Family fun

Thanksgiving is definitely the purest holiday of the year, in the sense that it actually succeeds the most in being what it's all about: Giving thanks, and being with family. This was one of those rare times when my nuclear family were able to all meet together at my parents' in Newport Beach, difficult to do when I live in San Jose, and my sister lives in Florida, and married having to split the holidays between our parents and her in-laws.

Some thoughts on the weekend:

My nephew, David, is now 21 months old. I haven't seen him since last December, and he's a full on toddler now, walking, though still not talking. He's a very active and happy kid, but we're a little worried that he's been a little late in picking up language. Interestingly enough, for the few days that he's been here, he's picked up three words from sheer repetition by us: "Dah?" (down) every time he goes down a step, "Ahh?" (up) every time he goes up a step, and "Ah-oh" for whenever he knocks something over. And unfortunately to the exasperation of mommy and daddy, he says that last one a lot.

PTL! My sister has got another "bun in the oven"! She's expecting May 30. She ideally wanted the kids to be 3 years apart, but... oh well. If the baby turns out to be another boy, my dad wants her to try again for a girl. My sister says, uh-uh, she's stopping at 2 kids.

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner, and Esther joined us for the first time this year. The food was a little atypical, as you can see, but quite yummy. We find turkey to be a bit dry, so we usually substitute roast chicken as our Thanskgiving fowl of choice.

It is tiring watching after David. More exhausting than work, because he requires near constant attention to stay out of trouble. I think the real reason God made babies sleep 14 hours with daytime napping is so mommy and daddy can remain sane.

This past Sunday I visited Newsong church in Irvine. Very energetic, as to be expected of a college megachurch. Service was very much a production: the worship team was very talented, especially considering how young they looked. In some ways, it reminded me of a rock concert with all the colored lights and camera angles shown on the screen behind the words. I found that to be a bit distracting, but in this environment, it did work. They even performed a couple of songs (meaning the congregation was meant to just listen), one of which, was a secular song. I bring this up because I'm amazed at how clean they sounded, and wonder if they do something like this every Sunday. If they do, then my hat is off to them, because I know how tough it is just getting ready for our relatively mundane worship times at Canaan.

I really like how the pastor invites the worship team back up during his prayer at the end of his sermon; it gives him time to recap and the congregation time to process everything he's said. Then again, their service is 15 minutes longer than ours, so it just may not be possible for us. But I really do think it's more effective when the congregation has time to process, rather than jumping right into announcements and then being ushered quickly out the doors right after the sermon.

That's all for now. I'll probably write more when I get back to NoCal.