Merry Christmas!

Santa and his Elf stopped by last night to leave presents for the children. We had a great time! We left them cookies and enjoyed the looks on the kids faces. Nancy first met Santa's Elf at BSF and since then we've been on many hikes with Santa and his Elf as well as short vacations together (during the off season of course, Santa is very busy). He did say he was taking tomorrow off, Christmas Day.

We all had a great laugh when they left "out the back door," because little Andy asked, "I thought they were supposed to go up the chimney?" Their credibility called into question by the oldest child required some private counseling by Dad. The other two were completely taken in by the chicanery.

It's the season to be mellow

It's the season to be mellow. It's so nice to get up in the morning and see the Christmas tree with all the presents under it... along with the grand kids too! This morning's activity includes doing cookie decorations. The kids helped make the cookies. They were so helpful, they licked the knives really well between cookies too!

Of course, you have to put the tiny little red, yellow and green balls on the cookies after you slather on the frosting. When we ran out, I told them not to worry because there are hundreds of them in the carpet from last year!

I'm so glad we can enjoy Christmas together this year! Today we're going to a Christmas service at church and then this evening Santa and his helper will arrive before the kids are tucked into bed! Yes, it's true!  Mark and Teena are the actors and we plan on catching them leaving presents for everyone. More on this later...

Christmas time!

Life has been pretty hectic here in the last couple of weeks. Sorry for not keeping you more updated on my "Fragments." Last Wednesday it snowed here before Seth and Noelle and the grand kids arrived. They were driving up from Tucson and thankfully arrived a few days after this 5 inch mess and found only dry roads on the way up.

Today, Seth and I took them for a little walk on one of the nearby trails. So, we bundled up and trudged through the snow up the trail from our house.

On the way up, we ran into a coyote (the kids first sighting of one of these creatures). He was more interested in the prairie dogs than us. I thought he looked pretty healthy, so he must be having some success. Keep up the good work buddy!

We found a place where there was a little more snow and enjoyed watching them get wet and cold. The kids also discovered snow balls! Hey! I'm off limits. I have a camera!

Tea and Couth

Nancy and Noelle went to Mrs. B's Tea Parlor with friends and had a great time together. Besides tea, they said they had  really good "soup in a bread" bowl. They said they even ate some of the bowl, since it's bread after all. I explained that in most restaurants they re-use those bowls. Hmm, interesting reaction.

It's nice to be married to someone with couth. I admire people who know what couth is so that they're aware when they're being un! I'm also happy that Nancy has someone with couth to go to these kinds of places, instead of me.

Connecticut Tragedy

Last night we were at a friend's house enjoying a Christmas party, playing games, and singing Christmas carols. Of course, we all reflected on the events of the day, the tragedy in Connecticut. All those little children, we thought! We pondered the enormity of it and prayed for the parents. An old favorite hymn we sang was Away in a Manger. One of the verses is:

Be near me, Lord Jesus;

I ask thee to stay

Close by me forever

And love me I pray!

Bless all the dear children

In Thy tender care,

And fit us for heaven

To live with Thee there.

I image that to believe in a loving God at a time like this seems difficult. How could this happen? Perhaps God's excuse for this is Easter. As Christians we believe that the cross of Christ overcomes evil. However, did it overcome unfairness? I think not. Maybe, Easter Sunday is required, God must show us a way through unfairness and in fact he does. God promises us that he will restore all physical reality, problems in the world, and unfairness, to a proper place under His rule. Until that time, we have to be mindful that we only live life on Easter Saturday. In the meantime, we live in a world that is plainly bad and evil.

Frederick Buechner wrote, "To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the first and great commandment nonetheless. Even in the wilderness - especially in the wilderness - you shall love Him."

I like the words of Philip Yancey in his book Disappointment With God. He writes, "Who in the world does not yearn for more justice in the world here and now? Secretly, I admit, I yearn for a world "fault-proof" against disappointment, a world where my magazine articles will always find acceptance and my body does not grow old and weak, a world where my sister-in-law does not deliver a brain-damaged child. My faith on such a fault-proof earth, my faith will let me down. Even the greatest of miracles do not resolve the problems of this earth: all people who find physical healing eventually die."

