Pic of the Year 2012

Lots of pix to choose from, but I would have to say this is my favorite pic of 2012  This was a picture of the family around Father's Day weekend in front of El Capitan in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in western Texas.

Snow and Pets

Pretty, fluffy snow last night.  My parents' dog views my bunny as a potential play buddy, but he does not share that view. We visited family in Door County today.

Winter Up Nort'

The family went up to my parent's cabin to do a little snowshoeing and help with a little indoor construction work.

Post-Christmas in Green Bay

Up in Green Bay visiting family.

Christmas Day, 2012

Kept the day low key, except for packing for traveling tomorrow, and enjoyed our presents.  Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!

Christmas Eve, 2012

This morning I got my foot checked out in more detail, and now I have an air cast that has treads, but I will not be able to walk or drive on that cast (or foot) for at least a couple months. Still getting used the whole manuvering about the house situation. Since it looks like crutches for a while, Katie and I decorated them with LED lights.  Kris sang at a couple of Christmas Eve Masses tonight, first with the children's choir (she's second from left) and then with the adult choir.  Katie and Kris also put out food for Santa and his reindeer.

'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

On Saturday afternoon, Kris and I went to see The Hobbit.  The physical quality of the film at the Landmark Theatre was terrible, with black spots and streaks, but we enjoyed the movie content overall.  Like the other Peter Jackson hobbit movies, there were things that he did that were spot-on that I liked, things that he changed/added that I did not like, and things that he added that were completely new that I did  indeed like.  Kris and I  both agreed many of the battle/danger scenes were too long - except the one with the goblins, which we wish was slower. In the evening, we went to a musical, Christianized adaptation of the A Christmas Carol at Riverside Community Church.  Kris's former teacher played the role of Scrooge and did a good job.  After that, we visited an animated Christmas light display in nearby Norwood, IL.  The DJ service that does the display broadcasts the music over your car radio while you watch.  It was fun!  Videos of the display can be seen here:  http://www.peorialights.com/christmas.html.  I especially like the Clark Griswold one. Today, our friends the Fritzes visited us for lunch and we had fun.  After that, we got my sore foot checked out at a prompt care.  I slipped on my indoor steps simply (and soberly) walking downstairs late Saturday afternoon.  I assessed it as a painful sprain and we dug our crutches out of the shed.  Things did not seem to be getting better, and it turns out the X-rays this afternoon showed a broken bone.  We will try to get in to see a specialist tomorrow to find out where to go from here.   I have been telling people that I injured my foot while successfully defending the Earth from the Mayan apocalypse.  The second picture shows some of the variety of decorations on our tree  - note that Katie added one of her own.

Winter Solstice, 2012

Bright sunny day for the shortest day of the year.  I took various winter pix, including the requisite snowy Christmas-lit picture of the house and of some decorated tugboats along the Peoria riverfront.

First Snow of the Season

Peoria got its first snow in 290 days (the record is 296) and it was a doozy across portions of the Midwest. Happily, the girls' last day of school was a half-day and they got out an hour or two before the snow arrived. Middleton, WI, got 19 inches. There were only a couple of inches for Peoria out of this blizzard, but the winds were potent enough to knock out power to our neighborhood from about 5:40-9:20 tonight. The family had a candlelight dinner, a board game, and camped out by the wood stove downstairs.  The camera had a flash, so the well-lit shots are obviously inaccurate in terms of lighting.  Tomorrow is the winter solstice, and also the date of the “Mayan apocalypse.” I do not believe that will happen…being a Christian I have that whole not knowing the date and hour thing to consider (Matthew 25:13), and I do not think that statement was just for Christians.  Still, it’s intriguing to think about.  I am reminded of a food fight I once saw in a cafeteria in high school.  Before it happened, the air was just thick with tension, everybody know what was going to happen.  Someone tossed a piece of food straight up in the air to try to set things off, but not get in trouble for actually throwing food at someone – it did not work.  Eventually food got thrown and the whole cafeteria dissolved into chaos.  Sometimes I think the world feels like it's all full of tension, and I wonder from an academic standpoint what triggering event could send the world into chaos.  I’m not especially eager to see it happen, however.  A lot of local bars are having apocalypse parties, which to me seems like just an excuse to generate bar business, but when I think about people partying on the brink of disaster, I think of Isaiah 22:12-14 and shudder a little.  Ah well, I am not a trained theologian and it is getting late; I shall post pictures and go to bed.

Guadete Sunday Weekend

Bradley University had its graduation yesterday.  It was all right, but I'm looking forward to next December's graduation more if Karen stays on track to graduate as planned.  Grades are posted, and I'm turning my attention to other projects at school.  Today was the last Sunday School of the year, with the Jesse tree program, too. Katie and a friend worked hard to make a manger scene just as shown on the box.   At home this weekend, Karen went on an epic cookie-making binge and I helped her as an excuse to snitch cookies.  Some were green and gold to celebrate the Packer win. I'm still processing the news about the shooting at that Connecticut school and its context.  It is definitely tragic, and there are certainly other gun-related tragedies ongoing around the world with wars in Syria and other places.  Peoria has had lots of gun violence this year.  A cabin in northern Wisconsin belonging to people I know was burglarized just this weekend (it seems the burglar was seeking only guns - and only got a BB gun for the efforts).  I am OK with the right to bear arms, but I'm not convinced arming teachers or expanding concealed carry would fix things.

Space Station Crossing

The picture shows the International Space Station setting in the east across the street from my house (upper blob/dot) at about 5:38 pm tonight. To my family's credit they all went outside to watch. The lower blob/dot is Jupiter rising, I think. The tiny little dots are bad pixels in the image. Meteor showers lately: Karen reports that she saw 2 meteors tonight and one last night, as she was erranding.   Exams and grading are winding up at Bradley.

Fall classes winding down

Karen is done with her class is ready to do some subbing.  I am done with lectures and ready to give some exams.  Katie has finished her dance and tumbling classes. This weekend, Kris got to visit with friends who used to live in Peoria  who now live out of town. Fairly gray and somewhat wet outside lately - no snow though.  Yesterday I had a meeting in Springfield at the Illinois State Museum.  I strolled through the museum again as I waited for the meeting.  It is a free museum and has a nice Illinois fossil collection.  On the way back to Peoria I stopped at the Russel Stover outlet store in Lincoln.  Service was not all that great, and there are next to no free samples anymore, but I got some cheap chocolate.

Decorations Mostly Up

With some help from some friends, we got a lot of Christmas decorations up.  It got in the 60s this weekend, with insects and a forsythia blossom outside.  Quite a marked contrast to the big snowstorm we had on Dec. 1, 2006.