Top 12 Things I'll miss this Christmas

As I sit listening to Christmas music, my heart is filled with mixed emotions.   Christmas day is coming close and for the first time in 26 years, I won’t be spending this one with my family.  I’ve been doing a lot of traveling over the past 6 months and I just felt like I wanted to take a break and stay “home” this year.  The DR has become my new home and I am truly excited to spend time with my girls and my Dominican community here.   I’ll leave details of my Dominican Christmas for a later post because today's blog is tribute to my AMERICAN family. So, with no further ado, the top 12 things I will miss this Christmas of 2012.

1.     Opening stockings with my siblings (getting the my yearly dosage of socks and underwear)

2.     Eating a great big Christmas day breakfast (which is always topped off with candy that we got in our stockings)

3.     Listening to dad read the Christmas story in the living room

4.     Watching tv with my sister for hours while mom, dad and Josh golf (because mom isn’t a fan of us watching tv all day).  So the second they leave, Heather and I become couch potatoes. 

5.     We normally spend Christmas in the pan-handle of Florida in a condo. Normally weather is in the 60’s- lower 70s. Every day, dad tries to convince us it is hot outside.  So, in efforts to catch some rays, Heather and I always try to lay-out.  Our efforts normally end with us getting wrapped up in our towel because it’s too cold to actually lay-out. But at least our faces get some vitamin D.

6.     Seeing family.  Most years we see our Florida Gator family.  This pic is from one year that even the Wyoming Gates family came down to Florida to join us.

7.     Acting like I don’t really like playing games (but I really do) so that my mom feels extra special when I do decide to play. I really do love playing games with my mom and siblings (ticket-to-ride and a monopoly card game  have been recent favorites)

8.     Any day that I beat Josh in a game J

9.     Sharing a room with my favorite sister

10. Playing “up the river, down the river” with the whole family. Especially if the Woodard family is there, our family has such a great time!

11. Going to the movie theatre and eating LOTS of popcorn

12. Just being with my family. I love you Dad, Mom, Heather and Josh!  I miss you guys already! 

Spicy Christmas in the DR

“Coach, can you put one of those songs on that we sang at your church?”  Stephanie asked.  Even though the trip to the states was four months ago, there are still many things that have stayed with our girls (in addition to belting the songs they learned at church).   Since they were stretched out of their comfort zone, their self-confidence has grown, making them better leaders here.  Before the trip, two girls consistently went to church. Now, eight of them have been attending regularly.  In addition, on Friday mornings at 6:30 am, we do a breakfast prayer meeting and 10 of them have been coming. Last week at bible study, Esther, in tears, asked if I would be willing to go with her when she breaks the news to her devout catholic parents that she wants to become a Christian. These may seem like little things, but they have been big steps for these girls. 

We just had our Christmas party with our varsity and JV teams.  Check out one of our competitions.  Kinda the same idea with marshmallows in the game "Chubby Bunny", yet we did it with Jalepenos. Hehe. 

Each team had to dress up for their dance competition.  Check out the varsity team! 

Some of our JV girls before their dance! 

The "Nana" after the cake eating competition! 

Overall, a super fun day with the girls.  For the first time in 3 years, I'll be spending Christmas here this year.  I will definitely miss my family, but I really wanted to have a restful time where I wasn't traveling. Plus, I really want to see what a Dominican Christmas is like!

In other VC Revolution News... 

In February of 2013, another American woman will be joining me on staff, which I am super excited for! She played volleyball in college and has the same passion for working with young girls.  This will allow us to start even more teams and be able to disciple more girls at a more intimate level.  Four of our varsity girls will be graduating high school this year and will no longer be able to play with the varsity team.  We hope that some of them will continue to stayed involved in our VC Revolution volleyball program as coaches, but we want to push them out of the nest so that they can pursue a college education.  We’ve also been brainstorming ideas to figure out how these girls can financially support themselves to go to college.  Please pray for these girls that they will all be able continue to take the next step and go to college.