Now Blogging – Lora Thomas

What better way to make her brother’s evening? My sister started a blog! She’s on staff at Tall Timber Ranch this summer, working with kids at the camp we grew up going to.

Lora, I’m glad you’re in. Looking forward to reading it!

loraleone.wordpress.com

Merry Christmas

I probably won’t spend much time blogging over the next few days, so I wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas. Hope you are all with people you love, enjoying some down time together, reflecting on this time of anticipating our coming (again) king.

The season can come at us from so many different directions. This year I’ve been able to see beyond some of my cynicism in all the commercialism and begin to understand a renewed excitement in what Christmas is actually about. While there was obviously some uncertainty to what this promised savior would actually do in the world, there was so much joy in knowing God came down, God moved in his creation to pull them back from all the distractions of sin and short comings of themselves. Joy to the world for the Lord has come and continues to dwell among us.

And, since it’s Christmas and I have idle time, here’s what I’m….
Reading: How (Not) to Speak of God, The God Delusion, and Why the Christian Right is Wrong
Listening to: Sufjan Steven’s Songs for Christmas, Damien Rice’s 9, Rosie Thomas’ These Friends of Mine, and Switchfoot’s Oh Gravity! (out 12/26)
Drinking: Starbuck’s Christmas Blend and Boundary Bay’s Cabin Fever ale
Watching: Six Feet Under – Season 2 and 24 – Season 4

Blessings.

AK Bound

In my last post, I mentioned that there were some exciting things coming up for this blog. Well, this is one of them. My parents are heading off to Alaska for the next month or so, taking a trip up the Alaska Highway. It’s a trip they’ve been planning on doing for years and are very excited about.

I have set up a blog for them, kind of a "parent blog?" (not really like a sister blog) to this site, where they will be posting stories and pictures from their trip as they go. They are going to be emailing me updates from the road, which I will post to their blog. If you are interested, please follow along with them at http://sethjames.blogs.com/alaskatrip.

It’s funny to think how Alaska has been taking people away from us this summer. Many friends are coming back from canneries and touring around this time of year, but now my parents are off to the Great White North and AK. I guess I need to get up there sometime.

Anyways, I’m excited to be helping my parents out with this one. Stop by their page and see what they are up to. They are leaving Edmonds tomorrow to come up and help my sister move and then they are off. Say a prayer for their safety and that they have an awesome time.

A Brief History

A few years back, my Grandparents gave each grandchild a box of photos for Christmas as a gift. They had compiled pictures throughout the years of the 4 grandchildren, organized them chronologically, and prepared these boxes as a starting point for us to develop our own albums. At the time, it was nothing more than a box with pictures I’d seen before.

Recently, I’ve been thinking more about getting a record started of my life, especially now since in married life there are 2 histories interweaving. My parents approached me with the project of scanning their catalog of photos onto the computer, so we would have a digital back up of our family photos. Being the the little organizer and cataloger that I am, I was thrilled. This week I bought a scanner.

My first project: the photo box. I’ve just finished scanning all of the photos Grandma and Grandpa Strand passed on to me that Christmas a few years back. It has been really great to look back on these pictures from when I was a little kid and remember the places and people they feature. Call me sentimental. So, I thought I’d post a selection of photos to show you A Brief History of me.

PS: Check out the picture of me with my baseball cards. I used to sit at a table for hours and hours, organizing these cards, learning each player, each team, each edition of a Topps or Donruss or Upper Deck baseball card. I loved it. Scanning and preparing these pictures, to share with my family, with my kids some day, made me feel the way I used to back then.

Ahh, family

My parents came up to visit on Saturday and we all went out for Mexican food at El Riconcito. Here’s a cute little photo.