and i wish we could all go camping and lay beneath the stars.

"and I wish all the people I love the most

could gather in one place

and know each other and love each other well

and I wish we could all go camping

and lay beneath the stars

and have nothing to do and stories to tell

we'd sit around the campfire

and we'd make each other laugh

remembering when..."

-Sara Groves, "Every Minute"

(the song my blog is named after)

arrival hugs.

strong tent men.

i was super helpful. chet's a slacker.

i love them so. 

at which point i repented of being grumpy we were going camping in illinois. 

good morning.

so very grateful that from

thailand, alabama, pennsylvania, new york, and oregon,

we were able to be together.

(we went to college together.

we graduated.

we went to colorado.

we went to new york.

i respect and admire each of them beyond words.

they know me better than almost anyone.

and i love them a lot.)

Matty.

Today, from 3,000 miles away, I have been gratefully reflecting on and celebrating the life of Matt.

Who over the last 12 years has been to me
a youth-group leader, mentor, example,
baptizer, landlord, counselor, navigator,

encourager, pray-er, listener, hugger,

brother, third parent, and dear, dear friend.

Outer Banks, 2006


Grateful on his birthday for him and his life,
and for the tangible reminder of God's love he is to me.

Morning long-distance family time.

My sister is a badass.

She knew she wanted to study racial and socioeconomic disparities and effects since mid-elementary school,

when she asked our mom why some kids in her class didn't have enough food and clothes.

Now she spends her days working with youth to stay out of gangs

and creatively pursuing ways to help the formerly incarcerated find legal, safe jobs.

She is pursuing a master's degree on learning the best ways to restore

communities and victims and offenders affected by crime,

increasing the safety of all and the futures of all.

Her heart is for justice, for kindness, for opportunities for everyone.

For people to be heard and be real and have hope.

She walks her talk more than anyone else I know

and she makes me want to be a better person and remember the needs of those around me,

seen and unseen.

Out of 1300 men and women in her graduating university class,

she was chosen as the recipient of the single award for a woman

recognizing character, service, leadership, and academic achievement.

She also makes me laugh more than anyone else

and looks hotter than I do in my clothes.

I feel amazed and inspired every day

that this girl is my sister.

Charis.

I have requested photos from everyone I love of anything they are

"growing, nurturing, or helping to flourish"

in their gardens this year.

(AKA, a spring version of my Christmas collection.

If you didn't get an email from me, I still want your pictures-

send me some!!!)

My beautiful 15 year old surrogate sister sent me this:

"I'm growing this!!

Oh sweet girl, you make me so happy.

Up tomorrow,

my dad's response...

.happy birthday dad.

thank you for

starting every voicemail with

"Hi... this is your Dad! I love you so much!"

(multiple times a week.

every. one.

starts with,

"I love you so much!".)

thank you for

talking about the Beatles so much

that i assumed our family friend John

was John Lennon

until I was like, six;
and that once you tried to understand how i feel during worship music at church
by comparing it to how you feel listening to Paul McCartney.

thank you for

thinking i am so much more

beautiful

smart

and funny

than i really am.

it's so great... please don't stop.

thank you that

every time someone says something nice about one of us,

instead of saying,

"Oh, thanks."

or

"Well, I'm glad she's polite for you",

you say

"I know! Isn't she wonderful??!!"

thank you for

your excellent one-liners

even in times of tension.

a particular recent favorite:

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect you to be so upset!

I said 'go to therapy', not 'go to hell'!".

classic.

thank you for

always wanting to hear

what i'm learning in school

and being so so excited

i am going into psychology.

thank you for

going to the same restaurant

for lunch

every single day

and ordering the same thing

every single time

for years and years.

the servers love you.

the manager loves you.

and i love your steadiness and predictability.

i am slightly concerned that if they ever close,
you will starve to death.
but we can worry about that later.

thank you for

teaching us that you should always

tip at least 20%.

thank you for

printing and mailing out to all of our friends and family

a Christmas card which read

"Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All, and Don't Forget To Vote Democrat in 2012!!".
you're ridiculous.

and i love that you and mom taught us to be concerned for the needs of the voiceless.

on the Christmas front,
thank you for
making sure, should anyone be giving out prizes for most unique Christmas Eve,
we would have won this year.
with your careful selection of our cozy family movie to watch:
Lost in Translation
(wikipedia's explanation: "explores themes of loneliness, insomnia, existential ennui, and culture shock against the backdrop of a modern Japanese city.")
you're right,
White Christmas or A Miracle on 34th Street
would have just been cliche.

thank you for

this line in an email,

which i just found when i was looking for pictures

and made me crack up:

"Life should be a frolic, at least in spirit, if possible while meeting our responsibilities."

