Christmas

When I was younger, I used to get sad when my dad spoke out against Christmas. He wasn't messed up about it, mind you; he still let us put up a tree and all, it's just that he kinda grumbled in the background. But as the years go by, I start agreeing more with my dad. Now, I won't be a Grinch with my family, but I'll try to keep things in perspective and out of the market society. Even so, I think this might just be my last Christmas list.
This year for christmas, I want:

1. My two front teeth
2. A Pagani Zonda R, or even the new Huayra would do.
3. A couple million dollars to pay for my tuition and such for the rest of my life.
4. A hippopotamus
5. Books! Books! especially John Steinbeck or Dr. Seuss.
6. A mandolin
7. A melodica
8. You
9. Running Shoes. and some motivation to go with them.
10. Wings, please? (to fly with. . . although chicken ones, especially in bbq sauce, don't sound so bad.)
11. Some peace in the world. . .=\
12. Jesus to come. That would be the ultimate thing.

Food for Thought, Part II

Why is it that Thanksgiving and Christmas, the most unselfish holiday themes, end up being the most selfish?

Random Rant I

People, please, give the turkey a chance! Santa can wait until after I've enjoyed my thanksgiving dinner to market impulse buying and debt. Thanks!

Talking about Thanksgiving, I simply CANNOT wait (although I have to...) to get home. There simply no words to explain how excited I am of going home.

Talking about home, the weather there is going to be in the upper 70s, a  far cry from this Nebraska weather. A couple of weeks ago it snowed here, and I have a blog post brewing in my mind from that experience.

Talking about experiences...Joel Sartore, a National Geographic photographer, offered me an internship piecing together and editing videos--may include videos for NatGeo themselves! Super stoked for that venture. A blog post will be posted soon about what happened there.

Talking about ventures, I will pitch the Epic of Josar (I'm making a video for them, too) to Joel, this could mean more publicity for Josar and a couple of bucks for Joel--or maybe I can do it...who knows?

Random Memory with a Moral...

It was getting close to Christmas-time and I must have been in fourth grade, if not younger. My family has never had a huge extravagant Christmas, and I am glad I never did (just so much easier on the wallet there...). But this once my mom decided to have us pick out our gifts. So she packed us up into the van and took us to the nearest clothing store. Now, before I go on, I'd like to say that my parents are really smart--actually, that's an understatement--and my mom had something up her sleeve. She told us that at the school where she works there were little children--one in each of mine and my sibling's classes--who were really poor and they were not having Christmas that year, so each of us would pick a gift for them. Immediately, a person I knew was poor and had siblings in my sibling's classes came to mind. However, I didn't really like this kid because he made fun of me, so I immediately found the ugliest shirt I could find, gave it to my mom, and didn't think much of it afterwards. Now it all worked out that the boy and I wore the same size clothes, and somehow my mom got me and my siblings to get clothes of our own size. Lo and behold, Christmas Eve came, and to the Hispanic culture we opened our presents at midnight. I got the usual sweaters from my grandparents, a cool something from my "rich" uncle (I saw him that way in those days....), and clothes from my parents. But what struck me was my mom's box. Inside, there was that ugly shirt I picked out.

Playing Captain Hindsight over here, I realize that that is true humility. We can only be Jesus followers when we give to others that which we would give ourselves, if not better. This is true Christianity.