Christmas Card Photo on Flickr – Photo Sharing!
This is the photo we sent with Christmas cards. It was taken a few weeks ago by Michele.
Christmas photo of kids
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Tag Archives: Christmas
Christmas is over
Well, Christmas is over. I’m tired out and so is Michele. We are still in our PJs and it’s almost noon! The kids are playing with their new toys on the living room floor, recovering from late nights, sugar highs, and excessive excitement. I’m listening to some of the songs I bought with a gift certificate to iTunes. I’ve never bought so many songs before in my life. I’m thrilled with the ability to buy just the songs I like, many of whom have special meaning or move me with their sentiments. Among my purchases are Johnny Cash singing “I Walk the Line” and “Ring of Fire” as well as LeAnn Rimes singing “Unchained Melody” with a voice that gives me goosebumps. Oh yeah, and I’m downloading the rest of the episodes of the tv show “Lost” that I don’t have already.
Keegan is staying at his grandparents’ house for the next few days and will go hunting with his grandpa today for the first time. He is very, very excited about this. Tonight he and his Uncle Bryan and his grandparents are going to see “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
Tomorrow I go back to work and back to the daily grind.
Christmas party
Tristan has a dragon painted on his face
Originally uploaded by Steve_Oberg.
Last night we attended the Christmas party for my work. The weather wasn’t good and we debated about not going, but the kids were really excited about going so we decided to go after all. Michele had bought the three younger ones really cute outfits and they enjoyed getting dressed up. The party turned out better than we thought, with lots of special activities for the little ones, such as a face painter and a magician. There were special little gift bags with toys for them, and the kids even had a special meal with food they liked, including macaroni and cheese, and chicken tenders.
Thoughts about Christmas
I hate this time of year.
That may sound harsh, but it’s true. And the more “jolly holly Christmas-y” everyone around me gets, the more I hate it. I don’t like the way that people spend so much money (more than they can afford). I don’t like the extreme commercialism or consumerism that is so evident. I don’t like the added stress of having to think of and plan for what to buy people. I find no joy in setting up the Christmas tree and other holiday decorations. I really dislike the stress and anxiety of doing any shopping at this time of year, along with a bazillion other people, fighting over parking spaces.
I find this time of year to be a very lonely and depressing time. I even hate this feeling of hating Christmas. Why can’t I enjoy it as others do? Why can’t it be a time of warmth and thanksgiving, of generosity of spirit for me?
New iTunes includes video download
I was excited by the news today that a new video iPod is now available from Apple. I can dream of some day being able to own one of them. I still like the one I’ve got (a 4 Gb iPod Mini), but I’d like to have the battery life and storage capacity in the latest version.
Another part of today’s big news from Apple was the release of iTunes 6.0. This is a major update to the software. The main new feature is the ability to download video. In particular, you can download all of this season’s episodes of ABC’s hit drama, Lost, or some other Disney-owned shows, as well as some short movies from Pixar.
I’ve never seen a whole episode of Lost and it is one of the only shows on TV that I think might be worth watching, so I was intrigued by the possibility of downloading the season premier episode for $1.99, with no commercials. (I think that is a great price, btw, for 40+ minutes of video — remember, with no commercials to disrupt it). So I gave it a whirl. I just finished watching it on my PowerBook G4 using the new iTunes and thoroughly enjoyed it even though the resolution wasn’t that great. I hope this whole concept put forth by Apple today succeeds and that there will be more interesting content made available for download for a reasonable price in the near future. So far, I like what I see. Now, I wonder if I can get away with putting that 60 Gb video iPod on my Christmas list…
It’s 2005 and I resolve to be more positive
OK, so it is now 2005. Ho hum. One of my unspoken resolutions of the new year is to be more positive 
In that spirit, here are some nice, happy, positive things to write about:
One of the positive things that’s happened lately comes out of a big negative. We were told a few weeks ago that our van, a Honda Odyssey, needed a new catalytic converter. The price to fix it? A cool $1,200! (Why so expensive? We were told that it is because Honda’s catalytic converter contains precious metals like platinum.) We don’t have $120 extra to spend on anything, let alone $1,200, so this was a very big setback for us. The dealer told us that although the catalytic converter wasn’t clogged, it was very close to being clogged and we shouldn’t travel anywhere. We had to cancel our plans to visit family during the holidays because of this. At the dealer’s suggestion, we contacted American Honda to ask if they could help us out at all with the cost. I was very skeptical about this possibility, frankly. I called Honda last week and they promised to investigate the situation and give us a call back with their decision early this week. Lo and behold, we got a call on Tuesday from them, saying that they had decided to waive the entire cost of the catalytic converter!!! All we would have to pay would be the labor cost of installing it. I couldn’t believe it. Would an American car manufacturer do a thing like that? I wish I could say, YES, but I greatly doubt it. I have been a huge Honda fan for years since buying my first Honda in the mid 90s, an Accord, and I am more “sold” on Honda than ever before because of this. Anyway, I took the van in to the dealer yesterday and they installed the new part and all I had to pay was $76 for the labor. Good deal!
