On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

I saw this Christmas poem the other day on Slate, and loved it. Thought I'd share:

"A Christmas Carol, Sung to the King in the Presence at White-Hall"

Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honour to this Day,
That sees December turned to May.

If we may ask the reason, say
The why and wherefore all things here
Seem like the Spring-time of the year?

Why does chilling Winter's morn
Smile like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like to a Mead new-shorn,

Thus, on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
'Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and luster, public mirth,
To Heaven and the under-Earth.

We see Him come and know him ours,
Who, with His sunshine and His showers
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.

The darling of the world is come
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome Him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart.

Which we will give Him, and bequeath
The Holly, and this Ivy wreath,
To do Him honour, who's our King,
And Lord of all this reveling.

…………................……—Robert Herrick

2008: A Retrospective

In case you're interested, a few pictures highlighting the past for me:

2008 in Review

It's been a good year!

Spotless Mind?

It's certainly a proud day for my new home state of Illinois. Maybe someone who's lived here longer than I can tell me how in the world this man ever got elected governor in the first place? Was it his incredibly foul mouth? His unwillingness to relocate from Chicago to the capital city once he got the job? Hopefully voters weren't bowled over by his intelligence...or lack thereof. Perhaps they were blinded by his fabulous hair?

Check out this gross stupidity. An article cites this quote from an interview YESTERDAY. Says Rod, "I think there's nothing but sunshine hanging over me."

I'll take some of what he's having, Doc.

Thanksgiving ABCs

I read this idea as something you should do with your 8-year-old, but oh well...

Things I'm thankful for, from A to Z:

Alice, aka Mama
Baseball. Also, Beer. Also, bears, beets, and Battlestar Galactica
Camille
Daddy
Ellen
Fantastic Friends
Grace
Hearing (and Hearing aids, for that matter)
Ice cream!
Job
Kilograms - the few extra I have because I eat and drink so well!
Lots of clothes (and still nothing to wear, so more reason to shop!)
Money, or that I've always had more than I needed
Nice house
Opportunities afforded to me, past and future
Providence from God, specifically as I relocated this year
Quiet street to live on
Relief I feel that the 2008 Aggie Football season is finally over
Singleness (for now!)
Twenty-seven and almost one-half really great years!
Underwear
Victory
Will Griffin
Xtended family, all 80,000 of them
You!
Zephaniah 3:17

What would you do with $74,000??

So, it's estimated that the government has committed $8.5 trillion towards the "financial crisis" that we're hearing so much about that it's been blamed for bad marriages staying together, the fall of reality TV, (as if there's really no other reason for that), and the increased demand for Spam. Bad times, eh?

This 8.5 trillion, by the way, doesn't take into account bailing out the Big 3 auto companies, who are asking for a mere $25 billion. Someone please tell me when $25,000,000,000 started to seem like an absolute pittance!

According to the latest census, and projections related to it, there will be 115 million households in the US in 2010. If my math is right, $8.5 trillion divided 115 million ways is almost $74,000 per household. I'd take it, wouldn't you? Can you imagine what this would do for most of the people who are underwater on their mortgages? What about those worried about Christmas? Would there still be polls showing that consumer confidence is low? How many different ways could you spend $74,000??

I know I don't have the slightest idea how all this money will save our economy, and I'd like to trust that there's someone behind all this who does have an idea. But I'm not sure I do, and wow, that is a tough pill to swallow.

In other news, it looks like Robert Gates will still be the Defense Secretary under Obama. Gig 'em.

We Believe

There's a song that they sing at my grandma's church that has been running through my head for the past two days. I think there are actually verses, but I've only ever heard them sing the chorus:

We remember how you loved us to Your death
And still we celebrate for You are with us here.
And we believe that we will see You when you come
In Your glory, Lord
We remember, we celebrate, we believe.

Look at how much theology is packed into those sentences! I read something today that said if we are ever discouraged about anything, we should think about Jesus coming back, and the fact that it could happen TODAY. How often do you do that? For me, it's almost never.

(An aside...I used to feel bad because I wasn't super-excited for heaven, or for Jesus' return. But I was in Bible study once, and my pastor said something like, "It's amazing how God does that...we aren't meant for this world, but God also gives us the desire to live out our lives here." And really, how could it be any different? So we're excited, but also nervous, a little frightened, and if you're me, asking questions like "Will there be ice cream, and baseball, [this is hilarious, but beware the Sodom and Gomorrah joke], and music in heaven?" And that's okay.)

In any case, eventually I may get sick of the fact that I can't get these five lines out of my head, but for now, it's been nice to have a different thought stuck up there.

Prayers

Will y'all please pray for my uncle, Raymond? He has a very aggressive form of leukemia, and has been in the hospital for almost three weeks. His wife, my dad's sister, is keeping a blog here.

Obviously, I haven't posted much lately. That will change soon. God has been doing things in my life I really want to share.