Merry Christmas!

The fireplace is going, there is a plate of Christmas cookies sitting next to me, Tim Allen is practicing his "ho-ho-ho" as he is becoming Santa Claus in a TV rendition of The Santa Clause 2, and the snow is gently drifting down past the wind.....oh wait! Yeah the snow part is missing--I think this might be Minnesota's first Christmas ever without snow. We're all just a little bitter. My grandparents in Colorado have graciously offered to ship us some of their 5 feet that is burrying their yard, and if we could figure out just how to do that, we may take them up on that. Nothing very exciting is going on here around the Hanson household, I just thought I'd say Merry Christmas and post a couple pictures from the day. I got a digital camera from Santa today (which is never something I thought I would convert to, I am still quite in love with my nice SLR that uses good old fashioned film, but I thought it might be fun to have a camera I can easily stick in my pocket or purse.) Because nothing unbelievably thrilling has happened today, I don't have that many photos, but there are a few from a walk we took around Starring Lake this afternoon--we almost froze but we survived. So enjoy the first attempts with the new camera, and have a wonderful rest of the holiday season!

Megan and Nathan on the bridge at one corner of the lake.

My favorite photo of the day--someone had lost a glove and it somehow ended up on the branch of a bush.

Dad decided to demonstrate to me the various features of my camera while I was attempting to finish my book this afternoon.

Fun times in New Jersey

I just got back last night from spending a wonderful 4 days with Jean, Josh, and their brand new 2 week old baby girl, Elizabeth. Several of you have asked for pictures, so here's this beautiful little one that I am already madly in love with!

It's tough to be a baby! There are lots of new things to try to figure out--like working on her eyesight (she can only see about 8 inches in front of her right now), learning to hold up her head, and figuring out who all these people are that are now all around her! It's obviously been a very exhausting day for her!

Come on, Aunt Sarah! More flashes? I think I'm getting a little tired of this! I know I'm cute and all, but still....

She is obviously pondering something very serious in this picture...

Snug as a cute little bug.... Elizabeth and I had a conversation one afternoon while her mommy was taking a nap. Beth agreed to be my flower girl someday when I get married--I figure it'll still be a couple years, and she'll be walking around by then, and her mommy will be in the wedding, so baby may as well too! She agreed with a little burp, which I took as a yes :o)

The Little Drummer Boy

Greetings from the Garden State! I arrived in New Jersey this evening to begin my 4 days with Jean, Josh, and their precious new little girl. Elizabeth is absolutely beautiful, and it has been a long time since I've held a new born (she'll be 2 weeks old on Monday!) and I forgot how unbelievably tiny they are! She has her doctor's appointment tomorrow to get weighed again, but she can't be more than 9 pounds. I'll post pictures when I get home on Thursday :)

Last night I went with my parents and a family from church to the Go Fish concert downtown, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. I know some of their music, but was definitely NOT expecting an amazing show. It's three men who do primarily acapella songs, and within the past few years their music has taken on a new focus. Their new mission in life is to create quality music for kids that will teach positive messages without driving adults absolutely crazy. Trust me, as a former nanny of 3 year olds, this is an incredibly wonderful mission! And, I have to say, they have done a wonderful job. Their show was mostly a Christmas show, with classics like Joy to the World, Silent Night, and what is probably the most beautiful version of Mary Did you Know that I have ever heard in my life. But at the end of the first half, they did three of their non-Christmas songs for kids--I never knew a song called "The Ten Commandment Boogie" could be as entertaining as it was! (Ok, I'll be honest, there were three attractive men jumping around stage and singing their hearts out to get kids excited about learning the 10 Commandments...I am sure that added to me deciding the song was wonderful!)

