Reconnecting at Christmas

Christmas, with its hope and promise provides an opportunity when people can begin the process of reconnecting. As we live each day of the year, things happen in real time that in retrospect needed more perspective. Relationships get torn apart or maybe just grow cold from lack of contact. Christmas is one of those seasons when we can and should pause, and reflect on where we've been and why.

I've written before that I believe relationships are the most important aspect of living. First and foremost--our relationship with God is critical. As is our relationship with our self. Are we happy with who we are. But, when you get right down to it, it is in the relationships with others around us that we can find joy and happiness.

Sometimes it is joy and happiness reflected back at us as others interact with us. Sometimes it is joy directed at us in our times of greatest need.

Yeah--I know it is not all roses and mush. There are some really hard times and we, each of us, deal with some really difficult issues and situations. And as we are walking along the path of our life--sometimes we feel alone, or in the dark. Yet, most times as we look back once the dark period is over, we see how others picked us up and helped us through--and in that is the joy.

Find a broken or cold relationship and reconnect. It may be your relationship with God that needs to be kick-started, or with someone in your family, or a former friend. Share the spirit of the season with them.

Christmas Cards and Reconnecting

One of the greatest traditions of Christmas is the Christmas card. It provides a means whereby people can reconnect. It kinda flies against the trend of the fast paced, all in it for yourself lifestyles that many of us are living.

Taking some time to think about friends and family and remember the good times.

Christmas cards have been around for about 150 years according to the website devoted to Christmas cards. Although they were created as a means to expedite greetings to friends at Christmas-time, we must be careful not to reduce them to another piece of spam email. There needs to be something personal about the greeting, or the value and meaning is reduced.

We continue to write out each address by hand and sign each card by hand--to reinforce the personal nature of the greeting. It is way to easy for the gesture to be reduced to a mass production effort

I received my usual Holiday greeting from The White House this year as well as my favorite baseball team the Orioles. I love opening the greeting from The White House (which was postmarked Crawford, Texas) every year. It makes me feel like I have contact with the leadership of the country.

I wonder if I'll be on President-elect Obama's list next year.

I'm just happy to be on your Christmas card list--because, it is really all about the relationships and the friends. The best cards are from the people we know and love, because we know what is in their hearts.

Merry Christmas (OK, not politically correct, but I wrote it anyway)

The Christmas Story in One Line

The service in church this past Sunday was special. It was a Christmas season service and it was fabulous in terms of both music and message.

As an aside--it is refreshing not to attend a liturgical church anymore. We attend one which is trying to be relevant to the people without holding onto traditions which have outlived their purpose. I mean, the whole concept of Advent is an artificial creation, it is not a biblical season specified by God. So adapting the church season to the world to remain relevant is important. Radio stations are playing Christmas music, there is no reason to exclude Christmas music from church just because it has been decreed that the season is Advent and Christmas doesn't begin until Dec 25th. By then, for most people Christmas is over. The church needs to work to remain relevant in peoples lives. Maybe the calendar needs adjusting a bit.

But that is not the topic of this writing.

The Christmas story in one verse--that was the topic of the message this past week. The verse is Galatians 4:4.

"But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law," --NET Bible

And that friends is the Christmas story.

And it turns out that the whole story is contained right there. Christmas was the action of an active and caring God. It happened at the perfect time when God had decided it was time. God sent his Son--who was with God before he was sent to earth and he was born fully man and under the law he came to fulfill.

And that is the essence of Christmas.

The Fireworks at Disney

I love fireworks displays. And Disney has fireworks to enjoy. I finally am getting closer at capturing these transient events digitally to enjoy again. I wanted to share a couple of my favorite Fireworks shots from the recent trip.

These are from the display on Tuesday night, when it was cold. But as I was able to get the camera working to capture the moments.

The magic of Disney is in the little things and the attention to detail.

The park is clean and they continue to focus on delivering an experience.

More Disney Pictures

Who knew that Ethan is in love with Wendy?

