A Little of This & A Little of That

**Bear with me, please...part of this recap is for the sake of readers from my side of the family who all live far away and weren't able to spend this Christmas with us this year, including my sister Johanna who is currently in SPAIN. ("Luckyyyyy")

Aside from our doggie drama, we've been super busy over this break

Here are a couple of my favorite shots from Christmas morning.



I love when Jericho is so loving with Judah. Here he's thanking him for the gift Judah gave him.



Judah is apparently no longer afraid of Elmo's eyes. "Tank you, Gwamma~ gift card".



Judah especially loved his new Cowboy gear, and insisted on wearing it all day over his footed pj's.

:: :: :: ::

After Christmas, we took off for a couple of days for a 'turnaround' trip to Sandy Eggo, CA (as our older son used to call it).

The first afternoon there we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Aside from the fact that the exhibit was a tad overcrowded, we enjoyed it immensely. I loved the technological gadget they had at that museum...these cool little listening 'wands' that were sort of like cordless phones, where you could walk around and punch the number of the exhibit you wished to know more about into the keypad, hold it to your ear and it would narrate all the information to you on demand.

I so wish I could have taken pictures while in the exhibit, because it was all so interesting. Beginning with the photo enlargement of the nomadic shepherd that found the Dead Sea Scrolls. The photo was taken years later (1964 or so) when he was a grown man with a son of his own. He might have looked like a typical Bible times shepherd from the dusty sandaled feet and the long tattered gown and traditional head covering... except for the fact that he wore a double breasted suit blazer over his clothes, lol. Well, that and the fact that he resembled a dark haired Kevin Costner.

There was a very interesting computer animation commissioned for the exhibit, which showed what life might have been like in the ancient fortress-like settlement of Qumran (near the caves where, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were believed to have originated). Some very convincing 'evidence' found linking the settlement with the scrolls included a couple of inkwells found in a room believed to have been where the scrolls were copied by scribes on long stone tables that could have accomodated the open vellum scrolls. Also, the clay pots the scrolls were found in were of the exact composition as the broken pottery that was found at the settlement. Wars and other threats on their settlement probably led them to hide copies in caves throughout the region for safekeeping. There may even be more out there somewhere.

The video was fascinating, and suggested the place to be a fortress of sorts, with an elaborate pool and cistern water collection system capable of sustaining a couple hundred people, livestock and such out in the middle of the arid desert in it's heyday, and likely supported the work of the potters and scribes. In short, we thought it would have been a really cool place to visit back in the day...almost like an ancient Palm Springs, CA.

After seeing the before and after photos of the botched job of preservation on the part of the initial owners of the collection of the vellum (cured lamb or goatskin 'paper') fragments and scrolls, the scrapbooker in me cringes.

Because, unlike old family photos stuck under non-acid free photo album pages, many of these vellum fragments were almost irreparably damaged since their discovery back in the 1940's, having been placed for posterity between glass plates, the edges of which were sealed with Scotch tape made before the time of acid free stuff, which was enough to gelatinize the ancient vellum, blurring and nearly destroying some of them.

It was fascinating to see what the modern day curators have done to preserve them and reverse and repair some of the damage. The elaborate lengths they've gone to. The sorted and organized collection of fragments are now very carefully sewn between nearly invisible mesh screens which are made of poly something or other and placed in protective frames, where nothing but this mesh touches the fragments or scrolls, and keeps them flat and well protected. They are kept in climate controlled cases as well.

Whew, it's mind boggling the process of putting together of all the fragments of pottery and scrolls into the proper order. It was amazing to see these ancient copies of sections of the book of Psalms and other Old Testament passages and documents dating back to Biblical times.

All this to say it was well worth visiting the exhibit.

:: :: :: ::

That evening, we weary travellers stayed over at Jeff's sister Karen's house about an hour or so away. The following morning, we got up early, and headed for the San Diego Zoo.

Oy, the hills!

So. Many. Hills.

But they do have a great collection of animals. I never knew before that anteater babies ride their mother's backs for most of their youth. Or that a doctor began the park for the children of San Diego. Or that many animated movies have been drawn after the artists have observed animals there at that zoo or it's sister facility, the Wild Animal Park.

While we enjoyed our last visit there when our oldest was about five...this time was different. You'll see why.

This is the last in a series of pictures of this creepy albino Burmese Python in the reptile house spotting our son, then coming down off the limb to get a closer look at Judah (who regarded it warily, clinging to my neice Nicole).


(Click to enlarge.)

It was way creepier than even this picture could convey. I felt like it was feeding time at the zoo, and he was sizing Judah up as his next meal!

**shudders**

Then there was this croc, which I think was nicknamed the 'Needle Nose crocodile' or something, but this was the look it was giving our older son Jericho. Kind of makes a person feel a little strange, even with the glass between us.



Then later in the Orangutan exhibit, a young orangutan seemed to single Judah out of the crowd gathered around the window. It gave me the willies.

But then, that could have been because of the story of the Tiger Maulings in the San Francisco Zoo a day or two before.

:: :: :: ::

That evening, we visited this home in Murietta, CA



As you can see, the owners have gone to elaborate, Griswold-like lengths to create a fantastic light display, literally encrusting their home and lawn-and their neighbors homes and lawns on either side-with lights. (Not that I'd complain if the neighbor offered to decorate my house for Christmas and foot the electric bill.)