The real reason that I'm babbling about this though is that they ended the show with their encore--and their encore happened to be my very favorite Christmas song ever written....The Little Drummer Boy. I think I fell in love with the song when I was about 3, I can remember my dad singing it to me to try to get me to sleep, and since then I have always cherished this piece of music, it just makes me excited when I hear the opening lines. So as they were singing it last night, I started really listening to the lyrics. I think I discovered another reason I love the song. They are so applicable to each one of us. When it comes to coming before our King, each one of us is a poor child, no matter how much money one may have in their bank account. We come with no gifts that are fit for a King, and as I listened to the song last night I could almost feel the anguish of this little boy. What do you bring as an offering to the Messiah?? Especially when others have brought such expensive gifts? So, this little boy does the only thing he knows how to do, he asks if he should play his drum for the baby. And the baby smiles at him. Ok, you are probably all thinking that I am now spending way too much time analyzing a kid's Christmas song, but stay with me here....how often do we think about Jesus smiling at us? If you're like me, you spend an awful lot of time thinking about the ways we've messed up. We beat ourselves up for not spending time in prayer today, or not helping that person who needed help, or gossiping about someone...or a million other things we shamefully hide from the world. But how often do we really think about coming before the Savior of this world and having him smile at us? I think that is one of the most incredible images I can come up with. Anyone who has ever worked with kids or had kids understands this. As a child comes up to you with a piece of paper covered with unintelligible scribbles or that picture frame made out of popcicle sticks and proudly yet shyly presents them as an offering of how much they love you, they wait in expectation for your response. When that smile, hug, and exclamations of how beautiful the gift is are expressed, the shyness disappears and the smile of self-confidence spreads over that little face. Jesus doesn't need our offerings of songs, prayers, our time, etc, yet when we, His children, come shyly before him with whatever we have to offer: a song crafted on the guitar He gave us the ability to play, a poem written with the gift of words He instilled in us, or even a beat on a drum, He smiles upon us.

May we all begin to catch a glimpse of just how much this Savior of ours absolutely adores us, and may each of us begin to create room in our mental images of the nativity scene for a little drummer boy or girl, a child who comes to the King with the most precious gift of all--himself.

Dude, Where's the Snow??

So I've been in Minneapolis at Mom and Dad's house for about 48 hours, and it hit 50 degrees today! I was wandering around town without a jacket for the afternoon...it's December! If they were going to move to Minnesota, we at least thought we were going to get some white Christmases out of the deal! Oh well...maybe one of these days--Christmas is still 12 days away, there's hope!

But, the other cool thing I have discovered in this place, which I somehow managed to miss last year, is this fabulous invention in their house--heated bathroom floors! That's right, all you have to do is set a timer and there are heating coils underneath the tile on the bathroom floor that will automtically heat up so when you get up in the morning it's not freezing cold on your barefeet---seriously, it is an amazing invention. (Or maybe I am just really easily entertained.)

Aside from the very cool heated floors, it's been great being here doing almost nothing. Well, not nothing, I've been working on getting my Christmas letter out, and this morning mom and I took the bus to downtown Minneapolis so I could get my hair cut. Tomorrow we're helping out with something her church is helping to put on for kids who can't buy Christmas presents for their family members, and we have 2 concerts this weekend (Lorie Line and Go Fish--a band that does a lot of acapella music, and focuses a lot of their music to kids, we're going with family friends here who have 2 little kids. I love seeing kids at concerts get so excited to see the people that they listen to on CD all the time...so it should be entertaining at least!) --so I guess I'm not doing nothing, but it is a fabulous change of pace from being at school! Sunday I leave for New Jersey to go meet miss Elizabeth, which I am VERY excited about, it's been awhile since I've held a new born!

I also finalized with my pastor my first preaching date, January 14th is the big day! I know my parents are coming out, and I was just told that my grandparents and my aunt & uncle are coming from Colorado, which is very cool--so I'm super excited & nervous about that. I'm glad I have Christmas break to sit with the text and not have to rush the writing process...

Anyways, this is probably one of the most broing things I have ever posted, but I'm watching TV and it's a commercial, so I thought I'd write something....sorry y'll had to read this! Don't worry, if there's snow, I'll be sure to let y'll know--I'm still holding out for a white Christmas!

Celebrating with Mickey

This year, instead of buying one another Christmas presents, Sophie, Jenn, Becca, Kernie (our stuffed monkey) & I decided to go to Disneyland for a day, which turned out to be a fabulous idea! Yesterday turned out to be the perfect day for Disney--not boiling hot (actually quite chilly), and school wasn't out yet for Christmas break, so the lines weren't bad at all--the longest line we stood in was for hot chocolate before the parade! Here are some of the highlights of the day captured for all the enjoy...

Of course Disney goes all out for Christmas decorations...

Kernie is all set--he wore his cookie monster t-shirt, his sunglasses, and of course, safety first--his seat belt!Becca and Kernie figuring out our plan of attack...Becca looks like her shirt is right--she needs a hug! Good thing Sophie is right there to fix that!And Kernie's ready to go...his aunts took turns carrying him, and other times he got to ride in his mommy's or his aunt sarah's purse--he made a lot of people smile as he wandered around the park! Our first ride of the day--Splash Mountain--maybe not the greatest idea, we got SOAKED and then were wet and cold the rest of the day. Post Splash-MountainBecca & Pocket ready to take on the Matterhorn"Bearian" on Thunder Mountain RailroadKernie and I riding Thunder Mountain--it was his first real rollercoater, he was so brave!

