GO BRONCOS!

What a great game today. I really wanted the Broncos to beat Kansas City, and they did! Clinton Portis is the man! 🙂

The Christmas tree is up & trimmed. It looks great. We have a tradition of naming our trees, and Geoff named him Bruce. I’ll try to post his picture on my website this week.

I start volunteering at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science tomorrow morning. I spent Saturday in museum orientation, which was kind of fun. I met some people, I got a free tour. Did you know that DMNS has hidden elves, much like Disney’s hidden Mickeys? Some of the painters hid elves in some of the diaramas backgrounds. I found two on my tour, but you can get a map of where to look for them from the Information desk. Anyways, I will be working in the Education Collections Dept. I hope I’ll enjoy it, I’m sure I will.

The Christmas shopping is practically done. I have one or two last stocking stuffers to purchase. So now I wrap & ship gifts. I have only 4 or so more cards to stamp, and some ornaments to make.

We rented The Santa Clause 2, and it was pretty good. We’re in a renting phase right now, so we’re seeing more movies than usual. We had some coupons, so it’s been cheaper to get movies. I’m working on finding a theatre nearby to get advance tickets to Return of the King. I watched a special on ROTK on CBS last week. It got me all geared up. Plus, I finished the book a few weeks ago. I don’t know if you heard about this, but there was an online petition a few weeks ago urging Peter Jackson (the director) not to cut the scene wrapping up Saruman’s storyline. Sadly in had to be cut, but Jackson promises to include it on the DVD. It was only a 7 minute scene, but as he said, if the fans decided what was in the movie, it would be 8 hours long. With that news, I can figure what else would have to be cut to make the continuity add up. It’s all about the extended editions anyway. 🙂

Dinner is ready, I’ll try to let you know about the DMNS job this week. And speaking of Lord of the Rings, from The Two Towers…

Gimli: Toss me.

Aragorn: What?

Gimli: I cannot jump the distance. You’ll have to toss me. Don’t tell the elf.

I can hardly believe it’s December. It seems like this has been such a long year. But December brings Christmas, and I love Christmas. The snow, the lights, and the music telling of the birth of our Savior. Those songs are about events that really happened, and it can be a little awe-inspiring. And since becoming a believer, the holiday has grown more dear to my heart.

I generally enjoy Christmas shopping, some people are more fun to shop for than others. My cousin Kelly wrote a great article on the art of gift-giving , and it’s really good. I love the return of wishlist, like Amazon.com. It makes it easier for my family, and you have the comfort of knowing you’re likely to get something you like. We did a good portion of our shopping online.

This weekend we’ll get a tree, and then I get to be sentimental as we dig out our ornaments & the history behind them. We have our favorites, and I enjoy adding new ones. It’s just such a fun holiday.

We rented Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and it was wonderful! Action-packed & hilarious. Captain Jack Sparrow is one of the greatest characters I’ve seen on screen. I can’t wait for the inevitable sequel.

well, back to stampin’ those Christmas cards. And from Captain Jack Sparrow…

Jack Sparrow: You, sailor!

Mr. Gibbs: Cotton, sir.

Jack Sparrow: Mr. Cotton. Do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death?

(Pause)

Jack Sparrow: Mr. Cotton! Answer, man!

Mr. Gibbs: He’s a mute, sir. Poor devil had his tongue cut out, so he trained the parrot to talk for him. No one’s yet figured how.

Jack Sparrow: Mr. Cotton’s… parrot. Same question.

Song I can’t stop listening to is Unchanging by Chris Tomlin.

Last night was a hard night. I was lying on my bed listening to my iPod, and If You Could Read My Mind, by Gordon Lightfoot came on. I was overwhelmed by thoughts of my dad. I was thinking a wide range of thoughts. First was how much my dad liked Burton Cummings, and I was thinking about the impact my dad’s love of music had on me. And I thought about how he looked before he died. Like death. He was a shell of who he once was. I thought about the conversations we shared before he died. They were mostly empty, we talked about sports, about the last episode of The Rockford Files we had watched days prior. We didn’t say we loved each other. We didn’t know when our last conversation would be, and we didn’t say anything profound. I have to believe we both knew we loved each other. You just can’t live your life holding onto to regrets, and acts & words unsaid. Right?

My dad was pretty funny, and he loved to wrestle with my brother & I. It scared Geoff the first time he came over for dinner, and there my dad & Colin are attacking each other. He was always testing me on his music, who sings what song as we listened to oldies music. Wherever we went, he would always ask.

He wasn’t a perfect dad, it hurt me a lot that he never came to see me in the States. It hurt that he would always say he was going to, when I knew he wouldn’t. But we are all imperfect, and I’m sure I made choices that hurt him too. But you only have one dad, and I will miss him for a very long time. I feel blessed that I have my mom, and we have a great relationship. I have my brother Colin & I have his wife Dawn. I have Geoff who is so supportive of the emotional rollercoaster I’m riding. I have great in-laws. And I have my step-mom Debbie, who is suffering much more than me. It’s been years since I lived with my dad, and she lived with him for the last 6 or 7 years. Most of all I have our Lord & God Jesus Christ, who walks with me through this valley. Who walks with my dad right now.

Whoa. I didn’t mean to get so deep. I just needed to I guess. I’m going to close with some lyrics from If You Could Read My Mind, and a quote from Scrooged, which was on tv last night. It’s in my top 5 Christmas Movies.

And if you read between the lines

You’ll know that I’m just tryin’ to understand

The feelings that you lack

I never thought I could feel this way

And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it

I don’t know where we went wrong

But the feelings gone

And I just can’t get it back

-Gordon Lightfoot

Frank Cross: I never liked a girl well enough to give her 12 sharp knives.