Christmas 2013, the highlights, and other random information

Christmas 2013 is officially in the books.  It was a wonderful Christmas filled with things the that Christmas should be.

 The kids and I jammed out to some fun Christmas music while we baked and decorated cookies on Monday morning.

We went to church on Christmas Eve (Yay for our new music director who picked all my favorite hymns!).

We had our fill of goodies at the in-law's house and exchanged simple gifts.  This included our new baby niece, who we got to share in her first Christmas.  

Santa came.

We had a "quiet" morning on Christmas morning and opened gifts here at home with our kids.

My dad and his girlfriend along with my brother, sister-in-law and nephew came for ham dinner later in the day.  The kids played in the snow and ate too many cookies.  We had a lot of laughs.

Now its all over.  The Griswold-ish Christmas tree that shed bucket fulls of needles is outside and will be filled up with assorted things the kids find to feed the birds.  The furniture is back in place and we can see each other without peeking through the branches of that enormous thing.

Now the living room is back together and thoroughly vacuumed and sap scrubbed off the walls.  I only have to return my laundry and dining room to their pre-holiday states.  Oh and find a home for the 1,001 toy kits my kids got for Christmas.  Their aunts and uncles hit the mark this year by getting them things they can build (oh and dinosaur stuff for Joey.  That kid is a nut about dinosaurs!) and I kind of want to hang onto some of those things for the next 4-5 months of cold/snow/mud/rain.  That means I need a place to put them, you know that's not on top of the laundry hamper.

Maybe today some of it will get done.  Today is a rare day when we all have the whole day off to just hang out together.  I'd hate to waste it on laundry.

I do know that we're going to town later this morning to see if we can find any artificial trees left on clearance (reference the above statements about buckets full of needles and gargantuan size trees) and to take the kids to the movies.  Movies at the theater are a pretty big treat around here.  Come to think of it, we've never gone to a movie as a family.  I have taken the kids a few times with some friends, but never all four of us together.  The last one we saw was Toy Story 3 in 3D.   There are a few good family shows playing so it should be a good adventure.

 The rest of the gang is still sound asleep at the moment. So, I think I'm going to curl up with my library book until they all wake up, which should be 30 seconds after I get comfortable.

Happy Christmas Vacation Everyone!

Why I'm With Phil

Every time I go online, there's another blurb about Phil Robertson and will "Duck Dynasty" survive after his scandalous interview with GQ Magazine.  Our family does watch this show.  We love this show.  It has no swearing, no nudity, and frankly, we identify with the goofy redneck characters.  That said, if I were in the Robertson family right now, I'd be hard pressed to want to continue with the show.

Here's why.  The article that started this whole mess was written by someone who clearly does not respect their beliefs.  I can say that positively just because of how many swear words are in the article.  Now, those words didn't offend me and I can see where the author was trying to be funny, but that kind of language is strictly forbidden in their family and on the show.  Who knows what was written that is out of context?

The whole thing is a train wreck.  First of all, let's take a southern Evangelical Christian and ask him point blank what he considers to be a sin.  Then let's make some leaps from there about what he "really means" by his statements.  And by all means, let's not draw any attention to his bottom line, that no matter what sins anybody is committing, we all need to love each other.

That is where I think the magazine and leftist media is missing the point.  Every denomination of Christianity has a different idea of what constitutes sin.  If we didn't then we'd all be Catholics.  His personal religious beliefs of what is a sin are not uncommon.  Are they 100% accurate? I don't know.  I am not theologically educated enough to make that call.  Even if I was, there would be a line of equally educated people waiting to disagree with me.  The two things all Christians believe is that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and that we are all created in the image of God and therefore are all worthy of love.

That is the point I feel he is trying to make and why I agree with him.  Beyond the Ten Commandments, definitions of sin get a little sketchy for me.  I really hope I'm not going to burn for eternity because I cut my hair and wear pants.  I'm pretty sure that the Lord has bigger fish to fry with all of us.  

I believe that we are all created by God.  That said, who am I to say that He didn't make people homosexual?  I  know that I could not call myself a Christian and knowingly mistreat someone who is different than me.  God loves us all. Period.  What happens when we leave this earth is anybody's guess.  I believe in heaven and that's what I'm shooting for.  Will I make it?  That's up to Him.

I do not completely agree with Phil's definition of sinful behavior, but I do believe strongly that this is what it boils down to: we are never to judge someone on who's going to heaven or to hell.  That is the Lord's job.  We are just supposed to love each other and let God sort it all out later.  The world would be a better place if we all treated each other better.