We need more than a miracle Yancey says. Perhaps the real miracle is what God promises in Revelation 21:4-5 "and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or drying, or pain; the first things have passed away. And He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold I am making all things new.' And He said, 'Write, for these words are faithful and true."

In this world of sin, there is still hope...

How silently, how silently

The wondrous gift is given!

So God imparts to human hearts

The blessings of His heaven.

No ear may hear His coming;

But in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive Him,

still the dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend to us, we pray.

Be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels,

The great glad tidings tell,

Oh come to us, abide with us

our Lord Emmanuel.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

II  Corinthians 5:17

Song Title on my mind today: The Love of God

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the sky's of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

These words were penciled on the wall of an insane asylum by a man said to have been demented. The profound lines were discovered when they laid him in his coffin.

Oh Christmas Tree!

We went to dinner last night and then worked on the Christmas tree when we got home.You know they actually have plastic Christmas trees now. They're hard to tell from the real aluminum ones. The last time we set up a tree we used our old artificial tree. The tree was so puny we had to use orthopedic bulbs. We bought more bulbs this time and got a real tree! I have to water it every day!

Our neighbor decided Christmas is too expensive. He went outside and shot off three blanks with his gun, then told his kids Santa Claus just committed suicide because of the election.

Now I'm looking for a gift for our oldest grandson Andy. I found a war game made in the Middle East that has a rocket launcher on it. It comes with a bayonet attached, in case you miss. This is really a nice gift but it takes batteries. While I was looking around I saw that they came out with a battery-operated battery. But the batteries aren't included.

Kids today walk taller

Kids today walk taller. That's because at home, everything they own is on the floor. Eli, pictured below knows where everything is though. I had asked him to find me a ball to throw around and he had it to me in 5 seconds! He's a pretty smart little guy too. He wanted me to take this ladder home so he could use it as a chair.

Men are God's masterpiece, but don't bet money on it!

Nancy and I saw this in Tombstone last week and had a few laughs. The reality is, men are what women marry! Nevertheless, as the saying goes, "for every woman who makes a fool out of a man, there is another woman who makes a fool out of a man."

So, I think when God made man, he didn't make the spine so that man could pat himself on the back! Yes, being humble is the right thing to be. In 1 Peter 5:5 you should read, "clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

Desert Museum

We saw lots of animals at the desert museum. Below is a photo I took of a Coatimundi. I think he's looking at the mess someone made. These friendly creatures end up as pets sometimes. Not sure that's a good idea. They are pretty smart animals, I'm told. At the zoo in Denver they have a donkey with the IQ of a genius. Unfortunately, he has no friends. Who likes a smart ass?

A museum is a lot better than a zoo. At five in the evening the visitors to a zoo go home. Watching them leave, the head ape will say to the little apes, "I think they feed them now. We'll come back in the morning!" I for one, will certainly come back to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

Arizona Desert Musem

We had a good time visiting the Arizona Desert Museum during the Thanksgiving holiday. As we walked up to the entrance we saw this guide holding a barn owl. My grand kids were amazed at its ability to turn its head all the way around and look behind it. Twice as many vertebrae will do that I suppose.

We also saw a mountain lion, wolves, many rattlesnakes, king snakes, big horn sheep, a coatimundi (I'll show a picture of one of these later), hawks, a sleeping bear, and many other desert wild animals. I would highly recommend this wonderful museum to anyone.

Thanksgiving

We had a great time at Thanksgiving this year. Of course, I ate too much. I always eat too much of everything on Thanksgiving. If they have a gas war the next day, It'll be me!

We sat around the table talking about all the things we were thankful for like our family, our relationship with God and much, much more. Afterwards, I got to thinking that this has really been a trying year, what with the election outcome and all. But in spite of that I have to say, this is the first Thanksgiving we had a turkey that volunteered! Just what does he know?

Playground

Thanksgiving this year proved to be more than just turkey and dressing. It was play time with granddad and grandma! Since the weather was so nice we went for walks, rode bikes, and spent time doing this. They can do this over and over and still have fun doing it. A simple life can be pretty nice.

The scary part about this photo is that I had to be up on the top of the slide. I doubt the engineers had really anticipated a big boy like me standing up there. It held though!