An Early Colorado Christmas

We're driving up to Fort Collins, Colorado today to spend a long weekend with our kids and grandkids and celebrate an early Christmas with them.

We return next Tuesday evening, December 13, and have one day, Wednesday, to wash clothes and pack again.  The next day, Thursday, December 15, we fly to Nashville and we won't return until Wednesday, December 28.  We'll drive up to Ohio to spend an early Christmas with our other son and daughter-in-law.  Then we'll drive down to Kentucky to spend three days with my sister and brother-in-law.  Finally, we'll get back to Franklin, Tennessee to spend Christmas with with Betty's stepmother.  Her older sister will be there, plus her younger brother and his family.

I won't have a wifi connection during the trip to the mid-West so I won't be able to do any posts during that time.  I hope to get some posts up and scheduled while we're gone so I hope you'll keep checking occasionally.

In any case, Betty and I wish everyone a blessed Christmas.

Dan

Luke 2:8-13 (NIV)

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Moonrise Over The Sandia Mountains

Late in the afternoon on Monday, I went out to fill up our bird feeders so the birds would have plenty of seed the next day.  I realized the moon was rising over the snow-covered Sandia Mountains and I thought it might make a decent picture.

Corrales Snow

We had another significant snow storm come in Sunday night into most of Monday.  So, we have another three plus inches.  It’s a good thing that Betty and I didn’t have anything scheduled to take us out so we have just hunkered down with a fire going.

Here’s a short video of our snow.

Monday Video - Maisie Meets Baby Sloth Temba

In case you haven't had your daily dose of cute, check out this video of when Maisie, a howler monkey, meets a new baby sloth named Temba at a zoo in Panama.

Enjoy.

Sunday Reflection - Don't Make God Mad

My daily Bible study is fairly simple.  I read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation - not all in one day, of course.  When I finish Revelation, I start back at the beginning and start reading again in Genesis.  I don't know how many times I've read through the Bible, but it's interesting to see how much new I see each time I go through it.

I read two chapters a day regardless of how long or short the chapters are.  It's fairly basic, but that method works for me.

I'm currently in the middle of Ezekiel.  It and Lamentations that comes before it can be pretty depressing.  The general theme of both is that Israel and Judah have screwed up and God is going to lower the boom on them.  Actually, his wrath is pretty severe.  Some are going into exile, some will die from famine or disease and some will die by the sword.  He uses other kingdoms, especially Babylon as his instruments of punishment.

So, what did Israel and Judah do that got God so ticked off?

Very simple - they turned away from him and worshipped other gods.  The worst for me is some worshipped the god Baal and even sacrificed their children in fire to him.

I worry for our nation that we may possibly incur God's wrath and ultimately his judgment.  We worship the gods of abortion, euthanasia, power, money, sex, fame, celebrity and on and on.  God made it pretty clear that we should have no other god before him.

God loves us so much that gave us the gift of the forgiveness for our sins through the final sacrifice of his son Jesus - but, like most gifts, it has to be received.  It can also be rejected.  God has made it pretty clear what the future holds for those who reject the gift of his son and turn to other gods.

God is love - but God is still holy.

But, even in the midst of his anger, God loves his children:

Ezekiel 11:19 -- I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 

Christmas Dinner and First Snow

We had our first significant snow last night. 

Betty and I went to our favorite Corrales restaurant, the Indigo Crow, for a Christmas dinner.  It's a cozy little adobe restaurant and they had a roaring pinon fire going which gave a great smell to the whole restaurant.  We had the special, a surf and turf with a filet and grilled shrimp accompanied by mashed potatoes and asparagus.  We finished off the dinner with a chocolate tort.  It was all delicious.

What made it even better is we enjoyed the dinner with a gift certificate from our Colorado kids - Wade Daniel, Marie, Juliet, Leah and Kona.  Thanks guys.

As we were coming home, the snow started.  It turned out the snow was not as significant as they forecasted. We got only about an inch when they were predicting up to three inches.  But, it's always fun to have that first snow.

Question for Horse Folks

We have a question for you horse folks who read this blog and would greatly appreciate your opinions.

Currently, we're using a Tucker Toklat saddle pad with a fleece lining similar to this one:

It's a good pad and fits us and the horses well.  The only problem is that with a combination of sweat, dirt and hair (in the spring) we have to use a saddle blanket to keep them clean.  It's easier (for us at least) to clean a saddle blanket than to clean a saddle pad.

We would like to eliminate the saddle blanket and we're considering switching to a felt pad similar to this one:

Is it reasonable to think that we can use the felt pad without a blanket?  We know we'll need to clean it and wonder how easy/difficult felt pads are to clean.

If you have any thoughts and/or experience you can share we will greatly appreciate them.

Thanks,

Dan & Betty