the unlikely orange

we're wishing you a merry christmas!

how busy are you right now?  pretty busy, right?  take a look at your to-do list, if you keep such a thing.  you may have shopping to do, gifts to wrap, things to bake, parties to plan, things to decorate, lights to hang, cards to send, not to mention the normal routines of life like work and cleaning and paying the bills.  put altogether, the season kind of makes you want to take a time out.  it's the most stressful time of the year. and yet many of us will probably receive some beautifully designed christmas cards, maybe even with some gold foil or some serene photograph, that will boldly proclaim that this is a season of PEACE.  peace?  really?  what exactly about this season is peaceful?  raise your hand if you find this to be the most peaceful time of the year?  *looking around*  that's what i thought.  even as i asked the question you were remembering that you forgot to pick up that gift card for exchange at work so you...

each year the steelers face off against their familiar foes, the baltimore ravens.  twice.  and twice a year it is as contentious a matchup as there is in the nfl.  two teams with history (if you consider the ravens the new browns).  two teams with a similar blue-collar approach.  two teams with a high standard of success.  two teams with very little love lost between them.  put these two teams together twice a year and the results are a brutal kind of football poetry, complete with huge hits, staggering adversity, and stifling defense.  this year, the ravens went to pittsburgh and beat the roethlisberger-less steelers.  last night, the schedule called for the second contest, this time in baltimore.  and this time, roethlsiberger was on the field, albeit with a broken 5th metatarsal bone in his foot.  and this time, the steelers were the last ones standing.  despite being bottled up for most of the game, the steelers finall...

rest in peace, ratbirds.  i want to add more, but i was too tired to get up early this morning, after not getting to bed until after 1 am, so my real post will have to wait.  for now, it will have to suffice to let you know that i am literally beaming at work.  just smiling from ear to ear.  it's a good day in steeler nation.  more to come later....

it's finally steelers - ravens day.  here are a few hopes i have for the day:  1.  let's hope flacco serves up a couple interceptions as kindly as he serves pizza to the greater baltimore area, and let's hope he throws them straight as a unibrow to the guys  in the black and gold.   2.  let's hope the ravens fans end up looking something like this.  and let it be quiet except for the steelers fans there.  i want to hear them.   3.  let's hope ray-ray can be put where he belongs.  if not behind actual bars, then behind the bars of some significant blocking so that mendenhall can pick up some yardage.   4.  let's hope it isn't a 24-23 overtime victory, which puts me in the hospital.  please?  can we please hope that we squash them?  5.  let's hope that after today the only team on top of the afc north is the one from the steel city.  fingers crossed...

well, since we are headed out today to participate in our annual ritual of cutting down an evergreen tree so we can drag it into our house and hang plastic and metal objects from it.  seriously, from one perspective it seems like such a strange tradition.  and yet, in a pre-electricity world, when winter was such a time of darkness and cold.  when you were forced indoors for most of the time, with only candlelight, winter must have seemed like a daunting season.  all the trees look dead.  all the earth seems dark.  all the hope seems gone.  so you get a tree - a miracle kind of tree that never stops being green - and you bring it into your house as a reminder that all hope is not lost.  that there is still green in the world.  and as such, it isn't just a reminder of nature and rhythm of the seasons, but also of the hope we have in Jesus, that in the winter of our souls, there is still redemption, there is still hope.  in the midst of ...

we had a wonderful and abundant thanksgiving, as always.  here are a few pics. the one above shows our table settings complete with the cornocopia name holders that shannon and the boys made out of salt dough and runts.  the boys make the placeholders every year.  here is our menu.  i think a couple things were forgotten, and it was amazing.  just yum. here's shannon looking good.  and walking behind her is our new brother-in-law, whom my kids affectionately call "the tickle monster."  he's a great guy and we are thankful to have him in the family.  this is black friday.  if you look carefully you can see that the microwave clock says 4:49.  that's A.M.  yep, we are that family.  what can i say?  old traditions die hard, i guess.  this is my sister mary acting angry (?) and dad trying to look sleepy.  i think.  i don't really remember, actually  it was too early.