Howdy,

Tomorrow our O Christmas tree will be 0 Christmas trees.

As in zero.

Because then, it hits the gutter.

But first we’re using it one more time, with great intentionality and expectation (the kids, including cousin Lizzy, are excited). Ornaments are off but lights are still on and the family is going to sleep under it again — like one of the nights right before Christmas, which is a delightful tradition.

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Howdy,

I don’t know (and this makes me about qualified as a weatherman, it seems) if it’ll happen. Truthfully, I doubt it will. Nevertheless, the forecast found on my phone shows a beautiful and bewitching sight.

It predicts that after tomorrow (have to write this today — now! — so that it’s still for sure the case upon composition) we’ll have rain for eight straight days, Saturday to Saturday.

Captured a screen shot quickly — snapped on location in Denair — so the rain didn’t go away before I finished composing this maelstrom.

Resplendent!

Rain doesn’t depress me one drop.

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Howdy,

Back to Community Bible Study (CBS) in Turlock today, returning after a three-week break for Christmas, we launched into a new book … Leviticus.

You can almost hear the dreary, “Yay, Leviticus.” Subsequently, CBS Turlock’s teaching director, Julie Freeby, joked that it’s said Leviticus is also known as the book where yearlong Bible reading programs die.

And that humor comes from more than merely the fact that Leviticus is only the third book in the Bible — those recent or revived resolutions withering in the year’s first quarter, aligning well with when a resolved reader might hit … Leviticus.

It gets a deeper chuckle than any old broken resolution crack at this time because Leviticus has a reputation for defeating even readers without a New Year’s refreshing momentum. Finely detailed and repetitive in the points of God’s law, Leviticus asks a lot of the reader; but, it also tells a brave and blessed reader a lot about God, His ways, and His interest in having a relationship with His people.

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Howdy,

Today it became back to school again for our kindergartener, Jasper.

The two-week-plus-a-day Christmas break was a fantastic time for us — earned and enjoyed by Jasper and our whole family.

In a very fair way — which is to say dangerous, with a six-year-old — Sarah last night asked Jasper for one good thing and one thing that wasn’t good about going back to school. He answered the “bad thing” portion with grace, bringing his parents not only relief but delight.

First, the easy one. What was Jasper looking forward to about returning to school after the Christmas break? “Seeing his friends and playing with them,” he said.

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Howdy,

It’s a day of back to the fiction.

I’m discovering palpable, recalcitrant temptation to come up with a cleverer blog post; there’s a pull to it.

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Howdy,

Well, we’re doing some sorting.

House sorting, room by room: and garage.

I don’t know that it’s all about 2017 being just two days away, because we try to keep junk out of our house as much as we can and toss it out after it makes it in anyway.

Regardless if it’s a New Year’s thing or not, that’s something I love about new — getting rid of the old (2 Corinthians 5:17).

With new Christmas gifts, in with the new and decluttering with the old, odd, and out-of-place.

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Howdy,

With this Christmas vacation there’s been a lot of going back in time, reaching for history; it’s like we’re turning back the clock again today, like yesterday.

Today?

The crazy, amazing, unbelievable notion to attempt to … (are you ready for this?) watch a movie.

With adults.

In a living room — actually, the TV room. Sitting on a couch. Relaxed.

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