Alpha & Omega

Is Christmas your favorite time of year? It is for many people, but not for me.

Don't get me wrong--I love everything about the season, including the busyness and stillness, parties and presents, family and friends, candlelight and evergreen, and all the reminders of a savior born to us.

I'm one of those strange birds who likes to see Christmas pass, because I like the thought of another new year starting out. It is the potential of there being potential. The hope of there being hope. The dream of there being dreams, all in the new year.

Without the passing of one year, there cannot be the ushering in of the next. This is true of my kids, too, as Kade turns two December 30th. I must say goodbye to my little one year-old in order for me to see my two year-old. I can't have both simultaneously.

Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (see Revelation 1:8, 11). He cares about your year's beginning and end. He wants to be there in your new year. When we say goodbye to 2012, will you go into this next year with regrets? Or with potential, hope, and dreams?

Some of the best times of my life have been when I've taken time alone with the Lord to start a year. The calendar belongs to you. Take a few moments and plan some time for those potential times with family to happen. Schedule a time for those hopes to come alive and those dreams to take shape.

I'm really a summer guy--but you already know that about me. So Christmas is a reminder of all the things I can't do at this time of year. But I can plan for this next year to be even more fruitful for Christ. What are your hopes and dreams for 2013?

Let Me Entertain You!

Back for my 18th year in a row, I'm singing at Macy's in Union Square, San Francisco this year. More information at my other blog, DB3Harmony, including dates and times. I'd love to have you stop by for a listen to me and the guys!

Holiday Hospital Déja-vu

We spent Christmas last year in the hospital with our then one-month-old, Madison, with the respiratory virus, RSV. It should have come as no surprise when, on the night before we were to fly home from our Christmas visit with Katie's family in Tennessee, Madison woke me up around 2am. I could hear her labored breathing through her crying and coughing.

After calling our pediatrician's nurse advice line and being told to hang up and dial 911 based on hearing Madison over the phone, we jumped in the car and drove to the hospital. Madison enjoyed her first ride in the front seat on the way there.

After our poor girl went through chest x-rays, blood tests, and then additional chest x-rays, she was given an antibiotic shot in her thigh and a prescription for another antibiotic taken orally. Poor girl. She was exhausted when we finally left the hospital close to 7am. We thank the Lord that Madison's upper respiratory infection wasn't any more serious, and for the graciousness of the American Airlines employee who waived our change fees to let us fly home tomorrow instead. Time for bed!

Chick-fil-A ROCKS!

Driving through the night 8 hours from the Memphis airport to East Tennessee after flying all day wasn't my idea of a picnic. Then the familiar Chick-fil-A sign shone like a beacon on a stormy night. With no Chick-fil-A restaurants in my area of Cali, I crave the taste of their sandwiches, their fries, their lemonade, their ice cream . . . get the picture?

Trying not to squeal the tires turning off the freeway, I tore into Chick-fil-A with Katie in tow. She INSISTED on buying me a t-shirt along with the meal. Fine. I might as well own up to the whole "I'm a fan at the nerd level" idea.

After hunting around for a t-shirt, the helpful crew member alerted the night manager, who came out to give me grief. Yikes! It was Daniel Morgan, a friend from my old IBLP days, when I used to be his "Family Coordinator." This meant that when he was nothing more than a wee whipper-snapper, I was supposed to try to give him good counsel and sage advice while setting an example for him. Right.

We obviously graduated to Friend Level, and good thing, too, because this man now held in his hands my Chick-fil-A future and dreams. But would he fulfill them?

Done.

I won't tell you that he gave us TEN "Be Our Guest" cards (good for one free sandwich at any location) because that might get him in trouble OR make him look like a pushover. So, instead I'll just say that he HOOKED ME UP. No, you can't have his phone number. He's MY friend.

Maybe this Christmas vacation in East Tennesse isn't going to be so bad after all . . .

Merry Christmas!

Christmastime with little people in the house . . . what a difference being a dad makes! In spite of all the carefully planned treasures for my family, I still found time to hope, worry, ponder, debate, muse, and fret over what little ol' ME was going to get. Aargh. King of Commercialism, I concede this battle to you.

No, I didn't get the main thing on my list, a surfing calendar. Instead, my mom got me a boat trip to watch suicidal surfers hit Mavericks (INSANE surf spot near Half Moon Bay, for you novices) from as close as 30 feet away, in the water. SWEET! But, sheesh. No calendar. Guess I'll have to take enough pics to make my own.

I was able to make Katie's season a bit brighter with an iPod Nano (4GB, 3rd generation, video enabled, yada-yada for those of you who pretend to care). She'd been relegated to Technology's Stone Age thanks to our 1989 Buick LeSabre that has a barely functioning stereo and cassette deck. Now, with the cassette adapter, she's got all her fave CDs on the go. Did I hook her up or what? (Okay, so in this tumultuous employment season of our lives, it didn't hurt to get a REALLY good deal on the Nano, but that's between us.)

We're off at 4:30am to join the unwashed masses who will be traveling tomorrow. We'll be in East Tennessee, visiting Katie's side of the family. I think they've got electricity, so I should be able to plug in my laptop, fire up my Broadband Access Aircard from Verizon, and keep in touch with the civilized world. (Okay, so it just FEELS that way. I guess the running water isn't quite the luxury I usually make it out to be.)

I certainly pray you and yours had a blessed Christmas. May the Savior Whose birth we celebrate be nearer to you than ever before, and may you continue to seek Him diligently throughout the New Year.