Pocket & I on Thunder MountainSophie & I flatly refused to ride the Teacups, but we had a great time laughing at Jenn and Becca as they didI'm not sure whether it was Becca or Pocket that was scared on the Haunted HouseI'm not really sure what Becca is doing....Kernie wanted to take some special photos throughout the day for his Uncle Sam who lives in Texas and really likes Pirates. Kernie said that he wishes Sam could have been at Disneyland with all of us, because as hard as us girls tried to be pirates, Sam just does a better job...so these photos were taken for him...Kernie had fun trying on clothes in the gift shop, but no matter how small of a shirt we found we just couldn't find one small enough. Kernie got VERY excited about riding on Pirates of the Caribbean.Kernie with his mommy & aunt Sarah--Kernie borrowed Aunt Becca's hat for the pictureBecca brought us Pirate tattoos, so here are mine and Sophie's....Pocket and Becca look absolutely authentic--I think they're ready for the high-seas...In fact, they looked so ferocious and authentic, that a real pirate showed up to tell them that all they had left to do was to drink a lot of alcohol...to which we responded "it's Disneyland, is he allowed to say that??!"They were a little afraid after getting the advice from the pirate, that we were going to cause a little too much trouble...so they threw us in jail....

Jenn got a little tired, good thing Sophie doesn't mind!

We ended the night at the Rainforest Cafe and because there was such a long wait, we opted to be seated on the "outdoor but heated patio"--which was fine for most of the meal but by the end, we were FREEZING! So the waiter moved the heater closer, but it still wasn't warm enough, so here are Becca & I hugging the space heater trying to get warmer....

My Church is Cool....

Last weekend, First Pres held its first Bethlehem Village, where we turned our entire church parking lot into a village, with canopy tents making booths, hay everywhere, live animals, and a re-enactment of the Nativity story every 1/2 hour. It was a fabulous event that involved most of our church community in some capacity, and drew people from all over Burbank. Really though, pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are some of the highlights from the two evenings:

Visitors to Bethlehem had to register with our census takers at the gate, and were given gold "Bethlehem coins" to spend at the various booths. There were 3 Roman soldiers on hand to make sure that people paid their taxes and didn't try to skip out on registering. I'm not sure I would want to avoid paying my taxes with folks like Michael running around! Once you made it past the census takers and soldiers, you could visit any number of booths. You could go and pay a visit to the Jewish rabbi and receive a prayer on a scroll and learn how to light a menorah. You could visit our wonderful book sellers--and receive a copy of the Christmas story...

You could go to the carpenter's shop and watch some of our wood workers actually make...well...I never did figure out what they were making, I think some stools....And of course, if you were hungry you could visit the bread and cheese shop--but only if the Roman soldiers hadn't taken away all your gold coins by the time you got there! Our fearless leader and Pastor, Ross, and his wonderful wife Kathy

Then, every 1/2 hour, the Nativity would be re-enacted. First, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus (Dave, myself, and baby Isabella) would come in, followed by a host of beautiful angels who danced to Joy to the World. Three of our high school students played the angels that would rise up on the scaffolding above the manger to announce that Jesus was born. Then Dave & I--sorry, then Mary & Joseph! presented baby Jesus to the villagers--notice the very authentic Bethlehem pacifier :) Baby Isabella was awesome, she made it through 4 performances a night for 2 nights in a row--she didn't cry at all until the second night, she was quite the trooper!The shepherds (with their live sheep and goats) came next to bow down before the baby, I think that they look a little tangled up in this picture...Then came the 3 kings, each with their own entourage--a banner carrier, someone to carry their robe etc. They each had a gift for the baby, which really were the spcies that the kings would have brought, so between performances you could go talk to the kings about their gifts and smell these spices for yourself, and they would explain why that gift would have been so precious in that time. It was a very educational evening!And of course, we got to pose for lots of photos! Don't they look angelic? :)

Ann-Marie--our new children's director and the dreamer behind the entire event--she did an incredible amount of work and I think managed to enjoy herself too! Here she is with one of our very kingly kings. One of my favorite angels, miss Stephanie, and a friend