Well, our middle school pastor, Josh, got me inspired, so I decided to change my blog header into a picture. I had no idea how to do this, so after some searching, my first attempt at a new look to my bloggin world front page is complete. Hope you like it.

1. JESUS WAS BORN IN A BARN: Bethlehem barns were caves. Jesus was likely born in what a 21st century American would call a cave. This is not surprising to those who live in Israel. To me.. this was shocking when I was there.
2. MARY RODE A DONKEY: Maybe. But likely not. Donkeys are expensive. It would be rare for her to be able to afford one. She probably walked. There’s no mention of a donkey in the text of Matthew or Luke- which are the the only two of the 4 gospels that even mention the birth details.
3. MARY WAS LIKE 13-16 YEARS OLD: We don’t know this. We are guessing based
   on data that was “normal” for marriage and such during her culture. Many scholars say this is the case. The Bible doesn’t tell us.
4. MARY AND ELIZABETH WERE SISTERS: The text says relatives according to the NIV, NASB, NLT, ESV and a bagillion more. It doesn’t say sisters, cousins, aunts, ….. nothing. It says they were relatives. The message paraphrase says “cousin”. But I think he’s guessing.
5. JOSEPH WAS 40 or 14 or? I’ve heard so much variation on this one it’s mind boggling. Again, we’re guessing here.
6. THERE WAS NO ROOM IN THE INN: Some say this is true. Others say not so much. One of the most recent English translations- the TNIV- translates the word for “inn” as “guest room”. Some say this is more accurate. Like Joseph went door to door, not to the Motel 6 in the small town.
7. THE INN KEEPER WON’T LET THEM STAY AND IS ANNOYED AT THEIR ASKING. HIS WIFE BUGS HIM TO HAVE PITY. THEY THEN END UP ALONE WITH A COW IN THE BARN AND AN ANGEL LIGHTING THE SPACE WITH ITS GLOW: This is how it goes in every play I’ve ever seen on the Nativity. None of it is in the story.
8. THE WISEMEN SHOWED UP AT THE CAVE/BARN? Maybe.. maybe not. Again, this is debated. Since it says they showed up at their “home” in Matthew 2:11 and because Herod has children 2 years or older killed in an attempt to destroy Jesus, many say they must have come at least a year after the child was born. Others say this is not true, they came to the Cave and the age that Herod used was based on when the star appeared in the sky, not when the Magi arrived. Uh.. who knows?
9. THEY WERE WISEMEN. We don’t know what they were. I’ve heard kings, scholars, wisemen, magi, astrologers, scholars… and evidently all of those are valid translations of the word used to describe them. So, they were smart, rich, influential travelers of some sort.
10. THERE WERE 3 WISEMEN: We don’t know this either. The text says there were 3 gifts. We therefore assume one per person. But it could have been 3 gifts from 2 people or 3 gifts from 20. We just don’t know.
11. THE WISEMEN CAME FROM EGYPT ON A CAMEL: I’m not sure where I got this one, but this is what I’ve always thought. But it doesn’ t say this in the text. It says they were Wisemen form the another country to the East who arrived in Jerusalem before meeting Jesus in either Bethlehem or Nazareth, depending on how you read the story.
12. JESUS WAS BORN ON DECEMBER 25TH like in the year Zero AD. Nope. Not likely. Probably born 5 BCish and more like in the Springtime based on the shepherds in the field and the difficulty of a traveling census in December make that month unlikely.

Today, our family went ice skating. Yep, ice skating. In Coronado. On the beach. Under the sun. At the world famous Hotel Del.

Shannon and her sisters, Caitlin and Erica, and TJ and Tyler all went ice skating together.

Jake and I bonded instead with fancy hot chocolate, a cookie, and a walk on the beach. At one point he went off walking really fast and I said, “Jake, where are you going?” He said that he was “making foot prints” as he stomped proudly, I snapped a picture. I love his smile in these pics.

As a side note, my intern coordinated a gift with all our adult and student leaders contributing and gave Shannon and I a gift cerficate to a night at the Del. Oooh laa la. How fun is that. We decided we’re going to use it to celebrate 13 years of marriage in June. It’s a rough life, but someone has to do it.

So, I was in Kohls the other day looking for a new sweat suit for Christmas. In the process, I overheard a lady telling a story very loudly about being in the store when someone came in and asked the clerk where he could find an ugly Christmas sweater. The clerk looked at him a bit confused. He then proceeded to tell her that he was going to a party where the ugliest Christmas sweater won $100. I thought that was the greatest idea ever.

So I stole it. Not the sweater- just the idea.

We had our student leader Christmas Party last Saturday night at our house and decided to lower the expectations from ugly Christmas Sweater- to just plain ugly sweater. I went to the thrift store in search of mine- which I’m pretty positive I wore in high school while snow skiing. Anyway, others went to grandma’s in search of theirs. But, for the prize money of $40… here’s our contestants.

It was finally narrowed down by survivor-type vote-off to these two below. Jade (on the right) ended up winning with his grandma’s doily or something. Noah took second with his- shoulder pads and all. Oh good times.

Well, on Sunday morning we were talking about what signifies the holidays are here for our students. You know like Christmas trees or a trip to grandma’s house or lights on houses or whatever. Then we talked about Mary’s song and the things that she would have said would indicate that Christmas time is near. Her list was a little different.

Being the most holy part of Christmas however, at one point, I spoke of how Jesus would have appreciated it if the Wisemen had brought him gold, frankincense, myrrh, and peppermint stick ice cream. Then the angels would have sang another round of the hallelujah chorus dressed in pink.

This brought amazement to the students eyes and a mission to some of their souls which caused a mad hunt after church service by those who love me… which resulted in not one, but two half gallon containers of Dryers peppermint stick ice cream hand delivered to me- and get this- free of charge. Oh I do love youth minstry volunteers.

I can hear the angels singing now. My Christmas is complete and I can now stop making my grocery store dart board. Love is in the air and soon- very soon- my belly will be a nice shade of pink on the inside.