Not Quite the Same

As I am starting to feel Christmas and Advent in the air I am realizing it is just not the same this year. Yes the radio stations are playing the music, the stores are all decked out, streets have lights, Santa is in the mall, and the Advent wreath is at the front of the Sanctuary at church, but something is just not right.

That sometime is within me. On Black Friday while I was at work I received a phone call from my mom. When I got off I returned the call to hear here crying. The guys (my Dad and Brother) had left her alone with the Christmas decorations. The tree, the nativity, the ornaments, and her Christmas village were all there for her to put up with no help. As I listened to her I could feel her pain. This is OUR time and it always has been. My mother and I were always the ones to bug my dad and brother to go to the basement and bring up all the boxes. Then we would turn on Christmas music, which drove the guys crazy, and decorate everything. This included me hiding the wise men until after Christmas most years. However, this year it is not OUR time. It is just another reminder that I am far away and cannot be home this Christmas.

Ever since the phone call I just don't feel right. I don't feel Christmas and Advent, I feel hurt. Yet, I still feel love and know it will all be ok.

So I leave you all with this:

I'm dreaming tonight of a place I love

Even more than I usually do

and although I know its a long way back

I promise you

I'll be home for Christmas

You can Count on Me

Please have snow and mistletoe

and present under the tree

Christmas Eve will find me

Where the love light gleams

I'll be home for Christmas

If only in my dreams, if only in my dreams

Evils of Black Friday

Long Lines, Finding a Parking Spot, Working with Black Friday Shoppers (they are crazy and sometimes down right rude), Having Large boxes of fragrances fall on your foot (bruised/broken toes), Not knowing exactly how to keep you manager happy when you are doing your best.

Need I say More????

Not Quite the Same

I have been living out what I have dubbed since moving to Texas as "The Dreaded Week." What that means is having my 27th Birthday and Thanksgiving without my family and Candler Friends. However, it is not turning out to be so bad. Last Friday night 25 of my new Events and Adventures friends took me out for dinner at Cafe Adobe (amazing Mexican). We sat around laughing, talking, and just having a good time. I had some drinks, great food, and wore a balloon teria. It was crazy. After dinner me and a few of my friends went out dancing. It was fun, but I am not a big fan of the club we went to.

Now I just have to make it through the next day without breaking down. Thanksgiving has always been a really big day for my family. We get up and have waffles as we watch the parades, cook all day long, watch football, and then have a late dinner. This year is going to be a little strange for me since it is my first away from my family and our routine. This year I still want to get up early and watch the parade and will make pancakes. I will go over to my best friend Xeania's house to enjoy a mid-day Mexican Thanksgiving meal. Then tomorrow night I will host a Thanksgiving dinner at the Hilton Post Oak in a dinning room over looking all the Christmas lights in the Galleria square. I am looking forward to this change, but missing my family something awful.

Wonderful World of Retail Part II

The demonstration is a big selling point at Bath and Body Works. Studies have shown that they more we give demonstrations the better our sales are. I did not totally believe this until about a week ago.

I have been working cash register since I start at Bath and Body Works about a month ago. Last Wednesday I was pulled off register and asked to work area 1 (the front of the store). That means I had to give demonstrations of our new "Twilight Woods" fragrance. If you have not smelled it yet, you should. It is kind of different. As I went about handing out coupons and giving demonstrations I became more aware of just how imports demonstrations are to stores and to Christians.

The more knowledge I showed about the Bath and Body Works products the more people bought. I brought our conversion rate from 40 to 75 % that night (conversion is the amount of people that enter the store compared to the amount of people that buy). So I started thinking if more Christians would just demonstrate Christ in their lives we would have a lot more Christians. People would be asking questions and getting the answers they needed if we all knew more about our faith. I am not talking about denominational crap, but real facts about what Jesus taught, Paul and the Apostles taught, and how God's grace is really strong enough for all (sorry about the grace reference I am still a little Methodist in my theology). If we all knew more than we could better demonstrate what a real Christian is supposed to be.

Finally Feels Like Fall

The past few weeks we have had Fall weather on several days. This made me so happy. However, the feeling of Autumn did not come for me until this past week. My friends Exenia and Nubia decided that we needed to go costume shopping to get me out of my little Fall rut. The day was wonderful. We went to many different stores and they were so wonderful. Each of us tried on costume after costume laughing and giggling about how we looked. I had not done anything like that since high school. The last store we went to is where I found my costume. I did not want to try it on and was getting tired of all the shopping ( I dislike shopping very much). However, Xenia made me try the pirate wench costume on and I loved it. It made me feel like Autumn. I think it looked amazing on me, as did the many people on Halloween at the events and adventures party. Everyone talked about how happy have been seeming lately and how I have lost weight. The highlight of the night was seeing the look on my friend Gary's face as he saw me the first time on Halloween night (Gary is next to me in the picture). He is a really good guy and good friend. Seeing him look at me the way I looked at myself that night was wonderful. In some ways it made me think of how God sees me. It was just this look saying; Rachel you have always been Beautiful to me, but now you are seeing it and acting like it yourself and that makes you radiant.