Actually, none of us until we did the Peter Pan's Flight ride at least seven times. And then he got to meet her in person.

He is really smitten. We went back to visit with her one last time before leaving, but alas, only Peter showed. Although E learned a really neat way to do his shoes to ward off pirates. So now he has no fear of Capt Hook!

And then there was Jax. On Tuesday night it was cold. Really cold. We were in the Magic Kingdom until very late enjoying Mickey's Special Christmas Party. It was fun--but cold. Jax was bundled up like a bunny and I know he was warm.

I thought it was warm in Florida!

Signs in the Sky

Mankind, it seems is always looking to the heavens for some kind of sign. In olden times, man looked heavenward and thought that comets, or meteors, or conjunctions of the planets foretold important events. Many rulers and military leaders relied on the heavens to help them plan battles and invasions.

I guess that is a bit biblical. Thinking of the season and the Christmas Story when the star led the wise men to where baby Jesus lay.

So the other night when the Moon, Venus and Jupiter were dancing in the sky together, I was able to get a really good shot of them on the camera.

I wonder what great event they are foretelling?

Hopefully it is the end of the recession and the beginning of world peace free from the threat of chaos and terrorism.

May you have peace in your spirit, soul, and in your life as you prepare to celebrate the gift that God gave us on Christmas.

Sea World, Orlando - A Review

I really don't know how to say it any clearer. A visit to Orlando, Florida which does not included a side trip to Sea World is a definite missed opportunity.


Sea World is fantastic. The exhibits are accessible and there is a variety of things to do. The pace was much more relaxed than Disney and the close tie to nature and our impact on the planet must not be missed.

Feeding the dolphins was fabulous. The feeding area is well run and the dolphins are in view from both above and below the water. The underwater viewing area was very nice and provided a great view of the activity. I never knew that dolphins play with air bubbles (kind of like smoke rings) until I saw a dolphin blow a bubble and play with it. Wow.

The Shark Aquarium is awesome and designed to allow viewing sharks and the other residents of the aquarium from all angles. Unfortunately they use a moving walkway to ensure a flow of people through the shard part of the exhibit so my pictures did not turn out too great--but it was inspiring to see a shark swim over top of me with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. I also spies a nurse shark dozing on a rock.

The Shamu show was awesome and inspiring. I figured out how to get the camera to take fast action shots when I actually press the button, so I am especially proud of the Orca's jumping out of the water pictures I took during the show.


One place to definitely stop is the Budweiser Hospitality House for two free cold beers. Hey, they are free. And the Clydesdales are worth a gander, too. As we visited the beer wagon and Clydesdale team were on display in the park complete with dalmatian!


There is so much to do in a more relaxing environment. The Penguin house is very special and also a must see during the day.

We visited the Polar Exhibit where there are Beluga Whales and Polar Bears. It is a first class exhibit made to imitate top of the world to include the Aurora Borealis.

And I do not want to forget the rides. We rode the Kranken--a really fast coaster complete with loops and twists. Early in 2009, they will open the Manta--which is a suspended coaster which looks to be really a good ride too. The Atlantis ride was open intermittently the day we were they so we wound up not riding it--but having ridden a similar (if not the same) ride elsewhere it looks to be a lot of fun too.

Recommendation: Definitely visit Sea World during a stay in Orlando. It is a top notch attraction and well worth a day. There are both educational and thrill adventures available.

Are Americans Getting Fat? A Bit of a Rant!

OK--here we go on a real sensitive subject.

Are Americans getting lazy and fat?

My recent experience at Disney for six days seems to indicate that we are and, worse, there are companies making a lot of money on the overweight disability by renting scooters to further assist in enabling our over-eating and under-exercising.

Disney is overrun with obese people on scooters. They are everywhere. And here is the problem. While wheelchairs have right of way over pedestrians, motorized scooters do not--but yet the pilots of these dangerous (more on that later) vehicles do not recognize the rights of way that pedestrians have. I was cut off numerous times while pushing a stroller with two children in it by these denizens of the walkways.

