Every year we've gone as a family on the Friday after Thanksgiving out to a tree farm to get a tree. For whatever reason, that didn't happen this year. I hung lights last week in the freezing cold and going out and hunting for a tree didn't sound too appealing. We'd even considered buying a fake tree for the first time ever just to avoid the hassle.
Yesterday we figured we had to get it done so we bit the bullet and went to a nearby tree lot. The trees were actually fairly nice and reasonably priced, but we didn't have the fun experience of tromping through the snow and mud to cut down the tree and bring it home.
The guy at the tree lot was a little old man who told us waaaaay more than we wanted to know about the trees, about watering them and securing them to your car. In between all of that, he was able to work in his view of the auto industry and how he had predicted this through his own personal research years ago. I refrained from telling him that he should have shorted the stock and made millions.
We got the the tree home and in the stand. We have this funky stand that I purchased years ago that has a single spike sticking out of it. The place we typically go to drills the tree for you and it all works beautifully. I tried to drill the hole myself and created way to big of a hole. The result was a tippy tree that had a tendency to topple. Today we'll hang the ornaments and start decorating the house.
David had some amazing stories, but the one depicted by this piece of glass below was wild. The piece of glass on his mantle was the same piece in the picture in the lower left hand corner. He'd been in this vehicle with two others when they were hit. Only he and one other guy survived. The glass in this picture is about 4 inches thick and saved him.
Green, who attended the program in the past, said this year's was the most intense yet, and "everyone was united by the end."
But she also knows that a one-day program isn't a sure fire solution. The students may act like they have changed for a short time, but for some of them, the old stereotypes come back into play.
That is where the Be The Change group comes in. Green and Roberts are two of the members in the group that takes pride in being leaders in the school.
"Convincing people is hard, but we want to keep this feeling going all year," Green said.
I'm a bad Dad, traveling during the 'Donuts with Dad' (aka 'Shame
parents into buying books from the book fair') event at their school.
Maddie and u went to our favorite Chinese place having our favorite
dish: General Tzo's Chicken.
People that are Japanese like to kill whales. I learned that on Animal Planet when I was watching the show Whale Wars.
We're all for moving up. But you signed a long-term deal in West Virginia, bolted for Michigan less than a year later and then tried to back out of paying the price? And now, after the worst year ever in Ann Arbor, you knuckle-slap the fans? Maybe it's you that ought to be looking for a life, Rich.
Jason Shinn was Crossroads first paid youth pastor and Jess was our first unpaid part-time Youth Pastoress (or priestess?) With the dream of someday having their own summer-getaway beside an express way drainage ditch, they moved to Ohio. When they made the move, part of the deal was that we would have huge parties for them at a moments notice whenever they come back into town. 
