I've more or less just finished my Christmas communications—those of you on the Good List will get something from me sometime. Usually I compose the letter by going over the blog entries for the year (which also serves as my year in review), but I found this year that I had less of substance, documenting a few events in more detail rather than more events in less. Anyone who's known me for any length of time knows that I have Old Person Brain; my memory is a sieve.
I mentioned to a couple folks at church last week that I felt as though I needed to take time once a month and just reflect on what happened; the days are flowing together with little to distinguish them, and I suspect I'll wake up tomorrow and realize that I'm not just 60 in my bones, but also chronologically.
So I started writing this on 10 December. It is just hard to find time to finish. My year in review will have to wait for a few more weeks, I guess, while I wrap up the past few weeks.
I'm trying hard to write this during the OSU game. Not sure how well this is going to work.
The past couple months have been busy, and I'm honestly not too sure that I'm going to remember anything while I'm watching the game anyway.
Some friends had their first daughter, and L and I went to visit with some curry a couple weeks later. They were basking the newness, though somewhat haggard. She's a cutie. The curry was really good, and the conversation was nice, too. They live pretty close to some old stomping grounds, and it was a trip to go back through there. One of the unexpected pleasures of meeting new people is going over old ground.
November was a busy month, with trips to B'more for the Gospel Jam and a surprise party for Mom. E and C came into town and stayed at my house. We made some hors d'oeuvres that night, and I served as decoy. I asked her for some opinions on my house decor, and she hung out for almost two hours while the rest of the fam and friends put the final touches on the prep. Dad got a cake with some pictures from their last vacation together (a September trip to Maine). All in all it was a great time.
We didn't have much time to rest, though, as L and I went to Amada for an anniversary / birthday dinner the day after. This was actually a mistake on my part as I failed to get reservations on time. But it turned out in the end: José Garces was actually in the restaurant and came out to meet us when we asked after him. The food was fantastic, and we enjoyed ourselves a great deal despite my mental gaffe.
The week following was Michigan, and I had an unfortunate bout of stomach flu. I threw up about four times, but fortunately that was the end of it. And we won the game. Naturally this meant that I didn't gain any weight during Thanksgiving. On the other hand, I didn't miss any work, and for that I'm thankful—it's been busy.
4 December was P&T's wedding. His father passed a few days later, so the timing was good. He was beset by health problems most of the end of his life—many years of it—and I think his exodus was met with comfort on both sides of glory.
J turned 40 the next week, and we had a surprise birthday party. Then D&D got married the very next week. This set us close to Christmas. Somewhere in there, I found time to write the Christmas letter. The verses came together for me after a man I knew from the streets in Philly was poisoned and died of a heart attack.
Christmas was a busy affair. L and I went to her aunt and uncle's for Christmas Eve. We enjoyed some games and wrapping Christmas presents together. The food was great: they're both fantastic in the kitchen (he cooks, she bakes; and HOW). Breakfast the morning after was filling and delicious. We headed up north around 10:45 to visit J&P and the rest of the W clan.
AIM is moving south, and so this was the last Christmas what is becoming the Old House for A and B; so A&L came from Portland and B&J came over, too—she from Connecticut. They got engaged on B's birthday. In any case, it was really good to see them, and L seemed very relaxed the whole time. They had a lot of trouble getting a flight home but managed to get back in time for the school year to start. A is doing some cool research on fluids in microgravity, and L is finishing up a doctorate in Homeopathic Medicine. B has gotten some employment in Secaucus doing Photoshop work, and he's got an awesome water-cooled rig in his bedroom.
We did a gift exchange. I got a metric ton of books: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra (both gifts from B), The Captive Mind (Milosz), Exegetical Fallacies, The Cost of Discipleship, and several others. I hope to have some reading for most of the rest of the year, but so far I'm almost through the Space books, but they are surprisingly VERY difficult. I'm not used to a difficult Lewis, even though his thoughts are obviously complex. Surprised by Joy is an amazing book, and it has some complicated thoughts...but Perelandra is hard. And it's surprisingly scary. Just a frightening book, but good. Looking forward to That Hideous Strength, which I'll have to order soon.
I gave C my camera; strange to think I'd had it for nearly 4 years. The d7000 is nowhere in sight, but hopefully will turn up on the doorstep sometime soon. I gave J Surprised By Joy, Prodigal God, and The Weight of Glory. He gave me a silk shirt from China. R&K got complementary Autumn Film albums; I hope they enjoy them. I got myself a present in the process, since they came with a digipak. Safe and Sound is a great album, if written in a completely one-sided way. Sonically very similar to Ship and the Sea, but lyrically significantly more intense. I got Mom some books, one on logic and Luther's Bondage of the Will; I thought it might look nice on the shelf next to Edwards' Freedom of the Will. I drew C's name for the gift exchange and got her a couple books and a Buble CD; the books I think were The Reason for God (L and I are going through that right now, too, and it's generally a recommended read that does a decent job of making us think past the overly narrow science mindset so prevalent today) and a book by Chesterton.
After Christmas was a little break, but still a lot of face time with friends and family. Got breakfast with R&K and dinner with J that week. Then Friday was a New Year's Eve party with some folks at church. L and I left shortly after the games started; we had a good time kibbutzing with friends we hadn't seen in a long time. B&A got engaged, and she helped me improve some of the pieces of kung fu we stole for the form. We talked for a long time. Eating at the B's is always an enriching experience.
We saw Dawn Treader with the fam, and I was pretty disappointed. We had to travel far and wide to avoid seeing it in 3D. I'm usually pretty liberal about plot changes; Lewis more than Tolkien is harder to put into a movie, and Narnia is a hard world to recreate because of his personal interjections in the text. But the key scenes—the magician's house and the undragoning—were (just like the bargain for Edmund in Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe) robbed of much of their power. The overarching goal of the book—to reach Aslan's country—was hardly mentioned at all, which was a terrible disappointment. The ending was good, and I was surprised they retained the lines about the purpose of Narnia (that "by knowing me here you may know me better there"), but I think it's all very easy to do that when you have stripped most of the Grace out of the plot. Just terribly disappointing.
The huge bonus out of this, though, is that L and I have been reading through Dawn Treader together, and it has been so wonderful. It's a book I really do treasure, with its simplicity and the ever-surprising writing. In the reading I find my breath catching. I'm perhaps a bit sentimental, but there are so many good things in there.
Tonight, of course, was the game, during which I nearly had a heart attack and had given up all for lost. I'm glad we won...but I would've preferred to have deserved it. And I really am pretty sceptical that any of the whole Tat-gate controversy and suspensions were handled in exactly the right way.
Wow. Maybe I won't do year in review after all.
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