannah. She got in to Waco today, and I was so excited to see her. When we had dinner with my family on Tuesday night before she got here, Darby commented, "Your house was kind of quiet tonight." We realized it was because Hannah wasn't there. :) We make fun of her quite a bit, but she does bring a lot of fun and excitement to our family. There's never a dull moment with Hannah, and I like that. I'm really looking forward to our annual sisters shopping day on Friday!

Thankful #23

Today, I'm thankful for my brother, Matt. He got into town yesterday, so we were able to eat dinner, chat, and play games with him last night. He's a junior at ACU, and it's been so fun to see the age gap seem to narrow as we've gotten older. 4 years seemed like a lot when I was 18 and he was 14, for example. But now, it really doesn't seem to matter too much. I really enjoy talking with him, and I'm excited to see the great things he accomplishes as he gets older. He wants to be a youth minister, and I know he's going to be an awesome one!

Thankful #22

Today, I'm thankful for my hometown. Waco really was a great place to grow up. I love coming home to visit---brings back a lot of good memories. This town just feels comfortable to me.

Today, Darby's mom had to work, and Darby and his dad went to the shooting range, so I went to my parents' house to hang out with my mom for a little while. I took Darby's old car (which now belongs to his dad). As I was driving the familiar route between Darby's parents' house and my parents' house, I thought about how crazy it was that for years I used to ride as a passenger in that car with Darby when we were dating. And now I'm his wife, and I'm a part of his family, and they let me borrow their cars. I can't explain it very well. Going home always makes me realize how far our relationship has come. The setting is so similar to what it was 9 years ago, but our relationship is so different. I'm so glad we made it through the somewhat tumultuous early years. No matter what had happened, I'm sure Darby and I would each return to our hometown often. I'm glad we get to go back home together.

Thankful #20 & 21

Today, I'm thankful for my in-laws. They came to pick us up from the train station this afternoon, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at home (very welcome after a day in which I ate only mini bagels, Cheez-Its, and a Fiber One granola bar), and now we're relaxing watching "Undercover Boss." I'm looking forward to spending the next few days with them.

I'm also thankful that I survived my first long-distance train ride. 21 hours on a train is quite a long time! :) But, I got in plenty of reading and some sleep, so it wasn't too bad.

Thankful #18 & 19

Today, I'm thankful that I'm off of school until Nov. 29th!

And, I'm super super thankful that we're leaving for Texas TOMORROW!

Thankful #17

Today, I'm thankful for my parents. Obviously, I'm thankful for them every day. But I got to talk to them both this evening, which was great. They both called separately to check on me because they had seen my post yesterday where I said I was sick. It's nice to be taken care of, even as an adult. :) And I'm so excited to see them in just a few days for Thanksgiving!

Thankful #15 & 16

Today, I'm thankful for my sweet husband who takes care of me when I'm not feeling well. I have a little cold, and I'm blogging from bed, because Darby insisted I not work on any homework and go straight to bed. This was after he made me hot chocolate and helped me not to feel guilty about skipping my Spanish class. :)

I'm also thankful because I finished one of my major semester projects this evening. That's a big weight off my shoulders!

Thankful #13 & 14

Today, I am thankful for answered prayers. I just found out some good news about a person I'd been praying for for a long time. I won't share the news because it's not mine to share, but I have been thanking God since I found out.

I'm also thankful for the opportunity I had to talk to my friend Laura on the phone last night. Laura and I worked together at ACU and became good friends during that time. Every so often (I wish it could be more often), we have marathon phone conversations to catch up on each others' lives. I love our talks and am so thankful that Laura makes an effort to keep in touch with me. We have now been friends in separate states much longer than we were friends in the same city, and, happily, time and distance have not hurt our friendship (although I'd love to be in the same city again!).

Thankful #11 & 12

Ack! I can't keep up! :) I seriously think about posting every day, but then I forget when I get home.

Today, I'm thankful for my Secret Sister. The women at church did this thing where we were assigned a secret sister who we gave little gifts and cards to. On Thursday night, we had the "reveal" at Olive Garden. The woman who had me was out of town and couldn't be there, but it was still fun to get to talk to all of the other women. My secret sister gave me some really neat gifts and wrote very encouraging notes. It was a fun program; we're going to do it again in the spring, so I'm excited.

I'm also thankful for my conversation partner. We meet every Wednesday and talk for an hour, so that she can improve her English. She is so sweet, and I really enjoy talking with her. This past week, we went and got Custard Cup and then walked around the park while we talked. It was a beautiful day, and we had such a good time.

Thankful #8, 9, 10

Oops. I got a little behind on my thankfulness! So I'll do three today.

Today, I'm thankful for:

• Sunshine. We've been having beautiful sunny days, and I'm just soaking it in. The time change has been a little easier to handle this year. I still don't like that it gets dark at 5 p.m., but at least I am able to be outside some during the day to enjoy the sunlight.
  
• Temperatures in the 70s. In November!! It's awesome!
• Cell phones. Isn't it amazing that we can talk to/text friends and family basically whenever we want? It makes being far away sooo much easier.
  

Thankful #7

Today, I'm thankful for Sundays. They are always such a wonderful day. Today was especially so because my friend from school came to church with us, and then our preacher and his wife treated the three us to the brunch buffet at Silvercreek. If you live in C-U and you've never been to Silvercreek on Sunday, you have to go. There is so. much. food. And it's all delicious. They have both breakfast and lunch items, plus dessert. After brunch, we came home for our requisite Sunday afternoon nap and then headed to our small group. We reformulated our small groups this semester, and it's been fun to get to know some new people. After small group, it was home for some episodes of 30 Rock, housecleaning, and homework. A good day.

Thankful #6

Today, I'm thankful for an extra hour of sleep tonight. :)

A funny story related to this: When I was little, I always heard people making such a big deal about an extra hour of sleep. So, I got the impression that the extra hour of sleep occurred every night between "fall back" and "spring forward." I would wake up every day thinking, "Wow, I feel so rested!" I don't remember how old I was when I finally figured out that we only got an extra hour that one night, but it was much too old, I'm sure. I wish I could convince myself that was true again, though. I'd love to feel extra rested every day.

Thankful #5

Today, I'm thankful for new friends. I feel like it has taken a while, but I'm finally getting to know some of my classmates better. Our program is really neat because we're divided into two cohorts, and we take classes with the same people every semester. So, I'm glad I'm starting to make connections because I'll be with the same people for the next two years!

Thankful #4

Today, I'm thankful for my house. I still remember how excited I felt when we saw it for the first time on the day we moved in. And for those first few months, I would just walk around thinking, "I can't believe we live here." After our tiny apartment in Abilene, it felt like a mansion! But now that I'm used to it, I catch myself saying, "I wish we had a bigger living room," or "It'd be nice to have an island." And, sure, it would be great to have those things, and I'm sure we will at some point in our lives. But I don't want to let wishing for that make me take for granted what we have now. Because what we have now is awesome! :)