Our fun family Christmas for 2017!

My daughter made a fun video of our Christmas!

Good Thing I'm Not Santa!

As a parent, you always want to make Christmas awesome for your kids.
 

The traditions of Christmas have evolved over the years to make it a big deal to splurge on the little ones.

I remember being a little bit wary of a guy in a fancy suit doing a home invasion while I am trying to sleep, and leaving me the stuff I wanted.

Who is this old man and why does he care if I behave?

I still did all the sneaky stuff, and somehow gifts kept showing up!

Great system there Santa!

I never saw a letter in the local paper about a kid who was snubbed!

If I was Santa, I would snub every kid who has ever cried in a Wal-Mart! 

That's a big enough transgression for me!

I would snub any kid who makes a pouty face in a restaurant. 

You're getting nothing!

I would snub any kid who thinks he or she is entitled to cry and go limp when a parent tries to make them walk. 

DENIED!

Kids who would get double in my books would be those who listen to adults and then ask really good questions.

I would splurge on children if they clean their room and pick up their stuff.

An extra stuffed stocking if you leave the room and turn the light off!!

Good thing I'm not Santa!!

You Don't Deserve This, But Take It Anyway.

It's been so great to see the victory parades in Toronto lately.  

They deserve to celebrate a big team win. 

 It's wonderful for a city to be able to party together and be excited about a team championship.

I admit I don't watch soccer and I have never seen a CFL game live.

It's funny though, when a team wins, you feel like you deserve to celebrate, even though you had nothing to do with the win.

People who only contributed to the team by sitting on a couch and eating chips and swigging beverages, feel like they came through a great struggle and overcame tremendous adversity to pull out the  "W"!

Why do we feel that way?

We all love a win, but most of us have never done the things the players do in order to get the win.

Things like practice, get up early, eat right, get enough sleep, study the game and get in shape.

If WE were the ones doing those things, it would be all the more sweeter I would imagine.

Here's a spiritual thought about all that.

I'm hoping this gives you something to think about that will help you understand how amazing the gospel is.

I Corinthians 17:7 says this  "God through Jesus has given us the victory..."

Victory over what?  Sin, depression, hopelessness, loneliness, self-hatred, addictions to name a few.

Think about YOUR contribution to that victory.

ZERO!

You didn't even by a t-shirt!

We get Jesus victory.  He did it. 

We get undeserved credit.  

What if everyone won the Stanley Cup?

You would say, it's not fair!  Only the team that worked the hardest should hoist the mug!

It's an honor to lift the trophy in victory, all covered with blood, sweat and tears!

Here's the cool thing about what Jesus did...it's HIS sweat, his tears and his BLOOD that won Him the victory.

Then, according to that scripture, we get credit for the win.

WHAT?

I don't not deserve, you don't deserve it, but we get it anyway.

Our names get written on the cup, just as if we were on the team!

We should hoist the cup in victory to, but with a deep respect of the fact that we did nothing to deserve it!

I Said Something Crazy...

So I said something crazy to my wife last week.

I said, "Hey let's go vegan for a week!"

After she came out of shock, she was really excited about the idea.

Here's the thing though, we had to plan this.

Can you believe actually planning what you are going to eat?

Usually these decisions are made for me by the large corporations that crank out meals in boxes with professional photos on them with names like, President's Choice, Ziggy's and Chunky!

There's even a plain yellow box with the non-creative cop-out label "no-name".

I typically like my food in a pre-cooked format that heats easily in the oven or microwave.

I like food that respects my time!

Vegetable have no regard for all the things I need to do in a day!

So we had to plan on what vegetables to buy and not only that, what day to eat them!

We went to the grocery store and ended up with a buggy full of clear plastic bags, filled with all the colors of the rainbow.  (The Skittles one.).

We finished our shopping and went to the check out and began putting our bounty on the belt to be "checked-out" and I realized something in that moment.

There's no labels on all this stuff!  There's nothing to say how fantastic this product of the earth is!

There is no way to impress someone else by buying a cauliflower.

Boxed chicken wings come in several varieties and many brands, and frozen pizza owns a whole aisle!

When you set down the box of chicken wings on the belt, many people unconsciously are making judgments about you.

"Check this guy out...PINTY'S! Big time high roller! Must be nice to live in that world!"

If you buy no-name wings in the yellow box, they might think..."Poor fellow. I wish there was something I could do. I hope things turn around for him. Hey, we all gotta make sacrifices. It's a tough economy!"

It's not the same when you put a potato on the belt. No one makes brand judgement when you scan a broccoli.

"Check this guy out, Beakman Farms...what a yahoo! Those guys don't know how to farm!"

That wouldn't really happen. (I don't think.)

Veggies come from the ground. 

The only organization that can maybe take credit for a tomato is a GMO company producing those crazy cloned zombie versions.

Even then, the original idea for the tomato didn't originate with them!

Gotta go back to original gardener for that!

Well, the first week of going veggie worked out OK.  I'm not gonna lie, I felt hungry sometimes.

I also felt great!  No headaches and I even lost some of my residual flab around the belly region!

Should I go two weeks?  OK, gonna do it!

Star Wars Spoilers

There are none here.

I just used the title to get you to read this.

There is a new Star Wars film out this Christmas.

I am trying to avoid any spoilers.

I want to go in fresh with no expectations.

It's hard.

There is a giant marketing machine running Star Wars now called Disney.

They know what they are doing.

Movies are not just movies anymore, they are vehicles for a multitude of other things.

T-shirts, figures, toys, games, replicas, contests, conventions and the list goes on.

I just want to ENJOY a movie.

What if a movie studio released a movie without any advanced notice?

Just once a year, a surprise.

I'd like that, and I think others would to!

I know they have to have budgets and profit/loss predictions, but hey, take a chance!

Wouldn't it be cool to just sit in a theater, let the lights go down and have NO EXPECTATIONS at all?

Would you still pay the admission?

I'm willing to give it a shot on one condition...I need to know the rating, that's it.

Are you listening Hollywood?