Free for All Friday

GRAND-KIDS

I took today off from work, mostly so that I could get our Christmas cards & letters out. Lois tells me that we're having lunch with Bentley at Christ Lutheran. Tonight we're going to Hadley's Christmas program at Trinity Lutheran in Lincoln. On Sunday afternoon we're going to Brianna's Christmas concert @ Lincoln Lutheran. (Lois says that the Christmas concert is actually at Messiah Lutheran.)

ROAD TRIPS

If  you follow my blog, you know that I enjoy road trips. I enjoy looking forward to road trips. This weekend we're in Lincoln for Hadley's Christmas program & Brianna's Christmas concert.

• Next Friday we'll travel to Grand Island for a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert, which we can cross off our bucket list.
• In January we're headed to Texas to visit Lois' brother David & his wife Carmen, my cousin.
• Later in January we're headed to Minnesota for our newest grand-daughter's baptism. We'll stay at Nathan & Laura's for a week or so.
• In February we're headed to St. Petersburg, FL, where we'll visit with Lois' sisters Kathy & Anita.
• Last night Lois made reservations for a family reunion in Omaha in late July.

HOPE

God became one of us, not to erase every shadow or to undo the difficulties of humanity, but to be with us in the midst of it, to transform our spectrum of darkness by bearing a truer depth of light, and to enlarge us with the joy of expectancy until the fullness of time when every hope has come to pass. --Jill Carattini, Slice of Infinity

FREE FOR ALL

• TACO BELL worker swung machete at drive-through customer --Drudge Report, 12/10
• Teen runaway found 'camping' inside BED, BATH & BEYOND --ditto

POLITICS REARS ITS UGLY HEAD

With every day that passes, the Democrats risk creating the perception that they themselves are a threat to the 2020 election. --Rich Lowry, National Review Online 12/10

And, in the case of the Obama administration, using investigative agencies as political weapons fits a well-established pattern of behavior. Under the Obama administration, the IRS abused its powers for political purposes: Conservative nonprofits were targeted for investigation and harassment. So was the National Labor Relations Board.  --Kevin Williamson, NRO 12/13