Merry Christmas, 2008

Merry Christmas!!

May your celebrations be joyful, full of blessings, and honoring to Christ the King, for He is the reason we celebrate.

Isaiah 9:6-7 (NIV)
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

One of the Universe's Little Mysteries Solved

Have you ever stopped to wonder how having a foot of snow impacts the smaller creatures of this world? Have you spent countless hours puzzling over the mystery of how squirrels traverse snow ladened trees, their branches covered in three to four inches of white, icy snow?

No? Well, the later question (nor the former for that matter) had not troubled my mind until this morning. As I was partaking in some sustenance with which to break my fast, out through the kitchen window I observed a squirrel moving along a large branch covered in three to four inches of snow. As I did so, I realized that this question, how a squirrel traverses snow ladened trees, was such an obvious question, it's a wonder that it had not been bothering me for years now. Would they plow through it, like a water buffalo in a rice paddi? Would they climb backward, swinging their tails to brush off the snow? Would they race along the top of the snow, like an elf?

While I did not have the question before hand, I now had the answer to this little mystery of the Universe. Now I can rest easy, burden lifted. That I may help ease the burdens from your minds regarding this mystery, I will share the answer with you.

(Drum roll please)

Instead of trying to deal with the snow, the squirrel simply traveled along the underside of the branch, speeding upside down, unhindered by the snow, to wherever it was going. Little mystery of the Universe solved.

Is your burden eased?

Blog Glob, 12/22/08

• It looks like we will have a white Christmas this year. Over the weekend, we probably got around a foot of snow. On Christmas Eve we are supposed to get some rain/snow mix, but I doubt there will be enough rain to melt all of that snow by Christmas Day. Christmas is supposed to be fairly warm, around 50, with no snow fall predicted. However, I think having the ground covered with it counts as having a white Christmas.
• I'm now sore and tired as a result of the first bullet point. There was a lot of shoveling to be done. I also started construction on our own sledding slope in the backyard, backed up to the climber, but that is still a work in progress as it is taking a lot more snow than I thought it would.
  
• I'm going for my annual eye exam tomorrow. Yippee (said in a monotone, with no enthusiasm).
• I'm on vacation all this week and am only work the first three days of next week. Yeah (said with a lot of enthusiasm and pitch fluctuation)!!
• I bought myself a new computer game to play with the boys, specifically Will. It's called Crazy Machines 2 and does not involve any violence to living creatures, just to some inanimate objects. I decided to do this because Will really likes computer games, but seems to get obsessed with the ones that have fighting in them, like Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle Earth II and Age of Empires III. He seems to like this one (so do I) and has not been talking about shooting guns or arrows as a result. Ben likes it too, which I knew he would, since it's about solving a problem (or puzzle) with various parts to make something do a specific task(s).
• My parents are coming next week for a visit. It will be nice to see them.
• I am in the process of reading "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens to the family (which means Will and Stephanie, with Ben and Ellie occasionally listening in). After that, we are planning on watching a cinematic version of it, the one by the Muppets :-).
• I watched Superman, The Movie, a couple of nights ago. It's still a great movie in my opinion. The next night, I let the kids watch a "making of Superman" with me. That resulted in Ben "flying" off the couches and beds.
• Can you believe that Christmas is only 3 days away? I've still got presents to wrap!
  

The First Snow, 2008

About 6:30 this morning Ben came into our room to inform us that it was snowing. I mumbled a less than sincere thanks. To be fair, we had looked at the forecast yesterday which had forecast snow, so Ben was on the look out for it. Both boys were hoping that there was a parking ban in Providence, which would mean that there was no church, which would mean that they could go out and play. In fact, they wanted to get suited up and go out prior to breakfast, that's how excited they were.

I checked a couple of web sites and even called and left a message for our pastor to check to see if there was a parking ban. So the snow would have to wait until we got home from church. As soon as we got home, the kids headed out to the backyard to play. About the time I decided to go out with the camera, Ellie had decided to come in because her clothes were wet from having jumped in a puddle that had formed in front of the bulk head. Enjoy the pictures below. Some are a little fuzzy or off center because they were taken while I was the target of snowballs from both boys. At one point I was forced to put away the camera and defend myself :-).

Will was not happy to have snow down his coat.










Ben was not happy to have fallen face first in the snow.

I mentioned that Ellie had come in as I went out, right? Well, Stephanie was in our bedroom feeding Sam, so Ellie was unsupervised. Below is the result.

She's sucking on the lid of the toothpaste tube.