visions of Christmas dancing in my head. . .

Man, Christmas was really good this year, for me, at least in comparison to last year, when I was still deep in the throes of depression and things were sort of chaotic internally because of that.
This year I was really able to enjoy being with my family and really re-discovered in my heart all the deep meanings behind this Christmas thing (thanks, Holy Spirit).
There were a couple of images that stuck with me from the weekend at home as my family went about the festivities.
One was during the Christmas Eve service at my parents' church. We were singing "What Child Is This?" and we came to the part about the ox and ass. . . and as soon as we came to singing "ass", I looked around and saw most of the children either snickering or looking up at their parents in a bit of shock and alarm, wondering what they were supposed to do.
Somehow, some of the Christmas hymns we sang struck me afresh -- it was good to actually hear the words and not just sing them.
Another image from the weekend was a dream that I had, I think it was the morning of Christmas Eve. I don't remember anything else from it except that I was in Sudan doing humanitarian work for an organization called Child Corps, and things were so bad that every time we would decide on a child to go and rescue somehow "the enemy" (or whatever they are called) would find out and get there ahead of time and snatch the children away. Yeah, whoa. Not to mention that I hadn't even remotely been thinking about Sudan or the genocide there while I was at home. One of those things were I think, "Ok, God, what was all that about??"
Last image. My mom and sister and I went to a coffeeshop Monday for lunch. It was great--usually when I'm home things are sort of rushed because I'm not there for very long, and we often don't necessarily have time to do things like that. We actually had a chance to relax and talk, it was great. It was perhaps the best part of what was wholly a fabulous weekend.

And just an interesting tidbit -- this kid went to Iraq. Alone. And his parent's didn't have a clue.
Farris Hassan's Not-So-Excellent Adventure
I'm guessing he'll eventually be an amazing journalist.

May the Lord's grace and peace shine over you during this Christmas and New Year's season.

no manches. . .

. . . which translates to, "Yeah, right," or "you're kidding!" or something about like that.

Spanish at School Translates to Suspension

Apparently this kid was on a break, outside of the classroom, and talking just with another one of his friends in the class in Spanish, not being disruptive during class or anything like that, and they decided to suspend him. And then of course they took it back once a fuss was raised. . . but still. I am glad that the kid's dad stood up for him, because it was definitely excessive to suspend the kid right off. I'm not sure a lawyer and everything is quite needed, however. . . I am sure there are some more pressing Hispanic civil rights issues besides this that should have more attention paid to them. Anyway. I just can't believe this actually happened.

interesting

I just read this article about how Mars Hill Bible church and some other churches are cancelling their Sunday services this year on Christmas. It's something my roommates and I were discussing a few weeks ago. One of them said, "Man, is it wrong for me not to want to go to church on Christmas?" The article explores that a little -- I mean, personally, I have to be honest when I say I hope my family stays home. It's not like we're going to fall away from "attending church" by not going on Christmas. I think it might be a little different if we had family coming who weren't Christians and we could invite them, but I still think something like the Christmas Eve service we'll go to is better for that sort of invite (with a better chance they would actually come). I think too church leaders should have a break, especially on Christmas, even if at the very least we moved the services to just an evening service or something, if a church is absolutely dying to have one.
I dunno, interesting debate. . . interesting how it is telling about our concepts of church in general.