Three Dog Night

Cullen enjoyed opening presents on Christmas evening after landing in St. Louis. (For those keeping count: With a quick trip to Illinois added to the mix, Cullen has now been to seven states!)

He received three dog gifts for Christmas, which are all a whole lot of fun. Here's Cullen enjoying these gifts while his mom and Smarty (who is present via T-shirt logo) look over his shoulder.




And here's Cullen with his Nana, and a toy he loves from Uncle Jeff and Hilary.


I think Cullen understands that toy in a way that I do not...

Speaking of Cullen understanding things I do not, Aunt Lisa and Uncle Norm (of Michigan fame) sent Cullen some books that we brought on our trip. They were perfect for him!



You can tell he's following this plot line very carefully:



Sigh... all good things must come to an end.

Christmas Traditions

I, for one, am a fan of Christmas. The primary religious holidays help us concentrate our attention helpfully on the storyline of the gospel: God's gift of his Son for our salvation (Christmas), his death for our sins (Good Friday), and his resurrection (Easter).

Trying to scrub these holidays clean of any religious significance contradicts their original intent and also leaves them gaudy and goofy and trite. But on the other hand, the family aspects of these holidays, especially as we find our deepest bond in God's grace to us, is an antidote to other aspects of secular life... our busy-ness, failure to make meaningful time with one another, etc.

All that being said, here are some Christmas pictures. We celebrated on Christmas Eve because of our travel plans. (Speaking of which, we may not be able to post again until the new year -- we'll be visiting family and friends in St. Louis!)

Our tradition is that the men make breakfast:



I helped with the bacon, but Cullen did pretty well with the waffle iron. Mom was pleased, if only to know that Cullen really does appreciate all that she does for him:



We opened presents, grateful for gifts that arrived by mail or were given by friends at the church!



We were also glad for all the cards and pictures that have arrived.... I'm a big fan of friends.



And of course, one of our most important traditions is to laugh out loud at least once on Christmas morning. Thanks to Scoche's gift to Smarty, this goal was accomplished! (Kinda fits Lucy's Christmas card, Anne!)

Santa's Helper Helps Himself

We discovered a little elf in our living room last night, trying to open some Christmas presents ahead of schedule....


Thankfully we found him before it was too late!!!

Cullen at 4 months

Christmas in Everywhere

Hey. Would you mind sending me a current picture of your house or neighborhood? I thought it would be interesting to show what Christmastime looks like around the country at my friends' and family's places.

Just email me a picture... Thanks!

Here's what Christmastime looks like around here, as the sun sets. Somewhat bare...


But there are still leaves on some trees, and folks are bagging up or burning the last of their leaves...


The sunsets have been nice, likewise the sunrises. Here's a picture from my visit to the beach with Smarty early Saturday morning:


Your turn!

Taking It All In

Cullen has a very big job. Namely, learning everything there is to know, one duck at a time...


Yes, as you can see, Mr. Lion is still part of Cullen's circle of friends (he's on Cullen's blogring and on our speed dial). But Cullen has also made friends with this freakish duck creature. Well, what's a parent to do?

Of course, there's an elephant in the room too. Scoche and the elephant are growing older together gracefully.


But what does Cullen like to look at most of all?

Hint:


If you guessed "Mommy" you were right!

The Little Professor

And the winner of the Cullen Caption Contest is...

"Notice that I call the line, the line of despair. Above this line we find men living with their romantic notions of absolutes (though with no sufficient logical basis)..."

* * *

The Blue Ribbon Panel notes that those familiar with Francis Schaeffer and in particular his "line of despair" discussion will find this most amusing. However, the Panel hopes others will see in little Cullen a bright future in academia. Congrats to Jeff Tell for this entry.

The Panel furthermore notes just how doggone funny all the entries were! Congratulations to everyone for your creativity. Although there could only be one first place winner, the Panel is allowing us to keep a variety of runner ups on file should anything else open up in the near future.

And may we note also that we very much appreciated the acknowledgement of the King of Kings: "We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him!" He deserves our worship this Christmas Season!

Cullen Captivated

The variety of responses to the Cullen Caption Contest has been enjoyable for the whole family. When we're not laughing , we're worshiping (see Leslie's entry). This has made choosing a winner very difficult. Nevertheless, a winner will be announced within 26 hours!

So while we await the decision of our blue ribbon panel, more pictures...

We have been surprised at how quickly Cullen takes to that flashy attention-grabber called the TV. In fact, we have had to shut it off to avoid any further damage. But we wisely snapped some photos first!

Cullen watching the morning news:

Cullen enjoying, a little too much his mom would say, a good football game...



Dad thinks that's the one exception we can make to the ban!

Cullen Caption Contest

Clearly Cullen has something to say here, but what is it? Post your idea in the comments you'll have a chance to win the grand prize!



One lucky person will be deemed the winner and receive both official and unofficial recognition.

Good luck!

It is Your Destiny

Some people know from a very early age what they are called to do...


