I Dream of Christmas

The Best Christmas Light in the Tri-Cities

This Christmas Holiday has been pretty amazing. It was chocked full of all kinds of fun adventures. You can check out my The Nowell 2011 Story Facebook Album or Minnie’s Untitled Facebook Album.

We got to go to the Christmas Party for Elijah Family Homes. We got to see some old friends and meet new people. We even got take a picture with Santa Clause. It was a good event. It gives everybody connected with Elijah Family Homes the ability to meet each other. They have a big dinner, games / crafts for kids, and give all the family presents. It also gives possible new family referrals meet everybody.

Other than agency parties, giving gifts is another important part of Christmas. Some other clinician at my Nueva Esperanza all referred clients to Bethel Church for their Operation Christmas Child. I got to play Santa, and deliver the presents for my clients. The company van was so full; I had to make two trips.

Minnie and I spent Thursday driving around and looking at lights. For both Thursday and Friday we drove around looking at the Christmas Light Displays listed on the Tri-City Harold. My favorite wasn’t listed in the Harold, was a house that I enjoy checking out every year in Richland. Not only do they have a great light display, but they put up thousands of figurines. After some hot coco and driving looking at lights we found our way to the Cathedral of Joy’s 2011 Living Nativity.

An interpretation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom, the image is taken from the Wikipedia entry.

Friday we went to church (http://www.eastlaketricities.com/). They decided to have church on “Christmas Adam” (i.e. The day before Christmas Eve). They said that they didn’t want to have church on Christmas Eve or Christmas so everybody could spend it with family and friends. They’ve also canceled church for next weekend. Our pastor said that it would go against what the church was trying to do. He said that we are focused on reaching the unchurched. He said that he didn’t know any of his friends that don’t go to church that he could pay enough to come to church New Year’s Day.

Saturday and Sunday we went back and forth between Prosser and Richland visiting Minnie and my parents…

As we were driving around looking at all the lights, it made me think about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I was thinking about how many people are working on their basic needs (i.e. food, shelter, food, security) while there are so many people who don’t even have to (or want to in most cases) think about those things.