MyQuest | my thoughts on life's journey

Winter Wonderland

Some photos from this weekend's snow fall, which has created the perfect, soft, fluffy snow:

8th Day of Christmas

The 8th Day of Christmas opened with worship.  My sermon focused on time, with it being New Year's Day.  It was good to see church members and their families and hear about their holiday weeks.  Michael stayed home sick.

After a run to the grocery store, I prepared lunch, and we settled in for the second lazy day of the New Year's weekend -- napping, reading, blogging, and ticking off a few things on my to-do list.

We did eat our black-eyed peas.

And we ended the evening watching the annual New Year's concert from Vienna.

7th Day of Christmas

And on the seventh day they rested.

Saturday morning I awakened to the wonderful prospect of the next three days.  Saturday, despite evening party plans, would be lazy.  Sunday, despite worship in the morning, would be lazy.  And Monday, a day off and no plans, would also be lazy.

So, I made a to-do list for the weekend.  No household remodeling projects, not even any normal cleaning, just some things I needed to get done, some which have been languishing for a while.  Plus, I included things like reading and spending time with Michael and enjoying myself.  Three days of relaxation.  Wow!

In the afternoon of this seventh day, I took a walk.  It was in the mid-50's and quite nice outside.  In fact, we had the windows open and the heater off all afternoon, airing out the house.  Who does that on January 31st?  While on my walk a dog bit me in Leavenworth Park.  Not bad, didn't break the skin.

On Saturday it also became clear that Michael had a cold.  A convenient weekend, in some ways, to catch his annual January cold (a little early, though).  That did alter our evening plans.

I made a brief appearance, sans Michael, to watch the fireworks from the rooftop of a friend and neighbor's house.

Otherwise, I spent most of the evening reading and blogging.  Michael was asleep at midnight, but I did lean over and kiss him Happy New Year.

5th Day of Christmas

Uncle Scotty to Jacob: "I have to leave in a bit in order to go to a funeral.  Do you know what that is?"  Shook head.  "A funeral happens when someone dies.  The mom of one of my friends died, and it is her funeral."

Jacob:  "Did she go to heaven."  Me: "Yes."
Jacob:  "Do all good people go to heaven when they die and all bad people go to the bad place?"
Me:  "Some people believe that.  When you get to be old enough, you can study that and decide for yourself."  (I didn't give my own views, as I didn't want to confuse any spiritual formation from his parents, though if he had asked me what I believed, I would have given him the direct, honest answer.)

So, the fifth day of Christmas, I left the family for a few hours to attend the funeral of Kay Mocabee, the mother of my friend Sharon.  Kay died the second day of Christmas, and I was glad to be near home so that I was able to attend.

That morning we had gone fishing.  Actually, Jacob was the only one who fished, and he didn't catch anything.  But he had fun, and we had fun watching and tagging along.

That evening Jason and Amie (who had also attended the funeral) drove down to Mom's, and we hung out till midnight with lots of laughing and sharing of stories.

4th Day of Christmas

We went on an adventure, Jacob and I.  "Why are we going on an adventure?"  "Because it is fun, and you get to do new things."

Our adventure was to leave the nice, safe trail where Mummum and Michael were, scamper down a retaining wall, and walk across the rocky beach to the water to throw rocks.  We also climbed and walked on fallen tree trunks.  There was lots of giggling.

On the fourth day of Christmas, we had driven from Michael's parents to mine for a couple of days.  They were also hosting my nephew Jacob.  The day was spent playing with Jacob and answering his questions.

He is in question mode.  Why do worms live in the dirt?  Why does the earth move around the sun?  Who created God?  Etc., etc.  It was fun.  I love answering questions like this -- I asked them as a kid.  Some people get pestered or exhausted by the questions, I don't.  Always answer honestly and as fully as one is capable of answering.  Don't dumb it down or give silly answers, but try to communicate in concepts that the child can understand.  Everyone kept saying, "Save those questions for Uncle Scotty."

I did tell him to keep asking lots of questions.  He asked why.  I said because it shows he's curious and wants to know about the world and wants to be smart.  I said to keep asking questions, even though some people will find it annoying.

Over the course of the couple of days together I decided that I should write a children's book based on our conversations over the weekend.  That then sent me to thinking about a bunch of different children's books I could write.

It was warm enough to grill steaks outside for dinner.  We spent a lot of time out on the deck, which is unusual for Christmas.  After dinner we drove around and looked at Christmas lights.  I was disappointed to learn that the Playport Resort, which used to have a magnificent Christmas light display, doesn't anymore.