And here is the real rub. It appeared to us that many able, but heavy people rent these scooters at the park to receive preferential treatment. They don't have to walk and they get special treatment on the rides and attractions--like going to the front of the line.

Obviously, this is just an observation with no scientific basis to support it, but really, the number of people riding these dangerous vehicles is astounding. AND--it really rubs me raw when in one instance we have been waiting through three monorails to get aboard to get back to the hotel and one of these scooters was escorted to the front of the line and our party of four adults and two small children with a large stroller were unceremoniously told to step aside--again. Why can't they wait like everyone else?

As for dangerous. Don't get me wrong--there are people who really need these marvels of technology to assist with their living and enjoyment of life. But they need to be careful.

While at the Animal Kingdom we were part of a real world emergency associated with a scooter accident. An 80-year old gentleman weighing about 350 lbs toppled his scooter when it ran up the side of a walkway. The scooter was so top heavy that it went right over sideways with a crash and thud. The man was attached to an oxygen tank and unable to move once on the ground. Mike and I rendered assistance which included determining that he was not seriously injured and notifying the park staff of the emergency (Nicole did this). We placed a blanket under his head for both support and comfort (contribution of Jax) and helped untangle him from the scooter so he could be comfortable while waiting for the emergency response team. The man's family was concerned about trying to sit him up so we waited for the health professionals to arrive to perform this task so that we would not dislocate anything (either on us or him).

The scooter issue aside though. There are a lot of morbidly obese people. And children. Maybe they just tend to vacation at Disney, but we saw them in numbers that exceed what we normally see in our places of work. And we feel much sympathy for them on two points. First, they are products of our "more is better" society. Second, they are discriminated against and I feel guilty for how I feel about the scooter issue, but since they are products of our society I wonder what our medical and scientific communities are doing to help alleviate the hugely obese issue that we are creating. The strain on health care is going to be enormous (pun intended)--probably greater than any other disability at some point. We need to begin addressing this issue soon.

Disney Pictures of Note

Well, here are some of the best. I like this one--it is Ethan watching the fireworks our last night at Disney. We were at Epcot just chillin' and watching the fireworks.

The picture was taken on Friday night, our last night in Disney and we were all feeling the effects of  a hard week of vacationing in the land of Mickey.

This one kinda sums up the whole Disney experience--a lot of flash and fun and crashing and things to do and places to go.

The next two are from Day 1- Monday as we were getting started. I look at them as the beginning of the experience.

They give a great perspective on the adventure which is just beginning and also the great weather we had all week--except for the frigid tempratures on Tuesday night.

There are more pictures and I will get them in in a few more days.

Flying Home

It's over. Six days in Disney and we successfully navigated the process to checkout and made it to the airport.

We are on board AirTran flight 467 to Baltimore cruising somewhere over the Carolinas. Jax is asleep in Chis' arms and E is chillin' with his Dad in the row in front of me.

I got tired of playing poker on my blackberry so I thought I'd jot a couple more notes.

The time flew by. Incredibly it went by fast.

We hear the temp at home is 19 degrees. And to think yesterday I was laying in the sun soaking up rays by the pool for an afternoon nap. And it was awesome. Why can't I move to Key West?

I noticed something at the airport today. Mass confusion. Traveling with small children and gwtting through security and onto an airplane is no trivial event.

Think about people who do not fly all the time trying to navigate security. Yeah, I saw some today who didn't even know they needed to have their ID out to begin the process. Talk about overload. And there aren't a lot of signs to help.

And it seems people need to attend a class and get certifien in getting on board an airplane. They stand in the aisle for minutes trying to get their bags up or figure out who is sitting where. Plan a bit. Get out of the way. Same on the way out.

But we are beginning our descent back to the real world.

I guess the magic is gone or maybe itis still there and we just can't see it around us.

But the magic is still there. We carry it in our hearts to pick us up one those dark, cold winter days and remind us of places we've been and fun we've had.



Bob Doan
Elkridge, MD
Sent from My Blackberry