Christmas Thoughts

While preparing for a talk, I read several articles about whether Christ was really born in December and why Christmas is celebrated then. I found it very interesting, but not really important. I once heard someone comment that they had stopped celebrating Christmas when they learned it was originally a pagan festival*. That struck me as very sad. Why stop celebrating the birth of Christ simply because the origin of the celebration day is a debated point? I find that irrelevant. The important part is that we celebrate the birth of Christ. We can and should celebrate the birth and life of Christ all year long. There is no reason to limit our celebration to the generally accepted “birth day” of the Savior. Christmas is a wonderful reminder of the spirit we should carry all year round. Christmas time is often associated with service opportunities and unusual acts of kindness. Why are these acts of kindness unusual? Why not be kind all year? Why don't we watch for service opportunities, be kind and helpful without limiting such behavior to the holiday season? Let's act this way all year long. Remember that we represent Christ in all we do and always try to act as He would.

*For those who are unfamiliar with the pagan traditions, here is the general idea: the pagans celebrated during the darkest time of the year to appease the gods so the sun would return. When the Christians decided to celebrate the birth of Christ during this season, it is generally believed they were trying to replace the pagan festival with a proper celebration to help convert and retain the pagans to Christianity. Since nobody knew the exact day of the Savior's birth, the leaders of the Christian church felt they could name any day to celebrate.

First Horse Rides

I figured there's been too much about me lately so I need to get some more cute pictures of the girls up for everyone to see. These are from while we were visiting my family before Thanksgiving.

Cora riding with Uncle Roy. She loved it. She loves every animal she can get close to.
Ruby tried really hard not to take a horse ride. To get her on the horse Grandpa held her and Ray stood on the opposite side of the horse. Ruby went to Roy only because he was closer to Ray.
Here is Ruby after she rode around with Uncle Roy for a few minutes. I think she really did enjoy it, once Ray and I were out of sight.

Cora with Paco. She would get her hand really close, then pull it back and look up with a big grin. I don't think she ever quite touched him.

Guess how many...

dead deer showed up at my house on Wednesday night?

The correct answer would be: Five.

WARNING: Dead deer pictures follow. If you do not care to look at pictures of dead animals, please stop reading now.

Ray's deer:These are the LAST three deer Ray got this year. He got two earlier in the season. That maxed out the number of deer he is allowed to shoot in one year.

Greg's deer:
Our friend Greg has been hunting with Ray this year. These are his last two deer. He got one earlier.

Ray and Greg are currently in the process of cutting up the meat. I do my best to stay out of it all. Cooking it is my part, I guess.

Discussion on a Haircut

This is to quickly answer a few questions I've gotten about the new 'do.

First of all: I love it!! It is so easy, quick, and mostly out of the reach of the girls, which is exactly what I was needing right now. I was a little nervous because my hair has never been this short before, but I'm really glad I got it cut.

I didn't measure how much I cut off. I didn't save any, either. But I did think about it. Then I remembered that I am not an organized saver of things so what in the world would I do with a chunk of my hair?

Beth cut it. She's really quite amazing at cutting hair. She cuts her own all the time.

Because of this haircut I purchased my first hair dryer. Ray asked, "You just cut off all your hair, why do you need a hair dryer now?" I've even considered getting a curling iron, but I probably won't. I mean, this cut is really easy without curling it, why add extra time when I don't have too?

I can't get Ray to give me his opinion. I know he likes long hair. He told me he didn't want me to cut it. He finally gave in, sort-of, with the comment, "Just don't look like a boy." Now the most I've gotten out of him, when I asked him directly if he liked my hair, was, "Yes and no." He wouldn't expound on that. Oh, well, I like it and I'm very glad I cut it.

The Snowless Globeless

A tale of Meg's stupidity

It's that time of year when the Christmas decorations come out. Meg was excited as she opened the box of decorations and pulled out the first few. No tree yet, the ornaments will have to wait. The nativities, those can come out now. Hmm... where would the stockings go this year? Oh, there is the beautiful snow globe, that can definitely come out now. This would only be the second year the snow globe was part of the decorations, it was a gift from her sister just last year. One or two more things would do it for now. Meg being the practical person she is, wanted to take the fewest number of trips possible from the storage room to the living room. So, she carefully held the snow globe while balancing other items around it. Crunch. What was that? It couldn't be the snow globe, she was being so careful. Alas, as she looked down into her hand she realized water was flowing from a large crack in the globe. Luckily, knowing her own propensity to break things, she had stored it in a large zip-type freezer bag. The bag was holding the gushing water quite well. The only bright point in an otherwise forlorn situation.

Meg was very distraught. Angry with herself for not carrying the snow globe by itself. Very upset because she really liked the snow globe and was excited to decorate with it. After a therapeutic cry, she decided to see if it was in any way salvageable. It was quite easy to break out the rest of the glass. Only one small piece of anything else was broken. Superglue fixed that. She was able to save everything except the snow and the globe. So now it is a snowless globeless:

It's just not the same.

What do you think?

Sorry the pictures aren't great. I was trying self-portraits.