Attack of the pigeons...

Everywhere we went in Maui we were surrounded by the strangest looking pigeons. Mini-pigeons. But what they lacked in size they made up in tenaciousness and numbers. They were everywhere. And of course Maddie was terrified of them. So I thought I'd share a few of the pics of these "hoards" of pidgeons and show how they were always around little Madsie...always there, always lurking.

About Christmas...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I wanted to share a few thoughts about what Christmas means to me...

Holy Infant, so Tender and Mild

I try to think about Jesus' atonement and the Gospel as much as possible, but at Christmas I like to think about Him as a baby. It's the time for me when Jesus is most human. I've seen a lot of babies in my life, and I think that Jesus was a lot like these babies. I can picture him more as a baby than any other way. It's easier to imagine holding Him. One can almost picture how tenderly Mary looked at Him, how she had great hope for him in that little body. She probably had little talks with him...but he wouldn't understand them yet, because he was a baby. There's a great deal that is very special about all of this, and that's how I like to think of Jesus at Christmas.

Christmas Music

I like the "Pop Christmas" songs ok, but am more of traditionalist when it comes to Christmas music. The songs I really want to hear at Christmas are about Jesus and typically have an old English sound to them. This is my ultimate Christmas Playlist:

• Wexford Carol
• Away in a Manager
• Were you there?
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
• Lully Lu
• What Child Is This?
• O Holy Night

A Christmas Carol

Other than the actual Christmas story, the story I want to read or see (in a play, preferably) is A Christmas Carol. I consider this to be a spiritual story of hope and redemption, and to me is the very spirit of Christmas. I get teary-eyed when I think of the Cratchett Family without Tiny Tim. I get teary-eyed when Tiny Tim says that he hopes people would think of Jesus when they saw him. I get choked up when the shackles that had held Scrooge down begin to fall off...when his repentence and redemption begin. I think of the years of wasted life...the regrets for a life wasted. But the power of the words and the story ultimately are about hope and redemption, and it's one of my favorite stories of all time, not just at Christmas.

Food

There are a couple of things I really want to eat at Christmas time. I want Egg Nog. I want Dory's Christmas Cookies...the Ginger Snaps. Melanie's butter cookies too. I don't care as much about the dinner, but I want some fun appetizers and hopefully a cheese ball. Funny, I know, but that's what I want.

A Christmas Tree Surrounded in Toys

To me, Christmas morning is about giving toys. The other stuff...clothes and such...are good and useful, but I like to see my girls openiing toys. My memories are of coming down to a cold, dark family room and seeing the majesty of the Christmas tree surrounded by gifts. Every gift was fun to open, but the toys were the ones that sent chills through me, that said to me that Santa had been there, and that felt magical. This morning, seeing the girls opening the Zhu Zhu pets and the other stuff that they opened was for me the highlight.

Christmas Shows

Two really stand out to me...A Charlie Brown Christmas and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Totally different, but these are the two shows I want to watch. A Charlie Brown Christmas is the best holiday show on. It has a great spirit and message, highlighted by Linus narrating Luke 2.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a totally different kind of show. It simply pokes at the fun and craziness of the season. I watched it one night after work by myself (or maybe Nate was there, I can't quite remember) and laughed by head off. Cousin Eddy wearing a black Dickie under a white sweater. Shooting down the hill on the greased sled. Getting stuck in the attic and watching old movies. I watched it in Hawaii and still laugh at it today.

Intelligent Design...

I'm no scientist. Only wanted to be an Astronomer briefly, until I realized that there was too much math involved. But I've often wondered about the creation, and have thought for the longest time that the Biblical story of the creation, and the scientific theories that have been made against it, could exist together.

One thing I believe is that God is a scientist. So when he set about planning the creation, he did things in a logical manner. He would need to understand all of the scientific fields perfectly, and would have to work them together to create this world. For instance, he built similar genetic codes, and then tweaked them to create the diversity that we see in the world. Therefore, the ape and the human could both be built with similar codes, without being the same things. Some people point to that fact and say that we evolved from them...I look at that and think "that's a pretty efficient way to build a world". To me it sounds like a good architect...the plans all have a foundation, load-bearing walls, roofs...but they don't want them to be the same. Each is different, has a different purpose. But they rely on similar principles.

But I also know that God is an artist. I believe that he has created the diversity of this world on purpose. It allowed him to showcase his creativity while surrounding us with interesting and unique climates, animals, plants, and people. For me, he created tropical islands and blue, warm water. For others he created big mountains with snow. But ultimately I believe this diversity was intentional and it reflects the character of God as I think of him...loving, thoughtful, logical, creative.

