Survivor

My buddy, Dan, wants to be on Survivor. Click here to see his audition video. Leave him a nice comment while you're at it. Dan's a good guy and it would be fun to watch him on the show.

Here's the car pulling video that he alludes to in his audition:

Quality Time

The last couple days have been fun. Lot's of quality hang-out time with the kiddo.

On Christmas Eve, I had to drop into the lab for a little bit. Apparently, cells do not recognize Christmas as an official holiday. Harper came too. She's a good helper!

Last night, we went out to dinner with some friends and Harper tried her first piece of sushi.

She didn't love it, but she didn't spit it out. Well done. 

While I don't have a picture of this next one, I hope you will be able to picture it in your head. Harper got an umbrella for Christmas. Of all the things she got, I think she likes the umbrella the best. She's been  taking it everywhere with her. She even sleeps with it. Last night, as I was trying to get her ready for bed, she grabbed the umbrella and started singing this song over and over again. "Let's get this party started! Put this umbrella on your head and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!" Classic Harper.

Christmas Eve

Last night we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. It was really nice. I've been having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year and this service was definitely a step in the right direction.

Harper was excited to go because she got to go to "big church" with mom and dad. It was a big deal. Trust me. Just when she thought things couldn't get any better, we told her that there would be candles and that if she was good, she could hold her very own candle. Huge.

Not long into the service, all of the kids were invited to go sit on the stage for a reading of the Christmas story. I wasn't sure if Harper would want to go or not, but as soon as she saw other kids walking down front, she was in. Rob walked down with her and sat in one of the front rows for moral support.

About half way through the story, I saw Harper start to get fidgety. Then, she stood up and started trotting down the isle back towards me announcing (loudly) that she "had to go potty." Nice.

Rob followed after her and took her to the potty. The story was still going on as they came back into the sanctuary. When Harper noticed this, she announced (loudly) that she was "going back down" and bounded down the isle.

The middle part of the service was relatively uneventful. Harper did some singing and some clapping to songs that weren't necessarily sing-a-longs, but that's par for the course with her.

Then it was time to light the candles. She held her candle out very seriously to receive the flame from her dad. Then she held it still so that I could light mine off of it. Everything was smooth sailing until Silent Night was over and people started blowing out their candles. She did not want to blow hers out. Rob and I leaned in to do the job ourselves. Bad idea. As soon as her candle went out, she flipped out. There were many tears and they weren't tears of joy. This picture was taken mere seconds before the waterworks began.

Christmas can be like that sometimes. Bittersweet. Joy mixed with tears. Anticipation mixed with anxiousness. I think it's ok to feel like that. When I think about the Christmas story, all of those feelings are in there all mixed up together. In some ways, that's what makes the Christmas story so great. It's totally miraculous and totally relatable all at the same time.

Merry Christmas to you and your families. Thanks for all of the love and support you've shown to us on this blog over the past year. We're looking forward to an even better year to come and we hope you'll be along with us for the ride.

Back By Popular Demand

I love StatCounter. I love seeing who visits this blog - where they are, what brought them here, etc. One cool feature that StatCounter offers is the ability to track keyword searches from different search engines that led people here. By far, this post I did a few years ago generates the most traffic. I'm glad. I like this one. So, here it is again.



The Star of Bethlehem is only mentioned in chapter two of the book of Matthew. However, this idea of a bright star leading the wise men to the birth of Jesus Christ has become an iconic symbol of the Christmas season.

Is it possible to determine what exactly the star was that heralded the arrival of the Savior? Some astronomers have tried to analyze the sky around the time of Jesus's birth to find out if there is a scientific explanation for the Christmas Star.

To track down the real Star of Bethlehem, we first need to know roughly the date of Jesus' birth. As a matter of convention, people generally say that Jesus was born on December 25, 1AD. However, most scholarly evidence suggests this is not accurate. Due to a miscalculation in the calendar made by a sixth-century monk, Dionysius Exiguus, Jesus was probably born sometime between 7 and 1BC, with 4BC being the most often used date. Additionally, the time of year for Jesus's birth also points to a warmer month than December. One reason for this is that the shepherds were out in their fields tending to their flocks when the angels came to them. This would happen in a warm month but probably not a winter month such as December.

Three main astronomical objects could be responsible for the appearance of an unusually bright star. These include a comet, a supernova, or a conjunction of planets. Comets were recorded in both 5 BC and 4 BC. The comet in 4 BC, in particular, is a good match because it fits with the year most commonly believed to be the actual time of Jesus's birth and the comet that appeared that year did not have a tail, making it more "star-like."

A supernova also occurred within the above time frame. Recorded in March and April of the year 5 BC by Chinese astronomers, a supernova appeared in the constellation Capricornus. This "star" that suddenly appeared glowed for approximately 70 days- long enough to guide the Magi to Bethlehem, before fading again.

In addition, conjunctions of planets occurred throughout the years mentioned above, but the one most often cited as a good possibility for the Christmas Star is the one which occurred on June 17, 2 BC. On this date, Venus and Jupiter appeared so close together in the evening sky that they would have appeared to be one very bright star in the constellation Leo. This would have been a significant sign for ancient astrologers. Leo was considered the ruler constellation, and this impressive conjunction would have certainly been noticed by the wise men of the time.

The bottom line is that no one really knows what the wise men saw. It could have been a comet, supernova, or planetary conjunction. Or perhaps it was a true Christmas miracle. Either way, it doesn't matter to me. I love that God has instilled in us a sense of curiosity and a desire to figure things out. I also love that He has told us that we won't be able to figure everything out and that we don't have to.

Deuteronomy 29:29
“The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.

What ever the explanation may be, the real miracle of Christmas is that God loved us enough to change the rules of the game and give us His Son. Love wins. Merry Christmas.

Snow day

The bad news:

This morning, our neighbor took out our mailbox. What you can't appreciate from this picture is that the road is a solid sheet of ice. 

The good news:

Harper looks cute in her snowsuit and...

it is (kind of) pretty.

Concert Etiquette

Rob played with the Murfreesboro Symphony Orchestra for their annual Christmas concert last night.

That meant that Harper got to go to her very first symphony concert.

She did a great job. She'll tell you that her favorite part was singing along to the Christmas songs and her least favorite part was me yelling at her to stop singing along to the Christmas songs.

Warming Up

This year was a slight improvement over last year. If you look close, you can see the suggestion of a smile. 

2010

2009

Stockings

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.