Well, it’s been a while. Now that Thanksgiving is over and the even busier weekend following that is winding down, I thought I’d post before Christmas totally kicks in.

A while ago, J’onn and I were walking into Target. While in the parking lot he saw some “sea hawks.” I told him yes, we call them seagulls. “Oh. Well if they were at a bay, they’d be bagels!” And he cracked up. I had to agree and laugh as well. His brain is so funny sometimes.

The following is the PG-13 part:

Last night, Cory came into the school room where I was working at my desk. He, with a very puzzled look on his furrowed brow exclaimed, very intensely,”Mom, Santa’s not really real is he?” “Well,” I replied, “He was real. He was a real person who lived a long time ago. He did so many nice things for kids that ever since then, grown-ups have bought their kids presents and pretended they are from the real Santa.”

At that point, his face melted into relief and he said, “Right! So you just order them from Santa!”

“Ok, sure.”- apparently he was not as ready for that conversation as I thought. It is revealing about how impressed we are by our culture though. Santa has never delivered presents at my house (why would I give him credit for giving my kids joy?), but they still know he should come.

Spokane recently experienced one of its worst storms ever. This wind storm downed trees and power poles causing over 180,000 people to lose power and it took many 10 days to regain it. We scraped by, never losing power, with shingles blown off our shop roof and an incredibly dirty house (the wind plastered dirt everywhere- the car wash lines were amazing). During this time, our restaurant was super busy, because no one had heat or food- or a way to heat up what food they did have.

OK, so, that’s what’s been going on in our house. I’d write about Hailey’s boyfriend, but I don’t think she’d like that. The whole experience of “courting” has really thrown her for a loop- it goes against her anti-change mantra. But I will say it has been fun to see her stretched and growing, as agonizing as it may be for her.

If I do not log back on, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. As I tell my kids, we give gifts to remember the Greatest Gift of all – God’s gift of Jesus to a sinful world that we can be reconciled to Him through His Son.