...duly noted.

thank you

that our best dates have always been and will always be

hanging out for hours in a bookstore.

thank you that
every time we see a family with little kids
you always say
"don't you remember that?
you were like that yesterday!".
still.

thank you for

being so, so thrilled with your present from me this year,

a trip for the two of us to take,

even though you, um, have to pay for it.

i feel so lame,

and yet you really are so thrilled.

it's pretty cute.

thank you that
you read Sherlock Holmes to me
as bedtime stories.

thank you for

the only good advice i've ever heard

for a miserable emotional 8th grader.

you sat with me at the kitchen table as i cried

in thirteen-year-old woe,

holding my hand and looking even sadder than i was,

saying over and over,

"I promise, this too shall pass."

i still try to remember it

on the (extremely rare) occasion i'm ever emotional now, too.

thank you for

your response to the email

i sent you and mom during my cognitive therapy class this fall,

which read only:

"acceptance and commitment therapy is so how you guys parented us".

you wrote back immediately,

"Yay! Thanks Em! We love you soooooo much!"

assuming i had clearly meant it as a high compliment.

('acceptance and commitment therapy'

is a technique defined by increased

"awareness of the here and now, experienced with openness, interest and receptiveness".)

number one,

we are the weirdest family i know;

number two, thank you.

thank you for

loving

the Beatles

Abraham Lincoln

the Beatles

Seinfeld

the Beatles

bike trips

the Beatles

Chipotle (which you pronounce Chi-pote-LAY even though your pre-teen and teen can.not.believe.you.ohmygossshhh)

the Beatles

nature

the Beatles

and us.

(i do know you love us more than the Beatles.

i respect their place as a strong second.)

happy birthday!!!

i love you sooooo much

and i am so glad you are mine.

.and though it's been said many times, many ways.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who had a very specific Christmas Fantasy.

Her dream was that everyone she loved

would all live together in one big cabin.

On a mountain somewhere.

(I mean, we're dreaming, right? So it would have a front porch and window seats, too.)

And throughout the month of December,

they would all just, you know,

sit together (probably while cuddling) by the crackling fire,

watching the snow fall and singing Christmas carols,

laughing all the way.

Alas, instead the people the girl loves are all spread out around the country/world.

So she cajoled them all into sending her pictures of them getting ready for Christmas.

Then the girl could PRETEND she was sitting with them drinking hot chocolate

or helping them trim the Christmas tree...

right?

(She may have told them she needed these pictures for a "collage"...

Well, she lied. They were for the blog.

Duh.)

Enjoy my little spread-out community.

Very grateful everyone participated and I get to pretend I am with all of you this season...

Oh, how blessed I am with the people I get to know + love!!

It's (some of) my second family and their tree!! I would like to publicly announce that Char was the FIRST PERSON to get her Christmas photo to me. I am so proud of you, Charis.

Here she and Kailey are showing off their Christmas tree, and a face on a gourd. That's how we celebrate Christmas in Maryland in the Ramsing family.

(Random phone call from their mom the other night:

Me: Hi!

Becky: (no hello) Get on Skype now! We're actually all together!! We need to do advent!!!

Oh. I. Love. Them. Can't wait to celebrate with you guys so soon.)

Sarah sent me this one titled "Christmas Baggé style" of a recent evening in DC. Love that she painted her own Christmas cards. Especially love the sweet note in mine I received last week. Love you, babe.

Matt and Amy each (way to go above and beyond, guys!) sent me this pic of

Christopher and Hannah decorating their tree with their cousin, in Maryland.

And the one below it Amy called their "Christmas card reject pic". I particularly like the way Christopher is strangling the cat...

Fun fact #1: I used to live in this house! With them! It was The Best. *sigh*

Fun fact #2:  I remember vividly all three of these tall creatures as infants.

Fun fact #3: The couch Christopher is standing on once belonged to my mother. Cute.

Aw, here's the lovely Christina in her very brand new St. Louis home. She explained this was her "make shift" tree: a plant under ornaments hanging on the wall. Great ingenuity, Chris!! (PS, love your face to the sun, very Mary Oliver.)

Chris's and my third musketeer, my BFF Claire and her roommate just hangin' out with Santa in MD.

My beautiful freshman roommate Amy with her and James' tree in San Diego. Wish we were celebrating together in our little dorm room together in Smith... as 18-year-olds... um well, no, but wish we were together, Ames!!

Who is this hiding, festive fellow? Why, it's Chet in New York! Hi, Chet!!

(added 12/24) My awesome met-them-the-first-day-of-college friends Gabe and Jana sent me this picture of their lovely tree- in their new home in Madrid, Spain!! I know my favorite geologist and writer couple are a blessing to any community they are in, anywhere in the world. MISS your faces.

