Holidays!!!

Today is Halloween. I think this officially begins the "holiday season." To commemorate this time of year, I will begin a series of Christmas blogs that will dispel myths, and give you insight into what Christmas means to me.

First things first. This past weekend, I had the priviledge of helping to take pictures at a costume party for cancer patients. The party was sponsored by a non-profit charity organization called Adonai. It was cool to see the chemo patients smiling. There was candy up the booty, and good food, and lots of pictures. I will put a few up later today.



CHRISTMAS - PART 1

To start with, I will rant about how it bothers me that retail outlets start putting Christmas suff out even before Halloween. I know this is part of their ploy to get you into the buying mood, but sakes alive, can't they at least wait until November 1st? We went to Lowes last weekend (we go to Lowes or Home Depot almost every weekend) and they already have two aisles of Christmas stuff out. They even had a large part of the garden section dedicated to "living" Christmas trees. Wal Mart and Target are already gearing up, and I think I even saw some Christmas decorations at Victoria Gardens.

You may be wondering "so what?" Well, here's my deal. I love Christmas. I love everything about it. Shopping, buying gifts for people, family gatherings, parties with friends, Christmas trees, lights, the Nativity, Christmas Eve services, the whole ball of wax. But I can't stay in the Christmas mood for more that about 6 weeks. So if I go to the stores and see all the Christmas stuff out, then my Christmas mood switch goes on, and I'm done before Christmas even gets here. What's more, if they put the stuff out early, then the vultures come and start ravaging it, so by the time I get to shopping for Christmas stuff, it's in shambles. So, this bothers me.

Here's my plan for this year. I'm trying to get all of my lists together, and get all the gift exchange assignments done, so I can start my shopping this weekend. My goal is to have all of my shopping done by December 1st. After that, I can just enjoy making candy canes and hanging out with friends, and maybe put a little more thought into this years Christmas cards. We'll have to see how that works out. Plus, if all of my shopping is done, then I can go to the malls and just enjoy the decorations and the Christmas music, and watch all the other people frantically sucrring about.

So that's pretty much it for today. I leave you today with this question - How many wise men were there, and what evidence can you provide to support your answer?

Have a good Halloween, and be safe.

Why my friends Rule

So I'm done with my Rules of Engagement stuff, and still have a few minutes to work on this.

This summer, we went to Carpenteria with some of our friends. I love my friends. I think God gives us friends so we can get a small glimpse of what Heaven will be like. The only problem with friends is that I get really attached to them. Then they move or I do something stupid that distances them, and that hurts. Sometimes friends just drift away - life happens and takes us in different directions. I'm much better with writing than speaking, so I know I don't tell my friends enough how much they mean to me. And I suck at corresponding, mostly because I'm impatient and don't have the time to write letters. But now that I'm blogging, I have a way to communicate, at least a little better. And since the whole world can read it, I become a little more transparent at the same time. Yay.


Here are some pics from that trip. And for my friends, old, new, and unknown, I love you all. God has always surrounded me with good friends, and I am blessed to have always had the best friends in the world.

These are some of my favorite pictures. The big group pictures alway make me happy. The picture of the kids wading in the waves pretty much captures the essense of the trip - Good firends hanging out, doing nothing more than having fun and enjoying each others company.