And From Oliver

And if you struggle with seven-year-old penmanship, here's a translation:


"Dear Santa Claus,
I hope you give me good presents. I want to know if you are real. I never knew that you were real. Would you please send me note on Christmas? I'd love to make some cookies for you and milk. What kind of cookies and milk do you like? I hope I've been good. Here's my list of things I want:

• battle droid bobble head
• Legos Star Wars and Atlantis
• Detective Set
• Spy Gear Set
• iPad
• iPod
• remote control ATAT
• Legos  submarine set
• Nintgendo DS
• 25 bucks
• any kids robots
• any cool bobble heads that I like
• any rare Pokemon or Pokemon pack
• silly bandz
• lots of Nutcrackers
• Club Penguin membership for a year
• lots of marbles
• Mighty Mugs
• a new bike
• a big Nerf Gun
• to see you
• candy (lots)
• Poptropica Membership
• paintball gun
• Beyblade"

Mailed

via Brahm's stocking:

Posted

...on door of emergency food pantry in my neighborhood.

Found on Door to Basement

Gift of the Magi

I bought some new essential oils today and brought Oliver into the kitchen to test 'em out. Ever since he was a toddler, he's had an extraordinary sense of smell and learned early on how to experience the world through his nose. I was excited about two of the bottles, frankincense and myrrh, and wanted him to guess what they were before smelling them.

"They were two of the three gifts the Three Kings brought to Jesus," I hinted.

"Frankincense!" he guessed right away.

"Yep! What else?" I coaxed.

"Gold?"

"Yes, that's one of the gifts but it's not one of my oils, " I answered.

He sat for a moment with a perplexed look on his face. More time passed but still he could not guess the third one. Finally he looked up at me and took a stab in the dark.

"Pot?"

Overheard

Oliver (in all sincerity): Dad, can I pretend like I'm a hawk every morning and come in and land on you to wake you up?

Brooks (in all sincerity): Oliver, can I pretend like I'm a boulder every morning and come in and drop on you to wake you up?

Oliver: Yes.

Brooks: And crush you?

Oliver: Yes.

New Music for Sunday

And for the rest of the week, for that matter. But first, the non-related visual interest:

This was taken with my phone the day we went up to the reservoir right after school. Oliver said to me, "Mom, my favorite thing is to see the reflection of the trees in the water." I loved how he observed this because, in fact, it was beautiful. You can see a little bit of it in the water behind us with some of the snow-dusted mountain caps as well. Another thing I like about this photo is 1) that Oliver let me take it and 2) how I can see a hint of what he's going to look like as a teenager. He's growing up.

So about the music. I was just thinking this morning how I've wanted to recommend some new music for a while now. Both albums are of traditional Christian and spiritual hymns but in a different or updated style that appeals to me. I have a lot of spiritual music in my collection on terms of classical choral pieces but I haven't come across any 18th and 19th century standard hymn collections I like. Until now, that is. Mindy turned me on to both of them this last year.

The first album is called "Nearer: A New Collection of Favorite Hymns" performed by various artists. It's not your mother's LP, that's for sure. Long overdue. "Be Still, My Soul" and "It Is Well With My Soul" are two of my favorites.

The other is "The Lower Lights - A Hymn Revival" also performed by various artists in a folk and bluegrass style. I promise you've never heard "If You Could Hie to Kolob" like the rendition here. Some of my faves: "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus" and "There Is A Green Hill Far Away".

Both are available on iTunes. Check 'em out and let me know what you think.