Toddlers and Scholars

Last night we spent some time with Uncle Dave, Aunt Sue, Adam, Megan, and Emelia who were visiting our area from Mississippi and Nebraska. It was so much fun to see them. Aunt Sue is very good at reading stories, and we even got to sing some Christmas songs around the piano. Benjamin loves babies, so he thought they brought Emelia all the way from Omaha just to see him. Tonight when I put him in his crib to go to sleep instead of the usual “out, out, out” or “Abah abah abah!” (his word for Papa/Mama) he cried “baby! baby! baby!”

We don’t have a lot of pictures from the last couple of days. Mostly because we’ve just been enjoying a slower pace of normal life at home. Yesterday we celebrated by going to Notre Dame’s fantastic Thanksgiving brunch with some friends. Today we mostly stayed away from the shopping chaos–except for a trip to Better World Books outlet store. We figured that wasn’t giving in to the consumerism of Black Friday too badly.

To make up for the lack of pictures, here are a few more from last weekend. The weather was perfect so we got to go on a hay ride behind Uncle David’s tractor.

Tofurkey in Oregon. Cheese balls in the Midwest. Sweet potatoes in North Carolina. Broccoli casseroles in Appalachia. Recipes with pecans in Mississippi. Search queries during Thanksgiving at allrecipes.com say a lot about where you’re from.

In case you didn’t get enough–16 books!–the first go-round, there’s this:

Zondervan, a world leader in Christian communications, has signed an agreement with attorney Craig Parshall and Tim LaHaye, creator and co-author of the world renowned Left Behind series. Three years after the success of the Left Behind final installment, LaHaye returns to publish Edge of Apocalypse, an apocalyptic epic infused with political intrigue ripped from today’s headlines, the first book in a new series called The End.

“I’m thrilled to partner with Zondervan to produce a series hopefully even more innovative than Left Behind,” said LaHaye. “While my past works have piqued interest in biblical prophecy on a global level, The End series includes many prophecies that were not covered in Left Behind.”

Edge of Apocalypse jumpstarts the series as military- hero-turned-inventor Joshua Jordan attempts to save Manhattan from two nuclear missiles. Using his Return to Sender military defense system, Jordan finds himself facing an unbearable ransom to the nation he loves. As tensions escalate and global alliances topple, only Jordan and a secret group known only as The Patriots can save the United States from terrorists abroad and traitors within.

Set in the very near future, The End series chronicles the earth shattering events which eventually lead up to the Rapture and the beginning of the prophesied Last Days of mankind.

Edge of Apocalypse will release worldwide on April 20, 2010 with a first print run of 500,000 copies.

What can you do but repeat this incisive critique of Loren L. Johns, academic dean of AMBS?

“At the end of the day, this series is ultimately a rejection of the good news of Jesus Christ. I say this because it rejects the way of the cross and Jesus’ call to obedient discipleship and a new way of life. It celebrates the human will to power, putting Evangelical Christians in the heroic role of God’s Green Berets. … Love of enemies is treated as a misguided strategy associated not with the gospel, but with the Antichrist.”

The media is beginning to descend on South Bend for the impending firing of Notre Dame’s football coach. I kind of feel bad for the guy. We saw him leaving campus Monday night in his big SUV. He had a concerned look on his face and was talking intently on his cell phone. Maybe he was looking for a new job . . .