Just another day at the Casa....

4 bottles of Diet Coke: $8
2 packs of Mentos: $1
Geyser Tube: $6
This video: Yep, priceless

Merry Christmas!!

I just wanted to take some time before my family gets here to eat and open presents to share some Christmas related thoughts that I've been pondering on this Christmas season.

First, here's another church doodle for you. On Sunday Ron Ayers preached about the significance of the gifts that the Magi brought. This is how I envisioned the frankincense:

Yes, I know it's cheesy, but I enjoyed it non-the-less. I think I'm going to re-do a little differently in one of my sketchbooks, make a little more subtle (and hopefully less cheesy).

I did the projection for the Christmas service at Manchester a couple of weeks ago so I spent a lot of time hearing Christmas hymns and I have come to the conclusion that we need some new ones. At the very least update the language so I know what I'm singing. It's not that I don't love the hymns we have, I very much do, but sometimes I have no clue what I'm singing. For example, in the song "What child is this?" There is a line that goes "Haste, haste to bring Him laud..." What the heck is laud? How am I suppose to bring it to the babe, the son of Mary if I don't know what it is?
Fun story, last Sunday at Manchester we sang "Silent Night" and when I saw the words " 'Round yon virgin mother and child" and I noticed the apostrophe before the word "round" implying "around." Up until that point I had thought that "round" was describing the pregnant virgin. Who knew?

One last thing I want to comment on is the fact that whenever there is a nativity scene that includes the three wise men, one of them is always black. I don't understand it. Did some historians get together back in the day and say to each other:
"Ya know, I think one of wise men was black."
"Huh, that makes sense."
"Yeah, let's alert the Christian bookstores to let them know."
But it's not just the bookstores, Brandi has a little Charlie Brown nativity set. One of wise men is black. I watched a Christmas episode of Scrubs last night. At one point J.D. had a vision of everyone as part of a nativity scene. Turk was a wise man.


All of that said, I hope you have a great Christmas.

Church Doodles 2

John 10:10 - I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full

Bob Hay talked about this in Sunday School yesterday. He said the image of "have it to the full" is that of someone who is digging a well and discovers a spring. The water would continue to rise and rise until it overflowed out of the well.

Let's play the caption game

I show you a picture, you write a caption for it.

Here's mine: "I knew I should have stayed home today...Miss Frizzle!"

Quote of the Day - Oct. 10

"I need you to get a life."

"I'm a gamer. I have lots of lives."

Best. Response. Ever.

The Awareness Test

Dan showed this video today during his sermon:

Strange But True South Carolina

I have a book that has the same name as the title of this post. It's full of quirky things about our beloved state. Local restaurants (like the Beacon), festivals (like Come-See-Me), tourist attractions/"wonders" of our state (like, of course, the Gaffney Peach), even some ghost stories.

This is one of those books that I don't have to hurry to finish. I can take my time, pick it up whenever, read a couple of interesting things, then put it back and save it for later. I picked it up the other day for the first time in a while and as I was reading about some local festivals I got this strong, sudden urge to go visit these places. I want to travel all over the state, trying local foods, experiencing local customs.

I enjoy learning about other cultures, especially of the latin american persuasion, but sometimes I think that I get so caught up in other cultures that I forget about my own.

So, who wants to go exploring South Carolina with me?