Easter comes way too quickly this year. March 23rd. Ugh. Why do we have a floating Holiday like this where one year it is April 8th and another it is 2 weeks earlier? It’s crazy! Of course, the only reason I care about this is because it directly affects the amount of time we have to rehearse our church program…it always seems to come so FAST!

It’s hard to believe it’s already 2008. I wish I had something profound to tell you about 2007, but I don’t. Although now that I’m spending 20 seconds thinking about it, a lot happened this past year:
I wrote my first 45-minute show, complete with full orchestration…this consumed the entire first half of my year and just about burned me out on arranging and orchestrating altogether. I’ve had a difficult time working since I almost killed myself writing that thing. I got a snazzy promotion at APU, and bought some suits to go with it…I left Christ-First Baptist Church after just short of a year, and returned to Midway to the coolest job and most unique working situation that I’ve ever had. I worked for a guy that worked for Disney…all in all, some pretty cool stuff. I have a lot to be thankful for!

On to Christmas. Well…it goes like this. Christy was throwing up on Dec 22 and feeling horrible all day on the 23rd and 24th. She was scheduled to sing a solo on Christmas Eve. She ended up pulling through to sing that night and did great (and the whole service turned out to be a smashing success, despite my stressing out about it for the whole week prior). We drove home from San Diego on the 24th after the service, and I threw up on the way home…I spent Christmas day on the couch, sick…then poor Noah decides to get sick on the 28th, and spends all night throwing up…poor little guy.

My parents came down on the 28th for a couple of days and we had a wonderful time with them. We got Nathaniel Monopoly for Christmas and decided to all play a rousing game of it on Friday. Nathaniel can’t last more than 20 or 30 minutes in the game–and given his age, that’s not too bad, I guess–but we played for a good 2 hours and Christy and I eventually forced my mom and dad into bankruptcy. HAhaha…
We also introduced them to Corner Bakery Cafe and they LOVED it…good thing…so do we. Yum!

This has been a hard Christmas to keep Nathaniel grateful. He is a little manipulater, and sometimes operates with a large sense of entitlement. We’re working hard to teach him about thankfulness, contentment, and selflessness, but this is a long road…and these are difficult concepts to teach.

Noah is talking and expressing himself more and more every day. I’m amazed at all of the little things he can say and do now. He is expressing all kinds of emotion and feeling. He is asking people to play with him all the time (a behavior completely opposite of what someone with Autism would do) and has a personality that is just blossoming. We are just ecstatic about his progress!

OH….and I’m totally hooked on LEGO STAR WARS. How did I not play video games for the last 7 years of my life? What happened to me? Seriously, my friends and I had WARS in 5th-6th grade about which was better: Sega Genesis or Super NES. Of course, I was on the side of Super Nintendo, and I’ve kept that die-hard loyalty throughout the tragic showing of Nintendo during the last 8 years. Gamecube? No, thank you…It’s only been since the release of Wii that Nintendo has finally gotten back into the gaming scene. A guy that works at Wal-Mart told my parents that they had approx 400 requests for the Wii each day during the Christmas shopping season. 400 people asking for the Wii every day!! And it REALLY IS THAT COOL! Nintendo spent a long time in no-man’s-land in regards to gaming during this decade, and now they’re back.

However, for now I’ll do just fine catching up with you all on my lowly PS2…which pales in comparison to the Wii, but in comparison to the NOTHING that I’ve been playing, rocks pretty hard!

So many times I’ve wanted to sit down and blog about everything that has been happening over the past week or so, but I have been having WAY too much fun relaxing and hanging out with my family. Talk about a vacation! I’m loving it!

So…I’m going to have to get back to you…but let me just say this: Lego Star Wars II.
The most fun I’ve had in a long, long time…

From a post on the United Hollywood blog:

OUCH.

Come on people–let’s end this. Everyone is hurting for it, and you media moguls–you KNOW you don’t need the money.
Greed…ugh.

Side note:
We saw I AM LEGEND last night and loved it. I absolutely loved it. What a fantastic story–and for all the previews and trailers I saw for it, I never really knew what the movie was going to be about–and I liked feeling that way. Usually I am prepared to enjoy a movie before I go see it (due to the massive marketing combined with the research I do). This was refreshingly surprising.

EDIT ADD:
I saw Sara Bareilles’ album for sale on iTunes for only 7.99–and I happened to have a $9 positive balance…so I bought it (I had heard a single earlier and liked it) and the whole album is GREAT! I like the feel of the whole thing–I think it’s a great bridge between the pop and indie genres. Her voice is cool. Check it out if you want!