The husband, a retiree, told us he had over 180,000 lights, 90 extension cords, and had covered his lawn with all manner of lighted displays, which required adding an additional electrical panel to his home to accomodate it (and a substantial electrical bill, no doubt).

The star (not including the tails) below was over 5 feet tall, but looked small from where we stood.



Oh, and carefully sewn together quilt batting completely covered all the yards to resemble snow.
They had even thought to include a snow-making machine that would spew snow into the air every few minutes for the "White Christmas" effect.

It was quite elaborate (if gaudy), but fun to see nonetheless.

Jericho commented during the light show, "Wow, I'd hate to have to take all this down when it's all over!", and later, "I wonder where he keeps it all when it's not on his house?!" I'm inclined to agree and wonder.

The man's wife had decorated the inside just as thoroughly (it, too, was open to the public), with a massive Christmas Village collection, lots of lighted, decorative garland on every surface and the bannister railing, several trees as well as numerous details in every nook and cranny around the place, including this little scene on the way in the front door. A large antique doll (Chatty Cathy?) making angels in the quilt batting snow.



The man of the place had synchronized the light show to some music on his computer, and included a powerpoint photo tribute to our troops, law enforcement and rescue personnel from the area.

Which made it very Christmassy and Patriotic, but I appreciated that the final, focal point occurred when the garage door lifted up at the end to reveal a giant Nativity scene with a Bethlehem backdrop.



The kids and I really enjoyed it, however, and it definitely topped our "Christmas Light" excursions for the year.

:: :: :: ::

We returned from our trip to the doggie drama of my last posting, and had our neice Samantha stay with us for a couple of days.

Here, Jericho, another cousin Kody and Sami are all trying to look big and bad while modeling their assorted Nerf weaponry.



Naturally, little brother tried to get in on the action (that's his "Helmet of Salvation" worn on his head backwards, lol).



:: :: :: ::

While all this was going on, I was working on one of our year-end organizational projects using my humdinger of a new Christmas gift. My Christmas surprise.

I must retract my former statements suggesting that my husband was not working hard enough to pull off a surprise, because for my Christmas gift he managed to not only purchase it online without my knowledge, but to have it sent to his mom's house and get it wrapped and under the tree for me Christmas morning without my having had a clue.

He also managed to get a higher quality version than the one I'd had on my list for half off (which ended up being less than the price of the low quality one). It was a great surprise and a great deal to boot! (You da man, Jeff!)

And that wasn't even half the fun! Plugging the USB cord into my laptop and cataloguing book collection using the online program LibraryThing almost made up for the fact that I'd recently culled over 100 books from my collection.



I know. It's sick, isn't it? That we're this anal that we have to catalog our books?

It's really for my sanity's sake, because between us, we own boxes full of publications and books we reference for everything from Jeff's school lessons to Bible Study, to nutritional info or recipes, among other things, and because we don't have room to store them all in the house, this little program, with it's system of tagging each book however you wish, has revolutionized our method of looking up which box in the garage or shelf in the house has what book (which prevents us from buying duplicates) and will allow us quick access to just the one we need.

Playing library with my barcode scanner, by the way, was almost as much fun as playing post office when I was younger(the stamp and mail version, not the old kissing game).

:: :: :: ::



For some reason, this toy (which Judah got for Christmas) has become a toy in demandaround this house.

It's a cheap echo-chamber thing, but when you sing "The Star Spangled Banner" or "Amazing Grace" into it, no matter how bad your voice, you can sound like a country music star. And it's a lot more fun to hold while singing than a curling iron or the handle of the vacuum cleaner as I did when I was younger.

Ahem. You understand, of course, that I know this strictly from my observations. LOL.

:: :: :: ::

Overheard today between my sons:

Jericho (age 11) "Stop messing with my toys, Judah!"

Judah (age 2) "Step off, Jay-co!" he throws defensively over his shoulder in passing.

I'm thinking perhaps our family has seen a few too many viewings of the movie School of Rock.

:: :: :: ::

When we drive anywhere as a family, especially if it's a long trip, we usually start off with a prayer for safety and other things going on in our lives.

If there is the slightest pause in that prayer, Judah will pipe in "Amen!"

So we're visiting Jeff's brother's church on Sunday morning (after bringing the dog to him), and the Pastor goes on and on in a lengthy prayer, and pauses (to catch his breath)...at which point Judah calls out in true Baptist style, "A-men!"

Even the old folks in that church heard that one and got a real kick out of it. Though they did their best to supress chuckles, we still saw several quivering shoulders.

And then later, Jeff had to take Judah into the foyer because he wouldn't sit still and got too noisy. A few minutes after being taken out, Judah got loose (during the middle of the sermon) and went charging halfway up the aisle, much to the pastor's surprise and the congregation's amusement.

We actually had folks come up to us and say how delighted they were to have us visit!

:: :: :: ::

I love technology. While we were at the San Diego Zoo, Jeff's neice was showing me how her new Blackberry worked, and we were able to look up my blog on it.

How amazing to have that kind of technology at my fingertips.

Of course, it's really better that I never get such a thing. I'd probably be dangerous (and rude and inattentive) if I had access to the internet (and my blog) anywhere but at home. Even I am aware of my limitations.