My feelings about this were stirred up this week when I saw this documentary. Ben Stein (surprised me too) was showing how atheists and the scientific community leadership are supressing any scientists who introduce Intelligent Design into the mix of theories around where we came from and why we're here. I would recommend all people of faith to rent and watch it. It's a moving, frightening revelation of how others are unfairly promoting Darwinism, and in an underlying way, atheism. How leading atheists use the theory of evolution to convince themselves that there is no God. The interviews are frightening. The atheist scientists sound like satan himself. Basically they said "first, you need to believe the theory of evolution. Once you do, you will let go of God. Once you let go of God, you quickly let go of the hope of an afterlife. With hope gone, you realize that there's nothing there. And once you've had this de-conversion, you want to tell others about it". It was frightening.

Making matters worse is the use of the power that Big Science has to influence the classroom, what papers are written, what professors succeed, and what the courts decide. It was to me a concise way to see how satan is attacking our families from every way. Every person of faith should watch it, and determine how they will protect their families from this. I know I will.

Heaven is Maui...

I love island life.

I think everyone has a climate that is them. For me, that's island life. I'm programmed for it. It works for me in everyway. It defines vacations for me. It helps melt away the stresses and cares of everyday life. Palm trees. Sun. Blue sky. Shorts, t-shirts, sandals. BBQ. The feeling of being a little hot, a little sweaty. Beaches. Sand. Fruit - the fresh, exotic kind, not the stale, old, refrigerated kind. The Irie attitude. The pace.

Even before Jamaica, and before I had been anywhere tropical, I longed for beaches and blue water. Jamaica brought that home to me in a very real way. And this sweet, 10-day long adventure in Maui has reminded me of all of this.

Maui has been really wonderful. In all fairness, it's mostly because Melanie is the best value vacation planner in the world. She lines up the most amazing vacations at a fraction of the price of others, and as a result we stay in **** hotels and live a lifestyle of the rich and famous, at Holiday Inn prices.

We've had a wonderful trip so far. We've felt grateful for being able to be here, and Heavenly Father has really made this a special trip. Both the whale watch and the snorkeling featured amazing views and interactions with wildlife. At the luau we were upgraded to the VIP section, front and center, for free. Both hotels have had spectactular views and rooms that were exactly what we needed, and more in some cases. We had two wonderful dinners at Leilanis and a delicious island breakfast at The Gazebo - the perfect combination of delicious food, great views, great service, and zero snootiness.

Maui has really been super in every way. Plus, you get all of the amenities of U.S. travel (something I'm liking more and more). I'll be posting more, likely when I'm back in Seattle and totally depressed.

Snorkeling in Maui and other adventures...

Abby and I had the best day snorkeling today. We headed out to Manele Bay where Abby braved the cold water and 35 foot depths to explore the coral reefs and see the pretty fish. She was super brave in the cold, salty water and was the smallest kid in the water that day.

The best part by far was the ride. On the way back we headed further out to a marine reserve where we saw Bottlenose Dolphins and several humpback whales playing in the water. The thrill of seeing whales is really something. I've never seen anything that big, that close, that wild. The Disney or Seaworld stuff is good and all, but it's still a bit fake. Here in Maui, it's so perfectly real and unscripted. For me it made it all the more thrilling and real. The whales got very close to our boat at one point. The captain couldn't move, so we sat there as they swam 20 feet from the boat. You could see their beautiful, huge bodies just sitting there below the water. It was so real.
While heading back the captain saw another group of dolphins and headed out to see them. It was by far one of the coolest things I've every seen. There must have been hundreds of these Spinner dolphins surrounding our boat, chasing us, jumping out of the water and spinning. There were babies too, fresh new little Spinner dolphins jumping and going crazy as you'd expect little babies to be. I think I got some good pics, and will post them when I get home.

On the way back we also saw a baby humpback and its mom, and were able to see the baby totally jumping out of the water and learning from its mom how to be a whale. These momma whales come all the way from Alaska to breed and protect their babies, fasting for several months to ensure that they procreate and protect their babies. It was really something to be a witness to this miracle.

Maddie's tender heart

Tonight I opened up my Ipod Touch that Mel got me for Christmas. I want to make sure it's humming by Hawaii, so I loaded up music and videos and was playing with it. It's sharp. Loving it.

I downloaded a movie a long time ago for the kids called Little G's Halloween. It's about a little ghost who goes trick or treating, only to be completely ignored at each house. He's a little ghost, and is carrying a white clothe - kind of like Maddie's blankey. So I pulled it up and showed it to Maddie, just for fun.

She watched it intently, and then left. She went down to tell Mel about it, and as she does she starts crying. Mel comes up and asks what movie she saw, so we sat down to watch it - the three of us. And she starts weeping again, really emotional. But it's a new emotion, one that I haven't seen come out that strongly before in Maddie. It's compassion. She was absolutely saddened to see that little ghost get turned away from house to house and receive no candy. It broke her heart, and so she cried and cried about it.

It made us both happy to see her so caring, so compassionate. It was sweet. She has a tender heart, and does watch out for little things. So it's only natural that she would have those feelings. To see them come so alive was really wonderful as a Dad.