In Cullen's case, he was destined for ring bearerhood even before he was born. Years before he was born. His cousin Kelly was very eager for us to have a ring bearer (not a baby, but a ring bearer) since she had already approximated the date of her wedding and pretty much everything else was in place. Nevermind that she wasn't even dating at the time.

I hope Cullen feels as called to this as Kelly has determined. But I would say at this point the pressure is now on her... to get married. Or at least engaged!

Autumn

As faithful readers will recall, I love autumn. I almost thought we wouldn't have such a thing in Virginia Beach, but in fact we do!

Here is one of the first neighborhood trees to get the memo.


Reminds me of the tree in front of our old house on Margareta Street.

Since we returned from Michigan, many more have changed colors as well - around the church and Regent University (where I walk, pray, read) there are many more to enjoy.

Speaking of Michigan, here's that same tree's cousin who lives in Michigan:


It's was nice to enjoy Autumn up there too!

Actually, that Thanksgiving snowfall was really nice...

Guest Blogger!

My sister Karen accidentally posted this to my blog instead of her own. But hey, it's all in the family! All five kids were home for Thanksgiving, along with some bonus folks: Karen's husband Mark, who won "Teacher of the Year" this year at his high school by the way, had family visiting. And more!

So, this blog was written by Karen but I think you'll enjoy it!

****

Here's what we woke up to on Thanksgiving morning. Yep, first snowfall of the year. from fall to winter overnight.. it was a special gift to Mark's mom visiting from sunny Georgia!

Speaking of Grammy...Madison gave her a happy welcome by messing up her hair and just messing with her during her visit

cousin Kelly is home from school and is now 21.. and I had her try some wine for the first time... as you can tell by her face she won't be drinking any more of that stuff.
We were very happy to have Missouri Matt oin s for Thanksgiving also!

New family members -- Cullen and Zuri.. oh yea, and their moms were here too... Cheryl and Grace

Zuri's older sister Hosanna wasn't left out she had a blast playing all day with Madison... what a couple of cuties!

Secrets between cousins wish I knew what this conversation was about

You can tell these two are sisters!
Mark's mom's sister Joyce joined us this year .. hope the cold temps won't keep her from visiting again!What a cute couple! Doyle drove the sisters all the way from Georgia.. thanks Doyle!

The 5 Shomo kids all together! Jim.. Ken.. Karen... Lisa and Joni! It's been a while since all of us were in the same place at the same time.

Joni and her three girls.... plus a granddaughter and grand-dog!

The Shomo family is a camera happy family. I caught the paparazzi taking this photo.. It's a picture of the the 3 Matts. Indiana Matt.. Missouri Matt and Michigan Matt!

While they were visiting from Virginia I had a chance to take some pictures of brother Ken...
Cheryl and Cullen.

In case you missed Cullen's cute looks... here's some more...

cousin Cori and Madison couldn't let Cullen steal the limelight!

And finally.... All of us!
Really happy everyone could drive and fly to join us on this holiday!!
Thankful for family this Thanksgiving!

Thankful

A year ago, Cheryl returned from visiting her Bay Area brother for Thanksgiving. After that, everything changed. We suddenly found ourselves expecting a baby, changing plans, cancelling flights, and addressing an increasing amount of physical concerns.

Early in the new year, I responded to a church in Virginia Beach that had posted a need for an assistant pastor. I remember telling Cheryl, "This job description reads like my resume." We hadn't considered moving to the Mid-Atlantic, but Cheryl encouraged me to look into it. By this time, she was in bed almost 24/7, by the way.

To our surprise, we found ourselves part way through the year with a new position, new house, new city, new church, and a new baby born on August 17. I trust that readers of this site have noticed the pictures of the little boy - that's the baby referred to here.

The Lord graciously and creatively pulled so many things together for us over the past year. We are thankful for His kindness and care, and for showing that He can and does provide our needs. It's not always in our time frame, but when it's His time surprising things happen.

This Thanksgiving we are in Michigan with my family. We paid about sixty cents for the tickets, because we had credit from last year - when we had to cancel our Christmas plans.

"It is good to give thanks to you, O Lord, and to sing praises to your name, O Most High." Psalm 92:1

Thankful Cullen

Three month old Cullen after last night's Thanksgiving service. Cullen gave thanks for his moose and his mom.

Moose Season

Cullen went hunting this morning. The politically correct phrase is "tummy time," but in actual fact Cullen was hot in pursuit of a blue moose.

In pursuit...



No sudden moves...



If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Easy Rider

Cullen was very good on his four day trip to NJ.... he rode, ate and slept very well, never once getting off schedule! We will be trying him out on an airplane over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Here he is at his great-grandparents:

A handy little travel crib was his home-away-from-home, courtesy of our friend Sharon:


Cullen at our friends Warren and Karen's house.... proud dads:


Leslie with Cullen... and Rudy, who wanted nothing more than to lick Cullen's toes. Our friends David and Leslie put up with us for a long weekend :-)


Cullen on Sunday morning, pondering what he will wear to church:

My cousin Raymond and his family, wife Lessie and their almost three-year-old daughter Natalie, who liked holding Cullen's hand:

Home sweet home!