Christmas Cheer

I'm writing this at ten o'clock at night. Well, my time. At Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, it's nine, and we still have another hour to go until the Ayers 1 live nativity begins - as does the judging of the Christmas decorating contest.

Let me back up.

Once upon a time, the oldest child and only girl of four kids knew she wanted to go to college. Then she realized she needed to figure out which college she was going to, and soon. Thus began a series of extensive, tiring college visits with her momma. One of these visits took them through way too many hours of Thanksgiving-weekend traffic and led to a prestigious Christian university in Jackson, Tennessee.

They took the tour, met an admissions lady and the Dean of Education, sat in on classes - the works. And then came the fun part: free time with students in the dorms! Because this girl was staying that night with a student ambassador in the dorms - building Ayers 1 - and guess what tonight was? Christmas decorating night! All the dorms participate in what's called the Union Cup, and one event worth mucho points is the Christmas decorating contest.

And so began a night of gift-wrapping the door, making bows out of curling ribbon, watching Elf (for the first time. I know, I know!), and doing work on the computer with a tinsel beard taped to my face for an hour. See, I volunteered to be Joseph in that live nativity I mentioned. So I'm trying very hard to be patient and not watch the minutes count down to when I can rip the miles of tape and glittery, irritating tinsel off my chin.

In other news, there are a ton of Christmas lights out right now. I'm not kidding. This is Charlie Brown cheer on steroids. One building is playing music loud enough for the entire Quads to hear. Enthusiasm certainly isn't lacking here! Maybe we'll get lucky and Ayers 1 will win this year. I heard last year they lost to the guys by only 50 points.