Merry Christmas

 

 

 

So wonderful to be with family and celebrate the birth of Christ.

Can't stop the Shutter...

 
 
 
 
A friend of mine who is skilled in infant (and wedding,and family) photography took me under her wing and showed me several tips and how to set up my camera to take good baby pictures... these are some of the results :)
We had fun just clicking away with Lynn as the focus and even David was willing to be in some photos provided he got to be with his baby Lynn!

Happy Birthday!

 
 
 
Little Lynn joined the family on November 30th, 2010 at 7:48am, weighing in at an even 7 pounds she is 19 inches long and absolutely adorable. She is so tiny- David looks enourmous by comparison. Tonia had a rough first day, the surgery making her sick and very tired, but felt much better later in the evening and quite well on day 2- overall feeling much less pain than she did with David. David adores his little sister and frequently insists on holding her and will willingly consent to have his picture taken if she is going to be in it with him! More photos to come!
God Bless :)

 

Christmas Tree Hunt

 
 
 
 

We had a blast finding our Christmas tree... David enjoyed hiking through the little trees, and when we found a couple of good options, he chose the one we brought home :)
Daddy taught him how to count the rings to discover our tree was 10 years old and he was excited about the tractor that carried the tree up front for us.
He got to write a letter to santa and put it in a mailbox, and refused to have himself measured against the Christmas tree ruler. Later after his nap we went to see the bridge lighting in Sumner, then saw the trains at the Old Cannery and went home by way of Christmas lights to decorate the tree. All in all, Friday was a wonderful day!
God Bless :)

Thanksgiving 2010

 
 
 
 
We had a delightful time at my parents house celebrating Thanksgiving, the turkey was delicious, my dad enjoyed my butternut risotto - even thoug he doesn't like squash - and David was charming to the relatives, all in all a splendid day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

David Playing in the snow with Levi

 
 
 
David had a blast witht the snow while it lasted... and Levi made a nuisance of himself having fun too. There is something about snow that makes the dog a little nuts- he loves it, but David enjoyed having a playmate who was as energetic as he is :)

A Holiday for Redemption

About 18 months ago I was in Los Angeles on a business trip, in a taxi on the way to the airport. The taxi driver decided to strike up a conversation. “What do you do?,” He asked. I love it when people ask me about my job at World Vision. It opens up theological conversations that my stranger-phobic introverted self would never initiate. But this one took a different twist.
“I work for World Vision”, I answered.
“What’s World Vision?”
“It’s a Christian relief and development organization”, I answered.
He pauses a long moment . . . “when do you believe Jesus was born?”
“Well, we celebrate on Christmas. The real date is probably lost to history,” I answer, while wondering where the driver was taking our conversation.
He explained that he was Armenian and proceeded to explain how the Catholic (and most churches) have the date wrong. The Armenian Church celebrates Christmas on January 6th. He proceeded to discuss at length how the Catholic Church changed the date to cover over pagan traditions around the winter solstice. This was really odd. It was like this taxi driver was driving around southern California waiting for a Christian passenger to debate about Jesus’ birth date . . . in the middle of July. Odd as it was, it quickly passed from my thoughts . . . until last Christmas.

I have several friends who, while being strong Christians, avoid certain common Christmas celebrations such as Christmas trees and advent candles because of their historical (or perceived) pagan roots. While their annual tepid support of these Christmas traditions has come to be expected, their comments once again brought to mind the conversation with my Armenian taxi cab driver. Then, on my commute to one of the last workdays before my Christmas vacation the cheery Christmas carols on the radio were interrupted by a Christmas message from a member of Mannheim Steamroller discussing the pagan roots for Christmas traditions like decorating with mistletoe and holly. He capped off his message of holiday cheer by declaring “remember Christmas is whatever you make it”.

This really annoyed me. Was this all Christmas is about? Why bother? I decided the topic needed further research. The truth is there are pagan connections to modern Christmas traditions. Furthermore there is legitimate historical debate of the date Christ was born. (A little online research resulted in dates from November to March).

So what does this mean? I love Christmas. I think it is both appropriate and important to celebrate the birth of Jesus; but when and how? And, I was troubled by the clear historical connection to pagan traditions. When my kids ask me, “Daddy, why do we celebrate Christmas in December, with a tree and advent candles?” I need an answer. It is insufficient to reply, in the words of Fiddler on the Roof, “Tradition”. Traditions hold meaning; intended or not.
After much thought and reflection I believe the following four statements are true:

• It is more important TO celebrate Christmas than WHEN you celebrate – In other words Christmas is a celebration that God loved us so much he became a helpless human infant to ultimately reconcile humanity to God. The incarnation is miraculous and game changing. What day we celebrate it is irrelevant. What is important is: we have cause to celebrate.