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I’m sure staying busy…

School is out for me at CSULA, and school is out at APU. We had our commencement ceremony this past Saturday, and it was ultra cool to see those students finally graduate. I know Heidi has blogged about the fulfillment that comes from watching students participate in commencement, but I have never experienced that until this time through. Maybe it was because it was my first time as the Associate Registrar? I definitely played a MUCH bigger part in many of those student’s journey. Many of them got petitions approved or denied by me…and one student in particular I helped quite a bit last summer as she had been away from APU for a while and was trying to transfer in for one last semester. Well–she did it! And I was a really big part of that…so this one felt different…and good. It felt good.

Another cool thing that happened Saturday was that our VP of Enrollment took the entire commencement team (or at least about 22 of the 30 of us) out to lunch at a fancy restaurant between commencements. It was super cool to have some time to hang out with a person in that level of leadership at APU.

The concert at Midway on the 16th was amazing…but I think I already mentioned that…
We have a lot of super things planned for this coming season for choir and orchestra. I love the amount of creativity and flexibility that Christy and I have with this group. It really drives us and fuels us that we get to plan and cast vision for pretty much whatever we feel like God is calling us to do. I’m super excited about the future.

I am having a hard time fully grasping that Christmas is here. A REALLY hard time…I just don’t know where the time goes…

Now that school is out for a bit and my biggest concerts are over, I sure feel less stressed. That said…I really like not being stressed. I’ve been playing video games, hanging out with my family, helping around the house a little bit…it’s a big change. Relaxing is more and more appealing. I am really hating always feeling like I have so much to do and constantly working. What kind of life is that?!?!?
All that to say…I’m going to be trying to take it easy, especially when it comes to taking on extra gigs. I don’t know how it will all work out…but I’m going to TRY to…

Christy made an excellent and delicious Tiramisu tonight. It was delightful.

I have just a second to say THANKS to everyone involved with our Christmas concert “Noel”. It was another phenomenal success! What an amazing and fulfilling thing to be a part of, and even more to direct! I am so thrilled to be back at Midway. Thank you to those of you that sacrificed to contribute.

I feel so blessed.

Sometimes these are stupid, and sometimes it can really help you get to know someone…this might be a little of both.

Christmas Questionnaire

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?  Wrapping paper, and usually WAY too much wrapped up very poorly. It’s generally very bulky…

2. Real tree or artificial?  Real. I grew up in the mountains–there were no fake trees. One time my family went up to some property my Grandma owned at the time and cut off the top of a BIG tree. We’re talking a huge fir tree (my dad could tell you what kind, exactly). I think the part we brought home was about 18 feet tall and just barely fit in the tallest corner of our split-level house. We decorated the top of it from our balcony.

3. When do you put up the tree?  Whenever I get around to it. This year it was around the first week of December.

4. When do you take the tree down?  As soon as possible…those things can self combust! 

5. Do you like eggnog?  No. I try and try every year to drink it and like it…but I can’t. Yuck.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?  The original NES.  I think we also got the Super NES later on, but it all started with the original…the one and only…NES.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene?  I guess…I don’t know…ask Christy.

8. Hardest person to buy for?  My wife. I have a hard time deciding what to get for her.

9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can’t think of one. I remember not digging the sweaters my Grandma would perpetually buy us every year, but as a parent I can look back and see what a poor attitude I had about that. I’m sure those sweaters did me good!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?  Mail. However, we’re pretty bad at that kind of stuff. We don’t keep up with people well enough. Maybe this year we’ll do blog-cards…hahaha…

11. Favorite Christmas Movie?  Could be “A Christmas Story” or “Home Alone”. Oh wait! Scrooged! I probably wouldn’t watch any of these movies nowadays, but I remember loving them in the days of yore.

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas?  December 24th?? I’m horrible at shopping for Christmas. I did buy one gift yesterday (13th) and we made some gifts for family on the 11th…but generally, I stink at this.

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  Re-gifted?  I think we re-gifted some wedding presents (shhhhhhh), but not Christmas.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? 
I used to love it when my mom would make homemade cinnamon rolls…there is nothing like those suckers. She would actually grind the barley to make the wheat flour, then make and knead the dough, let it rise, etc…I’m sure it was a whole ordeal and incredible time consuming…but they tasted amazing. I also pigged out on fudge and gingerbread cookies. Oh man…I LOVE homemade gingerbread cookies. That refrigerated cookie dough was tasty. No wonder I was a chubby kid!!

