Friday Fragments: End of Semester, Beginning of Christmas

I feel a bit scattered this morning.  Let me record a few bits on this day, the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas (if you wanted a more focused meditation on the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas, go to this post on my theology blog). 

--One reason why I'm feeling scattered:  I need to be working on some of my larger seminary papers that are due soon, but I'm working on shorter assignments and grading.  It's work that needs to be done, so part of me thinks that it's fine.  I'll feel better when I actually get some pages out of my head and onto paper.  That's my goal for today:  get some work done on the paper that's due Tuesday.

--Yesterday I went back to the church that's hosting Return to Bethlehem.  I created the Inn, the stop just before the stable.  It is probably more luxurious feeling than an inn in first century Palestine would have been.  

--Throughout yesterday's work session, I kept reminding myself that we just wanted people to suspend their disbelief, not to be schooled in first century history and to be impressed with our verisimilitude.

--The above pictures don't show the roof of the inn.  It took some "engineering," since this space is bigger than many of the others.

--I'd really like to walk through with the lighting the way it will be in the evening, just to see it as others will.  But I don't want that enough to actually go back to do the immersive part.

--I have been looking at old blog posts and thinking about past decorations and trying not to feel sad.  Our Christmas decorations, minimal though they are, have been in boxes for years.  In part, we've been unsettled for the first half of that time.  In part, we're keeping them protected.  In part, it's because we celebrate differently now.  But I do miss having seasonal decorations, even as I do admit that we have a few table top trees and some lights.

--I try to enjoy the seasonal decorations of others.  But they aren't mine.

--I'd like a finished house so that we could actually start establishing some traditions, among other reasons.  But at least this year, we do have interior walls.

--It's that time of day when all concentration is shot--too many hours staring at the screen already, even though it's only 7:40.  Might as well do the grocery shopping:  4 times the fuel points on Friday!