This is easily the all-time coolest video ever. It just doesn’t get any better than this:
Princess Sarah and Her Majesty’s Gloves
Little kids just don’t seem that impressed with learning the Hebrew origins of their names.
Today there was a little girl named Sarah sitting on the swings. I asked her, “Did you know that the name ‘Sarah’ means ‘princess’?”
She looked at me blankly for a second and replied, “I’m wearing gloves!”
Needless to say, I didn’t delve into Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. Maybe next year.
Pee Pool
I knew I was forgetting something from that lunch with second-graders yesterday:
When I asked the kids what they’d been doing in class that morning, they said they were learning about compound words. So I asked what compound words they’d learned.
One little guy said: “Doghouse… newspaper… mailbox… people.”
I thought, Huh? “People”? But if you say it out loud, it does sound kind of like a compound word.
Lunch With Second-Graders
Today I had lunch with some second-graders. A couple conversational highlights:
“On the first day of first grade I didn’t say anything for a month.”
“I can spell ‘minute’ without even thinking about it.”
“Okay, go for it.”
“M-i-n-u-t-e.”
“Did you think about it?”
“Only the ‘t-e’ part.”
A Christmas Carol Bi-Annual Date
Carolyn and I had our first date in six months yesterday. The last time we went out was the night before Laura Marie was born. We saw Night at the Museum 2, then went to dinner at Zia’s.
Yesterday afternoon our good friends Josh and Christi, along with their boys, watched the baby while we went to see A Christmas Carol. Man, it was good! Nearly every year we read or watch A Christmas Carol. It’s one of our Christmas traditions. So it was really cool to have a new version of it come out. Not only was it a new version, but it was 3-D in the theater–it was so cool!
We’d never seen a 3-D movie before. Now I’m hooked on it. We saw previews for some upcoming 3-D movies. I want to see them all! Even without the 3-D, it was a great version of the classic story. For the most part they stuck very closely to the book. One of the best parts was their depiction of Victorian London in a snowy December. I loved it. They also made the most of the 3-D effects. Now that I think about it, I’d like to see it again before it leaves theaters!
I figure having one date twice a year is probably a good place to start.
(By the way, if y’all see this, a big THANKS to the Engles for taking care of our baby!!!)
Baby’s First WinterFest of Lights
Last night Carolyn and I took Laura Marie to see the WinterFest of Lights in Ocean City. It was a special night. Carolyn and I have gone together to see the lights for 12 years in a row. It was so wonderful to have our little six-month-old baby daughter with us!
The baby really liked the lights. She was all bundled up so that I could only see her eyes and nose. She stared intently at the lights, only occasionally glancing around and looking at me with an expression that seemed to say, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” She was awed.
After the ride through the lights we took her inside to see the Christmas trees that various organizations decorated, and she stared at the colorful lights and sparkling tinsel.
Our baby is starting to be introduced to family Christmas traditions! We’re really excited about creating new Christmas traditions with her.
Christmas KidsFest 2009
On Saturday we had our third annual Christmas KidsFest here at CrossWay Church. It was great! We had 41 children. They had gingerbread cookies that they painted with colored frosting, made Christmas ornaments, sang songs, ate lunch, opened a present with their name from under the Christmas tree and then played with their presents, and learned the story of Jesus’ birth.
This year’s crowd was nearly double what we’ve had in the past, but everything went well! I love the way the Bible story was done. The kids opened a gift box one at a time, and each box had something (or someone) in the Christmas story, and Carolyn told them that part of the story. (One little guy opened the box with the angel. “What is it?” Carolyn asked. He replied, “A butterfly!”) At the end of the story Carolyn asked them if they knew what God wants for Christmas. There was one more gift box, and Carolyn passed it around for each child to look in so they could see what God wants for Christmas. The bottom of the box was fitted with a mirror so that each child would see his or her own face. What a neat way to teach the children that what God wants for Christmas is for them to know and love Him! (Of course, there were a few of the younger kids who needed it to be explained several times that a mirror was not what God wants for Christmas.)
It was great to see so many from CrossWay give up a chunk of their Saturday to serve these families from our community and show them the love of Christ!
Half
Today Laura Marie is half a year old. Six months ago Carolyn woke me up about 6:00 a.m. and told me her water broke. Our lives have never been the same since. We knew that having a baby would be awesome, but Laura Marie is so much more wonderful than anything we ever could have imagined.
Once she was born, one of the things I most looked forward to was seeing her smile. She didn’t disappoint. Her smile is just unbelievable. If I got hit by a car and broke every bone in my body, then saw her smile at me, I’d probably forget that I’d even been hit by a car.
Our daughter is now 1/2. Another six months and she won’t be zero anymore! What an incredible blessing.
Surfing the Inner N8 