3rd Day of Christmas

It has become my custom in the last half-decade or so to buy myself books after Christmas.  Based on end-of-the-year best-of lists and recommendations from friends, I buy a few books at Full Circle Books (I'm still collecting and filling up the cards that turned in give you a $30 value; I filled another one up this week, so will look forward to cashing it in, though it will be months from now).  This year I selected The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.  This annual tradition is one of my favourite things to do during Christmastide and was one of the highlights of the third day of Christmas this year.  And we ran into Kristen McCarty at Full Circle.

Driving over to Full Circle, we went through the medical campus to see the new OMRF building and then down to see the new I-40 pedestrian bridge and back through downtown.  After Full Circle we made a much needed visit to Big Truck Tacos and lunch with Rob Howard and Tarae McDonald.  If you have still not eaten at Big Truck despite all my many writings about it, then you are missing out.  And this even goes for those of you who don't live in or around OKC.

In the afternoon I met up with Mekado Murphy (in visiting from New York City) and Doug Bradley at Sara Sara Cupcakes.  I had an unused gift card to use there.  When I handed it to the checker she said, "This is old."  My favourite thing about Sara Sara is the milk bar.  You get a frosted mug and have all-you-can-drink white, chocolate, and strawberry milk.  Oh, I had a coconut cream cupcake.

Mekado brought us up-to-date on films and told about his interview with Steven Spielberg.  We discussed politics and religion and our views of the future.  Doug asked me what I was most concerned about in 2012, and I said that we would continue to settle for mediocrity.  I also informed them that despite always being an optimist, I am not optimistic anymore and think that life will get more difficult than it has been or that I've planned for it to be.  At the same time, I said that this is an exciting and adventurous time to be in parish ministry, pastoring through all the cultural challenges.

After dinner Michael and I walked around the Myriad Gardens at night enjoying all the new lights.

We spent the rest of the evening with his parents, and I finished the Julian Barnes novel I had purchased that morning!

2nd Day of Christmas

The most awkward moment on the second day of Christmas came when my mother-in-law decided to call my brother-in-law Robert (who was not present and in California with his girlfriend) to ask him a question from the dinner table with all of us sitting there.  

The second day of Christmas was spent with the Ciches.  We breakfasted at Jimmy's Egg, ran to the grocery store a couple of times, Michael and I had to go get the sweet rice from its baker, and otherwise we sat around the house reading, talking, and watching the original Planet of the Apes.

Because it was so warm Gerry grilled steaks.  Not your normal Christmas dinner!

The 1st Day of Christmas

It was so warm loading the car on Christmas morning that I did not wear a coat.  Much different from the snowy landscape we drove through last year.  In York, Nebraska we saw Santa Claus at the Petro stop.  He must have been heading back toward the North Pole from his exhausting evening.

There was a snowy landscape for a brief while in central Kansas.  The familiar Oklahoma landscape was welcoming.  Perry now has a Panda Express, we noted.

It was 3 o'clock when we finally pulled into Kelli & Shawn's house and Jacob and Mom ran out to greet us.

The big gift for the boys this year was golf clubs from grandma.  They enjoyed the Hungry Hungry Hippo we gave Connor.  He kept beating everyone else.  

After dinner and some visiting and game playing, we drove to Spencer and Michael's parents.

Favourite 2011 Photos of Us

This one is short.

3.  The best moment of our Italy trip, sitting watching the sun set over Florence.

2.  The really fun picture that Edie Godfrey took as she dropped us off to depart for Italy.

And my favourite picture of us this year was taken outside Sorrento.

Favourite 2011 Photos of Friends & Family

8.  I really like the humourous look on Aunt Jackie's face.

7.  The Farmers' Market is fun throughout the summer.  I like the framing of this picture of Amie, Michael, and Jason tasting honey.

6.  We went to the Max, a gay club, with Brandi and were annoyed by all the straight couples.

5.  Daniel taking a photo of a gorilla.  I like the cool composure of the gorilla, and his slight turn of head to see what's happening inside with the humans.

4.  Revis introduces Michael to his new dog, Miss Daisy.  I just love the smile on Michael's face.  

3.  Michael and his mom spent a lot of time cooking together.  Here they are making lumpia.  Look at the happiness on Michael's face.

2.  There were lots of great pictures from Michael's mom's visit.  I had to narrow down.  This one is with our friends Bob and Gerry and the hat that Gerry had worn to Kris and James's National Hat Day Party.  Michael won the prize that night, and Gerry has told the story all year about his dismay at losing.  He left the hat in their dining room all year so that it could be a conversation piece.  Ninfa decided to put it on, which I'm sure Gerry and Bob counted as something of a triumph.

And my favourite friend and family photo of the year also comes from the Omaha Zoo.