A Holiday Adventure: Dec. 22-Jan. 7

What a whirlwind!  The year ended with an incredible crescendo and opened up the new year with great fanfare.  After the fugue of large scale church Christmas events, my parents and I drove up to Oakland after their last day of school.  We flew out of there early the next morning to see our beloved friends the McMillans in Los Alamos.  I would have loved more time with them, but Christmas Eve is a time for family.  So, we flew back to Oakland (insultingly by way of LA, so close to home but not home) to drive to Napa to be with family for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve, I had my boyfriend Stephen at my side, and I was pleased to see how well he got along with my family.  I was also overjoyed just to see some relatives that I haven't seen since my mother's birthday in May, and some since last Christmas.  I met for the first time my two adorable twin cousins, Lincoln and Mateo, who were born maybe two months ago.  That night, after all the good food and presents, Stephen took my Dad aside for a brief conversation which left them both smiling.

I spent Christmas Day with Stephen's family in Angwin.  It was a joy to see his two brothers, who are also friends of mine, home for the holidays.  I was touched by how they treated me like one of the family, his parents even giving me a stocking along with their sons.  We ate, talked, played games, and they introduced me to Stephen's grandmother, a very beautiful woman under Piner's care.

After the traditional playing of awful music on Boxing Day, the Lutes family picked me up for us all to go to Leoni Meadows for a few days.  It was snowing on the way in, and we had to put chains on their van.  After the six of us settled into the cabin, Stephen took me on a walk through the moonlit camp.  We stopped at the door of the cafeteria, laughing at his first memory of me (I remember him some two or three years before that) trying to talk to him when he was so shy when we were in high school.  The conversation flowed far more freely than that first remembered one as we walked to the porch of the Leoni House, where he held me as we overlooked the moonlit, snowy meadow.

Then he suddenly wasn't holding me anymore.  I turned around, and there he was, on one knee with a lovely little ring in hand.  "Jillian Spencer, will you marry me?" he asked. 

And of course, I said yes.

We walked back out to the bridge in the middle of the meadow, where he had gotten his parents to set up a rose, a candle, some Martinelli's and two goblets.  We took our time to process what we had just done, toasting to the future and praying for wisdom as we go about it, as well as for the people we care about as they react to hearing about it.  I was incredibly grateful to have that time before sharing it with the world, something private before it all became so public.  That night, we would tell his brothers and my immediate family. The next morning, we would post it on Facebook for the world to see.  But I was glad to have something private first.

And I was glad to have a few days just enjoying the scenery of Leoni Meadows in the snow and the company of the Lutes family before going back to face everyone who would surely pester me with questions. "When are you getting married?'  "Can I do this?"  "Can I help you with that?" and "Have you thought about this, that, or the other element of the wedding?"

While I understand this loving curiosity and desire to help, I feel it distracts from the simple joy of the narrative.  God has brought Stephen and I together, and we want Him to lead us together for the rest of our lives.  Sure, I'll have to plan a wedding and all the fussy things that go with it, but I worry about that becoming a distraction from the life that Stephen and I got engaged to build.

So I was grateful that Sabbath when his home church in Yountville was congratulatory, but low on questions, and that night when we were actually able to celebrate my father at a private screening of Les Miserables without my engagement being a distraction from it.  Dad was genuinely surprised to see a theater full of his students throughout the years, and it really touched him.  I think all three of us were crying at the end of the movie, and he had to break up all the emotions of the thing with his flippant, "Don't forget to pay for your silent auction items!"

The next day, the four of us drove back to LA, and spent a lovely evening with our friends, the Staubbacks, including a trip to the El Capitan Theater for Monster's Inc. On New Year's Eve, Stephen and I went to Disneyland (I won't do that again or recommend it; it is far too crowded on New Year's Eve).  From there, we went to camp all night on Colorado Blvd for the Rose Parade, catching up with my friend Diane through the cold watches of the night.

After drinking in the sights and sounds of the parade, we repacked and headed out to Vegas with my parents. That night, we strolled through the lit gardens of the Ethel M factory--it was magical, and even more magical without glasses.  The next two days, instead of getting good and refreshed, somehow Stephen and I ended up wandering the Strip, admiring the architecture of some of the casinos while getting tired out by the swarming masses of people and irritatingly constant advertising.  We did enjoy some good food at the different Feast buffets in the evenings, though, and finally got around to seeing The Hobbit in its magnificent high frame rate.

Once home on Friday, it was a quick rush to create the church newsletter and come to church for Pathfinder Sabbath the next day.  Like the members at Yountville, my own church members were very gracious about not prying us with too many questions--we even managed to run an Amnesty International letter-writing campaign and actually get people interested in the issues.  The next morning, however, I woke up with 103 degree fever.  So, instead of Stephen ending his trip to LA with something more adventurous and journeysome, he spent it taking good care of me and now I am actually probably at my physically best since June now. 

And now I am at a loss at what to do with this blog because from here on out, my journeys are no longer "Jillian's Journeys" but "Jillian and Stephen's Journeys."  But then again, God has been my constant traveling companion the whole length of my writing this blog, and I've never given Him title credits, either. The purpose of this blog has always been to satisfy the curiosity of friends and family who have found it an impossible task to keep track of me, and sincerely want to know where I've been and what I've been doing while absent from them.  From now on, though, this is no longer just my story, but our story.  But it always has been an "our story"--the story of keeping up my relationships with all of you while far away from you.