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree?  I  like colored–we used to have those BIG bulbs in all kinds of color…but now all the trendy stuff is the small white lights (which also look nice too…)

16. Favorite Christmas song?  Hmmm…they would probably be choir songs, since I’ve directed/sung so many of them. One of my all time favorites is “Christmas Fantasia”. However, Carol of the Bells is absolutely the best Christmas song ever written.

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home?  Usually some of each. This year we’re staying home and my folks are coming to visit. Yay!

18. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers?  No way, not even close. Maybe like…4 of them.

19. Angel on the tree top or a star?  Talk to Christy. Used to be a star, but now I think we just have a bow-type ribbon thingy.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?  Usually on Christmas day. Although when my brother and I were young we convinced my parents to let us open one present on Christmas Eve and do the rest in the morning. For some reason we usually picked the presents from my Uncle Lee…they were always wrapped so nicely (and probably had been there the longest and peaked our interest the most).

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year?  Nothing. I like it. I’m usually super busy performing or writing (and Christy’s b-day is on the 11th, so we have many celebrations in December) but I can’t think of anything annoying.

Side note: my brother John and I used to hunt around our house every year to find our hidden presents. I mean HUNT. We were pretty darn good about knowing the hiding places…sorry mom and dad…we didn’t ALWAYS find our presents–and later on we stopped looking so we didn’t spoil the fun–but we did find our presents often. That said–we never found ALL of them. We just usually found a portion of them…and it was super fun to look. The anxiety was killing us!!!

Once a year or so Christy likes to head over to Benihana, her favorite restaurant, for some Hibachi Steak. I’m not a big fan of Benihana simply because I don’t care for a lot of fried or greasy food, and if you’ve ever watched them cook your meal there, you know just how much butter and oil goes on that skillet. But Christy loves it, and I love her, so we go–and I never complain because I can certainly handle going there once a year–no problem. There certainly is no limit to how much I can or should bless my wife, and the Lord knows I don’t do that very well most of the time anyway, so Benihana it is!

Well–Beihana doesn’t have a great reputation with me for a couple of reasons:
A couple of years ago we tried to go to there on a Sunday for Christy’s birthday. We stood in line (at the front of the line) for 30 minutes or so before they opened, so we could try to get in. However, they turned us away because we didn’t have a reservation. Boo.

and LAST NIGHT, after enjoying a perfectly nice meal and some quiet time with my love, I arose at about 1:30am to barf up my whole meal. In essence, I flushed a good 30 bucks down the toilet…
So BOO on Benihana! But all is not lost…I couldn’t go back to sleep (I felt sick lying down) so I played some PS2 until about 3am. That’s right, Lego Star Wars is awesome!

Side note: there was a PS2 that was left in the cafe at church that I bought an extra paddle, memory card, and some games for…and now I’m hooked on Lego Star Wars. This week for the first time I brought it home to play…I love it!! SOOO FUN! And now Nathaniel and I play it all the time…

Today my boss’ boss’ former boss (a.k.a. the Provost) came by my office to talk to me.

This is highly unusual. He might stop by our humble little trailer once or twice in a year–and today was that day…to talk to me.

Let me just say, it was awesome. It was like one of those talks that Generals give to their troops right before a battle (at least in the movies…). And it was also perfect for ME, the way I’ve been feeling over the past few days.

In completely unrelated news, I liked Heroes last night.

Today is December 1st.

This is something that is really hard for me to fathom. How is it possible that time flies so quickly? I can’t believe Christmas is really here!

Today was the Midway Praise Choir & Orchestra’s first concert of the season. We performed near the pier at Imperial Beach and the group did a really great job. As you can imagine, with the pouring rain yesterday, everyone was a little concerned that we wouldn’t be able to perform today. But the Lord pulled through and gave us sunshine for most of the concert–later that afternoon it continued to rain. But the choir/orchestra did so well! I’m very proud of them and I’m looking forward to next week’s performance at the Organ Pavilion (Sat. 4pm).

Christy and I chose to celebrate by going out to dinner tonight, and we decided to go to the restaurant where I played the Elton John gig to actually eat (since when we were doing the gig we got no food-but it all looked so good.) So it was actually pretty bad. The food ended up tasting pretty good for the most part (the soup and dessert were duds, but the main course and appetizer were winners), but the service was terribly slow and they messed up our check. After sitting there for two hours, we finally were able to pay our correct amount and get out of there.
And this is why Daniel & Christy stick to chain restaurants: you always know what you’re going to get (quality, selection, promise of good service, etc…).

 
As for La Scala, boo I say!!