• Absent a clear biblical or historic date for Jesus’ birth, December 25 has about as much evidence as any other day of the year – There are many with strong opinions on this but I’m not convinced we can know an answer.

• The darkest days of winter are the time we most need a reminder that we have seen a great light, and we know the light of the world by name.

• There is true beauty in the redemption of pagan traditions. – When the Catholic Church moved the date Christmas was celebrated (as emphasized by my wonderful taxi driver) it was to redeem the pagan winter solstice celebrations. If you want to celebrate, let’s celebrate for a good reason! This notion was initially distasteful for me, but then I realized: Redemption is the perfect theme for celebrating the arrival of our Redeemer.

We need not shy away from formerly pagan traditions because their meaning has been redeemed. I can only think that a practicing Druid would be appalled at the “Christianization” of the former winter solstice celebrations. Our Christmas trees are decorated with nativities, angels, shepherds, and scripture. We light advent candles to re-tell of Christ’s birth punctuating the ceremony with scripture and hymns. These traditions are not pagan . . . they point to Christ.

The redemption theme is the focal point of Christian faith and echoed throughout scripture. God uses the weak to shame the strong, the foolish to shame the wise.
• Joseph was a slave turned prisoner – God used him to save a nation from starvation.
• Moses was a murderer – and yet one of the greatest leaders of Israel
• Paul persecuted the church – before writing over half of the new testament

And I was a sinner – and now I’m free.

It snowed!

 
 
 
 
We at the Ferguson household, here in Bonney Lake, awoke Sunday morning to find snow covering the ground and watched in wonder as it continued to fall for a few hours. We started the day with an apple-puff pancake and then went for a delightful walk to the park to enjoy as much snow as possible. David LOVED every minute of it :) once we got too cold, we headed home and made a nice pot of frothy hazelnut hot cocoa to take away the chill. So far it has been a fun and delightful day... I hope to continue enjoying it as we finish up some cookie baking and hopefully watch the Seahawks win :)
God Bless, and Happy winter!

Spinning at the Zoo

There is this spinning thing at the zoo, and David loves it. it has some kind of gyro motion that makes it hard to stop once you have begin. it also makes for a dizzy David. all in all, it lots of fun to watch :)

 

 

 

 

Currently David's FAVORITE critter to see at the zoo are the baby tigers, he loves them and chants "baby tigers, baby tigers" the whole trip there.

An Awesome Autumnal day... sans camera.

Today it dawned bright and beautiful, and though it is November I even dare to say it was WARM. David and I took a walk to the store to purchase some necessary ingredients for gingerbread... but it was just too lovely to go back and hang out in the kitchen, so we headed to the park first. We ate lunch, then spotted a squirrel- now David loves all things small and furry, but he is fascinated by squirrels. So we stalked it... as only a 2 year can, which meant running at it so it ran up a tree very quickly. David asked it to come down, but squirrel refused and then David wanted to climb the tree- that did not work out so well, but he got distracted by "helicopters" witch must be the best ever seed pods made by God. Then mr. squirrel jumped from his tree to the one adjacent to it- sending a couple dozen helicopters spinning down from a great height- both David and I thought it was REALLY cool.

The next hour was spent with David discovering fall, and me re-discovering fall through his eyes! We caught yellow leaves as they fell, we found lichen, and tiny "pine-cones" that were actually cedar-cones, and big leaves and little leaves. He made brown leaves go "crunch, crunch" under his feet... and we both ran through them giggling at the delightful sound. WE HAD FUN, and I kept wishing for my camera and alternately being glad we could just enjoy it. I will hold the memories in my mind forever, but am a little sad that I can't share the images with you. We brought home some of our fall bounty.... and:

David got put down for a nap because it was just too much fun to handle life any longer. Once he got up, he played football with daddy- and learned to catch :) then after dinner we glued fun nature bits to scrapbook paper. My post park craft was delayed- but enjoyed :) I hope you have enjoyed our stories, and enjoy the photos of David's craft and of him catching the football.

Happpy Fall Ya'll!