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Well, It's been a great week. Christmas was very relaxing and enjoyable. I was the first one up (about 8:00). I lit a fire and made some coffee and simply relaxed. The Kids and Lovely Wife came down around 9:00 and we had a slow and methodical opening of the presents. All the presents were passed out and we opened them one at a time starting from the youngest to the oldest. We would go round after round until all the presents were opened. What a far cry from the younger days when our sole request was, "don't wake us until it's light!".
We've been very busy the last few days with ShoutFest. What is ShoutFest, you ask? Well, it's the New Year's Eve celebration for the youth at our church. There are nerfball gun wars (we have like 70 air powered, 3 chamber, 15 round guns and we play capture the flag), there are live bands all night, there is outdoor football under the lights, there is hockey, tons of board games, nintendo/x-box/gamecube/playstation/whatever rooms (some with the games projected onto large screens), ping-pong, foosball, and food, food, food. Lovely Wife is in charge of the food this year. 7pm-9pm: Spaghetti dinner. 9pm-11pm: nachos and hot dogs. 11:30 to 2:00 am is a time of celebration and worship. Then 2:30am-4am: breakfast, featuring scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon and sausage, juice. Piece of cake, huh? Last year we had 350 kids. This year we're expecting over 400! Here are some pics from last years event.
Yesiree, life is good. The three day countdown to Christmas has begun (it's the most Wonderful Time of the Year), The Rams are 12-3 and have won the NFC West and a first round bye (BoyHead and I went to the game yesterday), Philly lost to the 49ers so all the Rams have to do is beat the hapless (yes hapless, they have not one iota of hap) Lions to secure home field advantage. Lovely Wife and I had a most enjoyable Saturday afternoon shopping and singing (yes, we actually sang Christmas Carols in the car--not in the mall though). Christmas cards have all been sent and are guaranteed to arrive in time for the new year. Yesiree, life is good.
We typically get a late start to the Christmas Season because we are heavily involved in the Church Christmas Show. It's always an extravaganza, but the preparation time distracts us from other yuletide obligations. This year the show was Dec 12, 13 and 14 and the preceeding week we have dress rehearsals every night. So it's mid-December when we finally look at the calendar and say, Yikes! The show is always a blessing to us, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Here are a couple pics of the show.
My computer has not been very healthy lately. First, it was a bad memory chip that was causing problems. Now I'm getting a message saying I have corrupted or missing system files. Apparently, these files are quite important, because I can't even start it in safe mode. Alas, next year I'm making sure I get it a flu shot and make those kids wash their hands before snotting up the keyboard.