Even though I grew up in the South, I’d never heard of chocolate gravy until a couple of years ago when a guy at our church asked me if I’d ever tried any.

And I’m not positive, but I believe my response was something along the lines of “WHATCHOCOHUH?”

My friend explained that his grandmother had made chocolate gravy for years; it was their family’s favorite biscuit topping. And all I could think was that if I lived in a world where it was possible for gravy to be made with chocolate, then some sort of cheesecake syrup should be our nation’s next collective culinary goal.

Why, you ask?

Because, my friends, I believe in this country, this land of opportunity, this place where we like to take two unhealthy foods and mix them together until we’ve created a new food that is tastier and, lo, even more unhealthy.

God Bless America.

Anyway, I’d never actually tried chocolate gravy until a sweet friend made some for breakfast on New Year’s Day, and honestly, I cannot think of a finer way to start 2009. It was beyond delicious and just the teensiest bit life-changing. Plus, it opens up a whole new breakfast avenue - Dessert Biscuit Avenue, to be more precise - and I cannot wait to make it and serve it alongside All The Bacon we plan to eat in 2009.

I feel like I should wave an American flag or something.

COME ON, NOW.

And this recipe is in the Siesta Fiesta Cookbook - so if you have one of those, you’re good to go.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to make some soft tacos for supper.

Perhaps I will batter and deep fry them as an homage to my Southern cooking heritage.

Amen.

- Over at Toddled Dredge, Veronica’s brother-in-law wrote an absolutely beautiful post entitled The Tenth Day of Christmas: The Eyes of the Blind Shall Be Opened. Veronica denies it, but I’m fairly certain that entrance into her family requires a mandatory writing exam. They’re a talented bunch.

- Melanie has a great post up over at AllAccess.

- Less than one week until this (I finally watched the movie over the weekend, and I believe I’m overinvested emotionally already).

And less than two weeks until this.

My joy, it knows no bounds.

We spent New Year’s Eve with some friends we don’t get to see as much as we’d like, and I took my camera along for the festivities because I figured there would be some hilarious moments to document and treasure forever and for always.

And there were. There were tons of hilarious moments to document. There were marathon spades games that lasted until three in the morning. There were marathon Wii tournaments that lasted until a couple of five year-olds hit rock bottom and entered melt-down mode. There was lots of singing. There was a five pound Hershey’s bar.

There was homemade beef & broccoli and fried rice and salad and cheesecake, and then, around 1:30 in the morning, there was more beef & broccoli and fried rice and cheesecake. There were biscuits and chocolate gravy (YES. I SAID “CHOCOLATE GRAVY.” HALLELUJAH.) and bacon (BACON!) and this whipped honey butter stuff that flat-out rocked my world.

And then there were more cards and more laughs and more Wii games and more fun and by late New Year’s afternoon you have never seen a group of people who were more tired and more full.

And do you know how many pictures I snapped?

One.

UNO.

So here is my lone photographic memory of our 24-hour fun-a-thon.

For what it’s worth, it was the best guacamole I’ve ever eaten.

Happy 2009, everybody. May your new year be filled with, among other things, plenty of delicious avocados.

You’re welcome and amen.

Yesterday I started a long post (IMAGINE! A LONG, RAMBLING POST! FROM ME!) about how 2008 probably won’t go in the record books as my favorite year. I mean, it’s been an incredible year, but it’s also been an uncomfortable one. I feel like I’ve seen my selfishness and my sin through a magnifying glass, and there have been several times when I have thanked God for the refining and then asked Him if maybe it might not be time for a mountaintop. Just one. Just one little teeny mountaintop. Por favor.

I think God likes it when I use Spanish.

Anyway, the more I’ve thought about that post, the more I’ve realized that it pretty much reeked of whine. And I don’t like whine. So I’ve decided to turn my year-end (semi-) frown upside down and talk about some of the happy stuff of 2008. Because I like the happy stuff! Happy is good!

So. The happy highlights.

1) Uganda with Compassion International - Life-changing, heart-breaking and perspective-wrecking. It was all that and so much more. Marriage and mama stuff aside, it was the greatest experience of my life. The bloggers on our trip completely inspired me with their creativity, their hearts and their humor. I can’t express how deeply that week affected me, and how even now, almost a year later, it ripples. Every single day.

2) “God Speaking” by Ronnie Freeman - I bought this CD right before I left for Africa, and I listened to it almost non-stop on our flights. There’s this song called “The Other Side” that was playing when I landed in Chicago to meet the other bloggers, and it was one of the most moving moments of my whole life. I cried like a baby. And right now a song called “No Changing That” is playing on my iPod, and I’m all teary-eyed again. It’s one of those CDs where the lyrics hit me so hard that I could’ve sworn Ronnie Freeman had been reading my journal if, you know, we actually knew each other. I will love it for a lifetime.

3) Dave Barnes - He makes me laugh. And he writes a fine song. And he loves Africa. And Alex and I sang his song “A Lot Like Me” all summer long and we liked to break it down with some smooth dance moves when we’d get to the instrumental part. Good times.

4) Deeper Still Las Vegas - Unbelievably convicting and inspiring and moving. And a bit of a watershed moment for me. I’ve never been able to write about why it impacted me so much because I can’t really articulate it, but it changed the way I look at life in the Bible Belt. And as an added bonus, Melanie and I had an unexpected surprise in our hotel room.

5) The Monkey Alarm - Hands-down the hardest I laughed in 2008. Maybe even in this decade. Thanks for that, Shannon.

6) My podcast buddies - Melanie and Travis are like family to David and me, even if one of them whose name is not Melanie talks incessant Pathwords trash and makes fun of my accent since he’s from NORTH CAROLINA and all. I love them and their sweet families so much.

7) Carpool line phone calls with Daphne, Merritt, Emma Kate, and Melanie - It seems like at least a couple of times a week I get to carpool line super early. So instead of just sitting there, I call friends. I’ve had some mighty fine discussions / belly laughs / therapy sessions / vent-a-thons during those ten or fifteen minutes of wait time. Plus, Emma Kate has a knack for telling forty-two stories in ten minutes, so it works out beautifully. She has a gift, I tell you.

8) “The Office,” “30 Rock,” and “Saturday Night Live” - They made me laugh and clap my hands.

9) Compassion Gloria! Tour - David and I made a spur-of-the-moment trip to Nashville one Thursday night to see the Gloria! concert. So many sweet friends were there. The music was fabulous. It was HAPPY OVERLOAD for my relational personality. I smiled until my head hurt. And then we drove home.

10) Todd and Marti’s reception dance - I was totally, completely floored. So surprised. And I may have squealed.

11) The five year-old asleep down the hall - The little man has grown up so much this year. He is one of the funniest people I know. He wakes up happy. He loves school. He is loud as all get-out and prefers jumping to walking, but he still has such a tender, sweet heart. Last night he and his daddy were playing Wii, sitting side-by-side on an ottoman, and every few minutes he would reach up and pat his daddy’s back. Such a sweet memory.

12) People - From family to old friends to new friends, people have been the sweetest blessing of 2008. People I’ve known all my life and people I’ve known for just a little while. People at church and at work and at Bible study. People in Africa. People at conferences. People who sponsored kids through Compassion and donated mosquito nets and provided shoes for kids who don’t have them.

I feel like I was surrounded on all sides this year by people who are kind, generous and encouraging.

Thanks for that.

Happy 2009, y’all.

This post by Antique Mommy left me wistful and teary-eyed.

And it reminded me that while these days we’re living in might be tinged with bittersweet, they are still very, very good.