Boxing Day, Etc.

In the midst of a busy week, here's the MacHouse update:

A couple of days before Christmas, our beloved family dog, Zorro, had to be put down. She had lived a long and happy doggie life, but became sick a few weeks ago and it became obvious that "it was time" to take her for one last trip to the vet. Zorro was 13 years old, and I hope that it's a minimum of another 13 years before I have to do that again.

Christmas day was spent with just our family, opening presents after breakfast, attending our local church's Christmas Day service, the turkey meal, playing games and watching the newest VeggieTales "Lord of the Beans". All of us remarked later that it was a great day as a family.

On Boxing Day, Jo and I went downtown with the Hjalmarson's and assorted other church-less faith friends, and put on a pancake breakfast for a group of homeless people. It was also a great time; Len's daughter Elise brought a number of her hippy friends to help out, and they were really cool people to meet, and hopefully in the days and weeks to come, we can continue to build relationships with them as well.

My parents arrived later on Boxing Day, and we're enjoying a few days with them before New Year's. Last night, the Hjalmarson's came over, and we had a great time talking about church, emerging culture, and I suspect Len now has several blog post's worth of thoughts that we'll see in the next few days!

And now, I have to head to St. Arbucks -- work beckons.