This Christmas was definitely one for the memory bank.  On December 23rd I received a phone call from an unknown number, so I ignored it. Not giving it a second thought. Then Christmas Eve morning I received a text message from the same number which happened to be my brother’s new cell phone number.  I immediately called the number only to find out that my brother and his newish girlfriend had been in Washington since Tuesday.  They were planning to surprise my parents on Christmas Day.

 So in true brother fashion I was to lie to my parents about Christmas Day. I was to tell them that the Christmas presents were going to arrive by courier on Christmas Day. I did tell my parents this, but with little conviction in my voice.  I did want to keep the surprise, because I knew my parents would enjoy it.  I found it funny that the first time I heard from my brother in over a year was to ask me to lie to my parents.

 On Christmas day my brother and his girlfriend arrived just in time to eat…much to the surprise of my parents. Of course my parents are very reserved people so it was a lot of “Oh mys” and “Oh neats”. No screaming for joy or tears of happiness. And in parent fashion it only took ten minutes before the photo albums were brought out.  It was great watching my brother’s girlfriend go through the embarrassing photos of my brother. But at this point the pictures are more cute and enduring than embarrassing.  Part of me wondered if my and my fella were ever going to do the same thing, going through the photo albums looking at my baby pictures.

 Overall it was a good day.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to spend Christmas with a family in Aberdeen, Scotland. I was attending a school in England and one of the students there was Scottish; she invited several of us up to meet her family and spend the holiday with them.  It is my most memorable Christmas. 

 I had never been away from my parents on a holiday except for Easter, my sophomore year of high school.  But being away for Christmas and being so far away had a great affect on me.  We left England by train; it was an all day trip on crowded trains. There were three of us all together with are dirty clothes and clean clothes, pretty much everything we possessed at that school.  We were going to be gone for three weeks.  I am a proponent for train travel except during the holiday season and in a different country.  The UK has way more trains than we do, but they aren’t always on time. I think they try to make up for the tardiness by having more trains. 

 There are a few distinct memories that I have from that vacation.  The first is arriving in Aberdeen. By the time we arrived it was dark and late. Snow had been falling most of the day, despite the busyness of the train station there was a quiet calm as big fat snowflakes fell to the ground. We were driven home by my friend’s father and given a brief tour of their home. Then we sat down in front of their coal stove and my friend made us hot white chocolate cocoa with pastel colored marshmallows.  I have never been able to find the same hot chocolate mix here in the States.

 The second distinct memory is from Christmas day.  We were gathered around a Charlie Brown Style Christmas tree opening presents. I remembered the sadness on my other friends face.  She had never spent Christmas without her family either. I was doing well; I missed my family and was enjoying the experience until I opened a Christmas present from a friend back home.  She included an animatronic spotted dog that sang “Blue Christmas”. The tail would wag and the head would shake causing the bells on its fake reindeer ears and during the song it would start boohooing. It was funny and sad and annoying at the same time. I still have the dog, but not the friend who gave it to me.

 The third memory is going for a hike a few days after Christmas. It was a seven mile hike around one of the Lochs in the Highlands. Even though there was a steep incline on the whole hike it was still exhausting.  However the best part of the entire day was almost getting run down by Prince Charles.  The surrounding area was both a national park and land owned by the royal family.  There was a house near the Loch that we ate lunch outside of on the front steps. As we left the home and were making our way along the road back to the road a string of Range Rovers were came towards us before we realized it. We had to jump to the side of the road and as we looked Prince Charles and his wife smiled and waved at us. It all happened so fast we couldn’t snap a picture.

 I am not sure what experiences this Christmas will bring but I doubt they will top the memories of that time in  Scotland.

My name is Elizabeth Ann (last name omitted for privacy reasons). The name is fairly common for women in my generation and the generation before mine. It is still popular today; Elizabeth is usually in the top 20 most popular baby names every year.   I was never completely fond of my name because of its popularity.  I used to tell people that I was named after Queen Elizabeth. However that was not true.

My parents named me Elizabeth Ann for two reasons. The first reason was because of their meanings. The origin of Elizabeth is Hebrew and it means God is my oath (this is what I found when I did a quick baby name search just now, but my parents told me something slightly different.  They said house of God or house of prayer). Whenever you have an “EL” in a name there is usually God in the meaning.  And they chose Ann for my middle name because it means grace. The second reason is because these names are found in the Bible. Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist. Her story is found in the first chapter of Luke. Ann is a derivative of Hannah. Hannah’s story can be found in the first chapter of 1 Samuel.

There are many nicknames for Elizabeth.  There is Eliza, Liz, Lizzy, Beth, Betsy, Libby, Buffy, and my personal favorite Betty.  I have been called Elizabeth, Beth Ann, Liz, Lizzy, Beef, Bethany, BethieBeth and Beth.  Out of all of these I despise Liz and Lizzy. Only two people are allowed to call me Liz and no one else.  One uncle refers to me as Beth Ann. One Uncle refers to me as Elizabeth. But everyone else just calls me Beth.   I started referring to myself in the past couple of years as Betty, but that is mostly on the internet.  I have always liked Betty as a nickname for Elizabeth and I figured if I wanted to be called Betty in my old age I would have to start referring to myself as Betty. Yes, I do realize that BettyBeth is pretty much the same as calling me, ElizabethElizabeth.  I like Beth too.  My parents have called me Beth my entire life, it is more my name than Elizabeth. It is not very common. Most people with the name Elizabeth are Liz.  However I do see that changing especially in Hollywood.

Growing up I never remember any main characters named Beth or secondary characters named Beth. There might have been like a background character referred to as Beth but they never returned to the show. I am speaking generally, not referring to any particular show.  In the recent past there has been the movie “I Love You Beth Cooper”.  There is another movie coming out with the Veronica Mars chick where the main character’s name is Beth.  I even saw someone named Beth that directed an episode of “30 Rock”. I think it’s great that the name Beth is becoming more mainstream, but all of these “Beths” are blonde (not sure about the director of the “30 Rock” episode though).  We need some brunette Beth’s out there. Unfortunately if it becomes too popular I am going to have to find a new nickname.