It is that time again to recap the past year, so I went back and looked at the first post of every month and provided a link to them below with a little commentary.
October - A lot happened in the month of October, but the first post was all about Amish Grace. The rest of the month was mainly about our trip aboard the Pacific Catalyst.
November - This month’s blogging was dominated by the NYWC, but it started off with a 10-20-30 Tag from my friend Adam.
December - iGoogle, which was my discovering of one of the coolest pages on the web. And then I shared my NYWC Pictures with my blog friends.
As this year closes and a new one starts I want to give a benediction for 2008. I saw this on another blog in relation to Christmas, but I wanted to use it for the New Year.
May God bless you with discomfort,
at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger,
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
My God bless you with tears,
to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their
pain to joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness,
to believe that you can make a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
While I am first and foremost a Detroit Lions fan, I have rooted for the Patriots since 1985 as my secondary team, because, well…. because the Lions suck! I needed somebody who was good to root for. My high school team was the Cousino Patriots and the New England version was playing well in 1985 and would eventually go on to play the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX. So I have rooted for them since. Then the Patriots drafted Tom Brady who played for the University of Michigan and I was delighted, especially when he got a chance to play and lead them to multiple Super Bowls.
But I am happy for the Patriots and Tom Brady for multiple reasons. The first reason is because it is nice to see a team finally quiet the Miami Dolphins and their fans. Granted they won’t be completely quiet until the Pats go 19-0, but it is nice to see them quieted in regards to that undefeated regular season. I look forward to seeing Bill Belichick toasting his own glass of champagne on 3 February 2008. So between my liking of the Pats and my disliking of the Dolphins, I am a happy man.
The other reason I am happy is because Tom Brady is a Michigan Man and I am so proud as a Wolverine fan to see someone who has worn the Maize and Blue do so well. Michigan is not known as a quarterback school, but they sure have turned out a few good ones. I also am happy because seeing Tom break Peyton Manning’s record for touchdown passes is cool. I really do not like Peyton (not necessarily as a person, but more as a QB) and to see his name taken off the record makes me happy. But to have a Michigan Man do it is even better, because it reminds me of when Charles Woodson beat Peyton for the Heisman trophy.
Here’s hoping that the Pats can go 19-0, because we know the Lions will probably never see the Super Bowl let alone a 19-0 record. GO PATS!!!
It has been since 1996 that Michigan has won the GLI and it has probably been about that long since I last got to see them play in the GLI. But they did it today!
And to make Michigan’s win even better the Spartans lost the 3rd place game to first year participant Providence. So they went from being the defending GLI Champs to being the GLI ChUmps.
GO BLUE!!! Let’s win the National Championship now!
Those of you that know me, know that I LOVE Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. I love the lights, the music, the tree, the decorations, the cheer and everything else that goes with the holiday.
But for whatever reason this year was just kind of a blah year. Christmas came and went without much fanfare or anything. It was really disappointing to me. We had the lights and decorations up, we listened to Christmas music, but it just didn’t seem the same this year. I just felt like we went through the motions and did Christmas.
I don’t like that feeling. I feel like we missed out on what Christmas is supposed to be about. I was talking with Kimmy about it this afternoon as we were taking down the decorations, which is something I never want done until after New Year’s Day, and we were both expressing how it seems like we skipped Christmas even though we didn’t want to. We talked about some of the things that made it feel that way. I said that it felt like there was no build up or anticipation for Christmas Day. That is something that I am envious of in the liturgical churches, because the celebrate Advent. Whereas the more evangelical churches don’t do the whole advent thing. Other than at our Christmas Eve service there really wasn’t much about Christmas at my church. We didn’t really sing any traditional Christmas songs until Christmas Eve, except for one or two the Sunday before. I am sure that some of that is because the service the week before was canceled because of the heavy snow and they just moved what was supposed to be done at that service to the following week, but it was sad none the less.
So next year Kimmy and I decided that we as a family are going to get an Advent wreath and do Advent with our family even if our church isn’t doing it. Because we want to make sure that we don’t miss the anticipation and excitement of what we celebrate this season for. And next year we are going to be participating in the Advent Conspiracy, because we want to make sure we celebrate the birth of Jesus in the best way possible.
Next year I have a feeling that Christmas could be our best Christmas together since our first year together as husband and wife. And I am excited. For now I leave you with one of my favorite Christmas commercials.
It has been fun hanging out with the family and teaching the kids about the beautiful sport of college hockey. And also teaching them all of the Michigan hockey cheers. Of course only the clean ones. All in all it has been a great game and I look forward to watching Michigan win the GLI Championship tomorrow.
GO BLUE!!!
UPDATE….
Michigan will be playing Michigan Tech for the GLI Championship. The poor Spartans won’t be able to defend their title, because their goalie is a SIEVE! LOL
Well, she is actually older (much older, I might add) but she is shorter than me so I think of her as my little sister. Anyway, she complained that I didn’t mention my other gifts, especially the one’s she got me. So I will do so now.
My lovely and amazing sister got me a uber cool button down short that is brownish gray with white vertical stripes. I also got a Michigan rugby style shirt that has horizontal maize and blue stripes that my cute niece told my sister to get me. Thanks, sis, I do love them.
Along with my Michigan hockey sweater that my in-laws bought for me to wear when I go see Michigan play at the GLI, I got a $25 gift card to Caribou Coffee. That happens to be my favorite coffee shop and has much better coffee than $tar$uck$. I have always wanted a French press to make coffee in, so I decided to check and see if the ‘Bou had one. And much to my delight they did!
I ended up getting a Retro Travel Press. And now I can make my own personal cup of coffee via the French press style, which is the best way to make coffee. And it stays nice and warm for a long time. I added a pound of Reindeer Blend to go with it.
We did Christmas with Kimmy’s family on Saturday, because her brother and his wife went to Pennsylvania yesterday to spend Christmas with her family. My in-laws got me a Michigan hockey sweater, which is something I have wanted for a VERY long time. And then today, Kimmy and the kids gave me tickets to go to see Michigan’s hockey team play at The Joe for the Great Lakes Invitational. I have not been to a Michigan hockey game in years, so this was a cool gift. But what makes it even better is that I got 4 tickets, which means the whole family is going with me. That is the coolest part about it all. They are going with me.
I also got a pair of size 34 jeans from Kimmy and a large sweater. It is hard to believe that last year I was wearing 38 jeans and XL shirts, but now I am down to those sizes. All in all it has been a good Christmas and I can not wait until Friday to go with my family to see Michigan stomp Providence’s hockey team.
Last night, Kimmy and I took the kids to see “A Christmas Tale”, which was put on by Discover Church. It was a good production and it was nice to see some old friends. Too bad the visit was cut short because the fire alarm went off during the hanging out time after the production.
Well, after that we decided to go by and see this house at Tienken and Washington roads in Rochester, MI that is dubbed to be a Griswold House. And as you can see from the picture taken on my camera phone that it really is an amazing sight. If you live in the area it is worth a trip though the neighborhood to see this house, just make sure you go down to the roundabout so you can see the back side of the house. It is pretty cool.
HT to 
All in all it has been a great game and I look forward to watching Michigan win the GLI Championship tomorrow.
Anyway, she complained that I didn’t mention my other gifts, especially the one’s she got me. So I will do so now.
