memory box

Hey Internet!

Merry Christmas! It's FINALLY here. A break from day-to-day life to take a step back and relax, spend time with family and those closest to us, and to remember the birth of Christ.

Part of the Walker's "Christmas Traditions" is that we always get an ornament that kind of commemorate or symbolize what has gone on in our life for that year. We've gotten skiers, I have a baseball ornament or two, that sort of thing. This year, my mom decided to give them to use on Christmas Eve. So, we'll start with my sisters.

Angela went on her first big mission trip to NYC and absolutely fell in love with the people there. Also...for better or worse...she got her driver's license! Word is she's a very good driver!

How Mom found this one is absolutely beyond me! Alyson spent her last summer interning for a church in Georgia. While there, she went with a handful of folks to Albania! That is an ornament that says Merry Christmas, with a snowman holding an Albanian Flag! I never in a million years would have guessed they made something like that, but my mom is the Queen of finding these types of things.

This brings me to my ornament. I took a few shots of it!

For any of you out there on the internet who dont know WHY this perfectly captures my 2009, let me tell you a little bit, and then show you a little bit more!

I am one of the few and the proud. I am a member of the men of the 4th Floor. How it got to be what it is now is beyond me, but its a group of guys who all live on the same floor of our dorm, and we like to dream. Big. Last year, we had a floor-wide Easter Egg Hunt. I'm not trying to brag, but I heard several people saying, "this is the funnest thing I've done in college." It was childish, yes, but it was filled with fun and fellowship and good times. For months, we'd talked about, "What if the 4th floor had a tunes show, how awesome would that be!?"

Time out!!!
When I say Tunes, I mean Tiger Tunes. Tiger Tunes is a show that Ouachita Baptist University does every year in order to raise scholarships for students in need. It is a big deal. Each social club and a few other campus organizations on occasion will be involved, usually totaling 7-8 shows. Each group has 6 minutes to put on essentially a mini-musical, using rewritten songs (as you will see in a second. Keep reading!). Clubs work for the better part of a year preparing their show, and practice for weeks on end to make everything perfect. There is an explanation of Tunes in 30 seconds.

TIME IN!!!
LOONG drawn out story short, the fourth floor men got a spot in Tunes, the first show to ever be put on by someone other than an official social club/organization. Expectations were mixed. Some expected us to merely attempt to mutter words to a song, others expected a full on Broadway performance. Once we got the word that we were allowed in, 5-6 of us stayed on campus over Labor Day weekend and wrote the entire Tunes show for the 4th Floor. It consumed all of our creative juices for that time period, and was a lot of fun!

The general story line for our show draws on OBU history. We have a Tiger sculpture in the middle of campus. Our rivals, HSU (Henderson State University), are literally across the street from us. In OBU's history, HSU students would come and steal the Tiger Tail. The premise of our show is the response of Security Guards to our tail being stolen. And, internet, for those of you who dont know anything about OBU, you may not get all of the subtleties in the humor of our show.

So, without anymore delay, I give you the 4th Floor Tunes show!