Christmas Lights at 1208

In our 35 years of married life, this is our first attempt at outdoor Christmas decorations. It's kinda hard to tell, but that's a star up in the point and a couple of angels blowing horns down below.

Some of our neighbors look like they're auditioning for the Griswold's part in the Chevy Chase Christmas movie with great elaborate shows of light and ingenuity. And that's always fun, but our budget and sensitivities ran to something a little less pretentious for our first time out. At least we don't look the only Jewish family on the block any more.

The W in Christmas (shared with me by Sol Cartier)

The "W" in Christmas

Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations -extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas. My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant." I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there'd be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise.

So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title.

Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snow caps upon their heads. Those in the front row- center stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love." The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly we noticed her; a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down - totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W".

The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W". Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities. For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:

"CHRISTWAS LOVE" And, I believe, He still is.

Time for a Change

Bought a different (not new) car today. It's an Audi TT. We traded in Julie's 2002 Maxima. She will drive the Murano and this will be my car.


I've never owned a sports car but this is a lot of fun to drive. Although it only has a four cylinder engine, it's got a lot of zip.


More than can be said for it's proud owner.

All Saints Day Fair

This Saturday was All Saints Day. We had a worship service and then a fun afternoon.


Kids dressed as saints. Above "St. Patrick" shows off his snakes and "St. Frances' friend whose name I forget" shows off her animals.


We arranged for a huge bounce house for the kids.


And our diocesan church camp, located in Granbury, brought horses for kids and adults to ride around the campus.

Sunday Lunch with Erik

It's been a few weeks since we hung out with Michael, Cheryl, and Erik. Erik has grown quite a bit and is a lot more "interactive" than last time together.


He's teething..


And he's losing some of his baby hair as you can tell in this picture.


He's also taken to eating solid food. We enjoyed our visit but it was too short.

Society of Spectacle

Poster on Althouse blog nails it:

"This just reinforces my ongoing impression that we've been living out a satire for the past year or two. We elected a callow nobody as President on the strength of a few vacuous speeches. The healthcare debate -- driving trillions of dollars in anticipated future expenditures -- got turned around by comments someone scrawled on Facebook, and now the Nobel Peace Prize committee has decided to award prizes for good intentions. It's like no one's even serious about anything anymore. None of it matters. It's the Society of the Spectacle."

Blessing of the Animals

Yesterday was the Feast of St. Francis, a day when many churches, including ours, invites pet and animal owners to bring their beasts for a blessing.


This was Katie's first time to go to church. While we were waiting, she intimidated several other dogs in attendance, barked loudly when anything happened, and generally acted like most parishioners do. After prayers and a short homily, care-givers were invited forward with their pets to receive the sprinkling of holy water and blessing from the priest.


Katie survived the ritual, but thinks it's a lot more fun getting wet in the sprinkler.