What other positive things can I start the new year with? Well, let’s see…I finally managed to clean out our garage. If you had ever seen how messy it was, you would be amazed at this incredible feat We can now park our van in the garage, which makes things much easier for everyone, especially in inclement weather.
Another positive thing is that after cleaning out the garage, we finally got around to unpacking a lot of our decorative items like family photos, knickknacks, paintings, and such. This, almost three years after we moved to Indiana. It was like having Christmas all over again as we rediscovered so many of the things that we hadn’t seen in years, many of the things that hold special meaning like framed photos from our wedding, as well as many of the wedding gifts that we received. The downside is that we have to figure out where on earth we are going to find space for some of the knickknacks in this house. Maybe Michele and I will finally feel at home here when we find places for all of these personal belongings and see them displayed around us.
One of the many nice presents I received for Christmas was something I had wanted for a long time: an AirPort Express base station with AirTunes. Talk about cool! I’m using it to extend the range of our AirPort Extreme base station, and I also set it up to play music on our stereo system in the living room via iTunes. I copied all of our CDs onto the PowerBook — about 1,200 songs in total — and we can now listen to all of our music or whatever combination of songs that we want, from the equivalent of a gigantic jukebox. How cool is that?
Another Christmas gift was the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I have already watched it and am generally pleased with the extra stuff in there. Now I have to figure out what I am going to say about it for my invited presentation at the upcoming C.S. Lewis Society meeting!
Finally, the most positive thing I can write about is that I am blessed in so many ways, with a wonderful wife, and four great children. Yes, there are some sacrifices and some trials here and there, but I still find it amazing that God has given me so many good things. Over and over again, He does what I think is impossible. In the midst of this world’s troubles — especially thinking about and grieving over the terrible devastation in Southeast Asia right now — I am so thankful that Jesus Christ took my sins upon Him and bore them on the cross, paying my debt for sin. I struggle all the time with accepting and enjoying what I do not deserve, and God knows I surely don’t deserve such an incredible gift. But this is exactly what He loves to do: to rescue and bless and be in relationship with those who don’t deserve it. Amazing grace!
Winter Wonderland in Indiana
We woke up today to a vastly altered landscape. Several inches of soft, powdery snow fell throughout the night and made everything look beautiful. Times are pretty hard for us right now in a number of ways but I try to remember to be thankful for all of the things that I usually take for granted, like health, children, my wonderful wife, the house we live in, etc. I am also thankful for the weather even though snowfall makes traveling dangerous. Tristan and I woke up together this a.m. (as usual, he was sleeping on the floor on my side of the bed) and went downstairs to sit in an armchair in our family room, gazing out of the patio door at the beautiful snow. It was a special moment.
God is good! He will take care of us, no matter what. I feel bad about not being able to give very much this year in the way of presents for Christmas but hopefully I can get past my pride.
Much needed vacation
I’m on Christmas vacation now. What a relief. I have really needed a true break from work for a long time. It was sad to say good-bye to Ashley, who had worked for me on web development and graphics things for the past two years. She graduated and is moving on to bigger and better things. One of the other students who works for me, Matt, is spending the next five days on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, lucky guy!!! Dave, the third student, will be spending time with his family in Wheaton. My brother, Dan, came to visit us for the first time this weekend and it was really nice to see him. We hadn’t seen him since my meningitis episode last year. He brought his dog, Cassie, with him, and she is a real sweetheart. We have a ton of things to do to get ready for Christmas but I’m feeling better already, having been off work for a few days.