Cribbage Victory!

I realize this entry may not be relevant to many people, but I think that it's important to document a recent cribbage game I had with dad. After being behind 10 to 15 points for the entire game, I turned it on on 4th street and won, leaving dad in the stink hole! Not that I'm paying much attention - the point, after all, is just to have fun!
(But I tell you what, I have a lot of fun when I win and dad's in the stink hole!)

Yesterday, we all went snowshoeing at Rocky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful weather and the hiking was great. We were a group of 11 and often broke into smaller groups of 4 or 5. I tried to imagine what it would be like to be solo - to spend a day and a night out there alone, hiking, camping, just you and the great wild cold. I'm sure there are people who snow camp and I wonder what that's like. Do all your thoughts begin to revolve around warm and food and fire? Do you slowly forget about the internets, the mundane trouble you're having, the book you're been reading? Do you have a heightened sense of what it means to be alive when you're facing an indifferent wind and dropping temperatures?

These thoughts crossed my mind...and then slowly left. I kept hiking, eating snack mix, and enjoying the scenery.

Christmas Day

After getting up at 5am, Juliana and I had a quick drive to the Tulsa Airport and were off to Denver...we arrived early and grabbed the shuttle.

On the way up here (to Fort Collins) I talked to a guy on the bus, who was like, "This whole 'happy holidays' thing is crazy. All these people trying to be politically correct. Holidays comes from 'holy days.' So what's wrong with saying 'Merry Christmas?'"

It's been interesting reading about this debate, how the humanists and atheists are trying to destroy Christmas by refusing to say "Merry Christmas." And how the Christians demand that we keep the "Christ" in Christmas.

My two cents is that the season is about family and about hope and peace and possibility being born into the world, especially in the darkest time of the year. This hope comes in many ways and many places. The message of the season is that we have to make room in our lives (in our "inns") for hope, love, and joy to be born. It doesn't matter if we're theist, atheist, agnostic, or pagan...we need to make room for the "divine," for life to surprise us - we need to make room in our lives for the unexpected. That's the point of the season.

And, as a factual tidbit, the early Pilgrims and Puritans weren't into Christmas, at all. You'd be put in the stocks if you celebrated that Pagan Holiday.

This is my virgin post in blog land. A trial run, if you will. But I was inspired by Laurel's and DuoTeam's blogs and couldn't resist..

Merry Christmas, all!