Yuletide Blogging

It’s Christmas Eve and so starts the magical week of family, parties, and gifts. It’s a magical time that one gains weight, useless gifts, and enough leftovers to last a month.

The Christmas season has become a favorite of mine over the past few years, mainly because it means a break from school for a month and great time with the family. Christmas Eve has also been my favorite day of the Christmas break. Most of my mom and dad’s families come out to our house and enjoy good food. Years ago, my brother and I would open gifts from Santa. Now, it is a great time to catch up with family and get a good number of gifts later in the night. Christmas day brings gifts at the grandparents’ house and the always delicious prime rib my grandmother makes.[1]

Josh Milligan asked for suggestions for a new blog post. My prompt asked him to discuss his best/worst gifts ever received. I’ve always been of the philosophy that you should never ask a question you can’t answer, so here’s my list of best/worst gifts ever.

Best:

1. Tickets to Jacksonville Jaguars/Tennessee Titans game the day after Christmas - I knew my aunt and uncle were going and when asked if they had gotten a ticket for me, I was told no until Christmas day when I opened my gift with this in it.

2. Bike – What kid doesn’t remember getting a bike?

3. Xbox – My brother and I got this the year it came out and really started my gaming career.

Worst:

1. 3 peat year – I can’t remember the gift exactly but I got the same gift three different times. C’mon relatives, let’s communicate a little bit.

2. Clothes from Mom – Sorry Mom, but most of your clothing options throughout the years have not been the greatest. That being said, the clothes have gotten better throughout the years.

3. Toilet Paper – Yes, I received this one year. It was a gag gift, but it wasn’t that funny. Especially since the reason I was getting it was because my aunt and cousin had TP’ed my car earlier in the year and had then blamed it on my friends.

On a serious note though, gifts aren’t everything this holiday. This is the time of the year that Jesus was born and after receiving gifts and hanging out with family I know that I will definitely remember how thankful I am for those things but also for Jesus being born and the great gift He has given all of us. Have a great Christmas everyone!!

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[1] I would challenge anyone to find a better prime rib anywhere

I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!

July 15th 2009. On this day in history, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince[1] was released in theaters, Natalya Estemirova (a Russian activist) passed away, and I wrote my last blog post. How quickly the six months have passed. Another semester is in the books, and yes I survived I-core.

I’ll be honest and admit that I really had forgotten about the whole blogging thing until yesterday when bored at home I decided to catch up on Josh Milligan’s excellent blog[2]. One of the titles was “On Giving Thanks and Calling Fools Out.”[3] This intrigued me because what’s better than people getting called out. Much to my surprise, I was one of the fools called out. Josh was nice enough to point out that it had been since that wonderful day in July that I had written a blog post. Right then and there, I knew I had to make a comeback[4]. And because of the wonderful accountability, Josh showed I decided that my comeback post would be about my own New Year’s Resolutions so that all who read this can provide the same kind of accountability as Josh.

Now I know that it is almost Christmas Eve and talk of New Year’s seems far away but guess what, it’s my blog, and I can do what I want[5]. Now for the resolutions:

1. To continue writing this blog and on a continual basis. In addition to this, because of Josh and Bill Simmons[6], I have decided to begin using footnotes.

2. Do some kind of physical activity at least 2-3 times a week. This can include cycling, running, ultimate, basketball, etc.

3. Pray everyday. I challenged myself to read the Bible everyday last year, and for some reason I find it easier to read than just chat with God. I would like to find a good balance.

4. Limit my consumption of soft drinks. This isn’t a huge issue now but soft drinks[7] don’t really help with health, so I might as well cut them out.

5. Visit friends more often. IU provides a lot of weekends for my high school friends to visit, but I don’t seem to reciprocate the favor too often. So I’d like to make a trip to Ball State and USI this spring.

There you have it. A list of 5 resolutions that I would love to make good on. The return to blogging has been good but now it’s time to go.

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[1] Which is currently out on DVD and highly recommend it.

[2] Link here : http://bravodeploysatchmo.blogspot.com/

[3] Written on November 25, no less

[4] And not like a Michael Jordan to the Wizards comeback or a Brett Favre to the Vikings comeback. It’s more like a Jordan post-baseball comeback.

[5] You can expect a special Christmas post tomorrow.

[6] Who should be considered the Czar of Footnotes. In his Book of Basketball, his use of footnotes can only be described as copious. And none of which are irrelevant, actually they add quite a bit.

[7] And never known as “Pop”