My beautiful friend Helen from Connecticut just arrived back to the States after six months in Bolivia! Having once arrived back to the States at Christmastime after six months in Bolivia, I am beaming her lots of extra love right now. I am so proud of this girl and lovvedd getting to spend time with her when I was in Cochabamba in July.

Mary and Wolf 's family's FOUR stockings makes me so happy. I can't wait to hold their newest addition, Miss Lyla Grace born in August, when I get home to Maryland this weekend.

Check out that big huge THREE year old Rex, hanging his ornament!!

My sweet sweet precious friends Christine and Luke in their Glen Ellyn apartment. Their matching monogrammed stockings make me smile. I miss these two terribly. Lovely tree, guys.

Bourke and his roommates having way too much fun around their Christmas tree in Seattle.

Now this is the kind of celebrating I'm talking about!!!!

My love Elise hitting up the DC Christmas scene. I also got an ornament in the mail from this beautiful girl yesterday!! It made my heart so happy. Thanks, sweet, I love you!

It's the brand-new Mrs. Emily Miner!!! With her and Javan's first tree as a married couple, in Colorado. They are a shining star of HNGR coupledom, so I would bet good money most of the decorations in that house are fair-trade made in developing countries... (am I right, Em?)

Speaking of HNGR interns, here's one of "mine" in St. Louis, with her fam. Hayley was in the Best HNGR Small Group Ever (seriously, we won the award for 2011 interns). This girl always makes me laugh.

My crazy friend Josh in Wheaton entitled this photo, "A Christmas Snow Angel". And what a lovely holiday angel he is.

My sweet roommate Heather in Alabama!!! Gorgeous tree, Heath. Heather, our beautiful roommate Christine who's off being a rock star missionary in Thailand, and I are reading our awesome advent devotional together this year. Love those girls.

More awesome HNGR interns!! Kait and Wendy and a friend rocking the WHITE HOUSE Christmas tree in DC. Very hard core.

The lovely Kari with her tree in Seattle! I am so proud of this brand new certified massage therapist (rocking her brand new super cute short hair, btw. Love it, Kar.)

Josh and Meg in Illinois, just hangin' out decorating their tree. Personally I think this photo should go on a Christmas magazine cover somewhere. Oh I miss you guys.

It's the Improv Boys!! Steve, Marty, and Tim in front of the Christmas tree, showing off the matching Hardy books they all received as gifts (seriously). Oh boys.
(Total seriousness: I was SUPER nostalgic the other night wanting to go caroling and remembering when we went caroling two winters ago...)

My wonderful west-coast fam, the Qualls, cut down a tree from their very own tree farm in Idaho. I loved spending Thanksgiving with them this year! Represented in the top photo are Russ, Lisa, and about one third of their children. Following are their ever-entertaining and completely wonderful youngest three.

It's my crazy and fabulous photographer friends and world-traveling partners in crime, Tim and Asharae, with their tree in North Carolina!!

You might think Ash is just wearing that bow on her head to be silly for the picture...

but no no. She's just really stylish.

(Sign up to do a photoshoot with them and you can see for yourself!)

My housemates and dear friends Ryan and Kendra celebrating Langdon's first Christmas!!!
WOULD YOU PLEASE LOOK AT HOW CUTE THAT BABY IS OMG.
The bottom one is them lighting the Advent candle at church with his grandparents in Wheaton.
This baby makes me cry in joy and I can't hear enough about him, ever. (I just got off the phone with Kendra, so I mean it... I choke up in excitement when she tells me about cute things he does.)

These are the pictures that spurred the whole idea. My dear dear friend Matt and his boyfriend picked out an awesome Christmas tree in Chicago. Matt, knowing my need for connectedness to my community, emailed me these pictures a couple weeks ago and they made me SO HAPPY!

(*Clearly this is all about me and my needs. It had nothing to do with, "Matt got an awesome tree and wanted to share HIS joy." It was definitely about me.

...Okay, yes, I'm absurdly self-centered, but those of you who know Matt, and know me, and know each of our respective emotional needs, have to agree with me that most likely the decision to email me pics of the experience was at least in part for my benefit. Thank you bud.)

Fun Fact #1: That car like, represents my college experience. Oh Cally the car.

Fun Fact #2: I love this boy a lot.

And finally, my bosom friend and her new husband. With an adorable ornament... and Christmas nail polish (nice, Mayr)!). OH I love them and cannot wait to see this girl in MD TOMORROW!!!!

Well, I suppose it's only fair to close out with a Christmasy picture of me.

Here I sit, curled up in my cozy little attic house in Oregon.

Nothing I would love more than to have each of these faces sipping hot cocoa by my Christmas tree with me as I knit under my snowman quilt...

but having all of your pictures is a good second.

Thanks for participating in my holiday fun, oh beloved far-flung loved ones of mine.