Merry Christmas! Jesus Lives!

(Kitty) Merry Christmas everyone! We're having a wonderful and relaxing day after a really lovely Christmas with our friend Doug and his family. I got the coolest gifts from John! One was somewhat expected - I'm going to the motorcycle safety class where they teach you to ride and you get your motorcycle license! Woo-hooo!! The other was completely out of the blue - two hours at a firing range! Woo-hooo!! We've talked about it occasionally over the years (because I was in the Marines just long enough to get an Expert badge on the range and loved it, and living in the country as a kid I did some target practice and loved that), but we've never gotten around to going to a firing range. I told John we definitely have to go do it together! I can't wait!!

Of course, we had plenty of fun opening gifts with Doug's 2-year-old nephew, and everyone gave all kinds of fun gifts to each other. But the best part was spending time with people we love who love us. We hope you had an equally blessed holiday. God did a wondrous thing when He came down here to fulfill the law that would've condemned us. The best present we could ever have - we have! Living forever with God who will love us forever! Yea!!

Whimsy and Joy

(Kitty) According to the calendar, today is the first day of winter. Someone in the bank said, "They call this the first day of Wind-er." I laughed out loud, though I'd never heard that before. Last night, the wind started and I don't think it's quit yet. I woke up four or five times last night when the wind whistled so loudly under our door that it woke me up!

But on the way to the bank, I saw a sight that filled me with whimsy and joy. In the air a block ahead of me was a flock of a hundred or more birds. But they weren't going anywhere. They swooped together one way, then took a dive together and up in another direction, back and forth and swirling around. The more I tried to figure out what they were doing, the more a crazy fun joy welled up in my chest. And that's when I decided that's what they felt! I think they were all just playing together in the wind!

I was never so glad for a nice long stop light. For whatever reason, I felt more Christmas-y at that moment than I have all week! (Except when I delivered gifts from the church yesterday. That was awesome!) Those birds stopped looking for dinner long enough to participate together in the joy of the moment. It was beautiful watching them dance in the air like that.

I pray that for you in the next week - that you stop in your preparations occasionally to participate with your friends or family or the strangers around you in moments of whimsy and joy. God loved the world so much that He came down in the form of His Son - the JOY of the world! Like glitter that sticks to everything, bits of that joy can be experienced everywhere.

Enjoy! And Merry Christmas from John and me! We love you! :)

Living a Fantasy Life

(Kitty) The other day I decided I was tired of being grumpy about the traffic in LA. I needed some way of not getting angry every 2.3 minutes. So I figured - I'm a writer, I'll just make up stories about these people. So when the black Mercedes to the left cut me off to change lanes, I decided he was a doctor on his way to deliver someone's first child. (It is Christmas, after all. A time we're remembering someone else's first child's birth.)

When the red Miata ran a red light in front of me, narrowly missing all the traffic - like me - accelerating through the green, John said he must be on the run from the mob, trying to get away to live another day.

And when the white pickup next to me kept swerving into my lane, oblivious to the fact I was taking up space there, I knew he must've recently been blessed with 20/20 vision via lasik surgery and was still trying to get used to being able to see everything.

You can call me looney tunes if you want. But my blood pressure is still resting at normal levels, even a mere ten days before Christmas. That's a fantasy I can live with.

Ya Gotta Love This!

(Kitty) John sent this to me this morning. It's John as a character in The Simpsons! Isn't it funny? (And it looks like him, too!) If you want to try it, go to http://simpsonizeme.com/ and upload a photo of yourself. I'll have to try it later. The site says it's too busy right now! :)

Our First Christmas (Tree)!

(Kitty) - I know, I know, it's hard to believe. We started out sharing our Christmas holidays with family, then we were alone and broke, then we moved around a lot. Then this weekend John said, "I think we should get a Christmas tree." Just like that, out of the blue.

No, we haven't moved out of our 343 sq ft studio apartment. So I asked the obvious - "Where would we put it?" John suggested a tabletop tree to sit on the edge of our desks; the next day, there we were fighting the crowds at Target. Last night, we decorated our home with a Christmas tree complete with lights and bulbs (even 4 Happy Feet bulbs - thank you, Sean!) and a big red ribbon at the top. (Target didn't have any stars less than half the size of our entire tree!)

I love it! It's so festive! And we even have a small lighted nativity sitting next to the tree. I love it! Due to the joy of digital cameras - we took about 40 pictures of us until we got a good one for our Christmas photo stamps. Next weekend, we're taking pictures of ourselves with Santa hats sitting on John's motorcycle for our Christmas card photo! LOL! It'll be great!

Hope you're having a great week! Remember to thank God for the best Christmas gift ever! :)