Merry Christmas, everybody! Leah's 1st Christmas. Picture taken with Mommy's new digital camera... Amanda, do you recognize the outfit? 

Official U2 Fan Club Member...$40 later!

Yep, you're reading a post from an official U2 fan club member! After paying $40 at U2.com... but I get to buy concert tickets presale before the public, get a cool U2 membership card, exclusive web music videos and interviews, and 25% off at the U2 store! Did I get ripped? Oh well, as long as I can get concert tickets for Rachel and I. We missed the Elevation tour because we couldn't get seats together and were seriously bummed. Not this time! You know it will be the best show to see this year! At least in my opinion.

I forgot about another Christmas time tradition that Rachel and I always do... every year sometime during the holidays we watch Christmas Vacation and Die Hard. Some families watch It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle On 34th Street or A Christmas Story, we watch hoilday violence and comedy. Every year. It's great!

What do you guys watch?

Christmas... traditions & memories

So, how many people out there know what I'm talking about?

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of Christmas. Like the memory of the local fire dept. driving a fire engine with Santa on the back down each and every street so that every kid got to tell Santa his Christmas wishes (or wants). Or that wondrous smell of a Christmas tree in my house after having an artificial tree for several years. How many of us associate Christmas with that tree smell? I know I do!

I had a teacher in high school who grew up in New England and said that the smell of oranges always reminded him of the holidays. Huh? He told me that then getting fresh citrus on the east coast was expensive and rare and that at Christmas time as a special gift, they would each get an orange. Now I know I take oranges for granted!

Remember as a kid on Christmas Eve having that nervousness of Santa coming...and 'what is he going to bring me'...'have I been naughty or nice?'. I know some of you are saying, ' I still feel that way'. :) Good!

Traditions...
...with my family, we would get up in the morning, get dressed, and have breakfast...yes, all before opening our gifts! That can be torture for a kid! Anyway I survived. Next we read out of the bible, the real 'Christ'mas story, we would pray and then open presents. What can I say my dad's a preacher. As much as it seemed to 'pain' me as an impatient kid, it is now a 'tradition' Rachel and I do in our house as well.
For a couple of years my dad had the 'brilliant' idea of getting our tree on Christmas Eve! Yes, I said Christmas Eve! Talk about last minute decorating...I think he did it so that he could say that he only spent $5 for a tree, because tree lots were getting rid of their inventory. Or it was the miniscule pastor's salary that he received. Anyway, that 'tradition', needless to say didn't last.
Another tradition we do now is draw names for gift giving within our family(us, my parents, Aunt Rachel, my brother...) and makes gift giving a little more personal and definitely is easier on the wallet. I find it unsettling that a lot of people go in to debt over Christmas.

Comment and tell me what are some memories or traditions you guys have or had. I 'd love to read them as I'm sure others would too.
And to all of you who are in school... you've made it! Finals are over and Christmas break is here!! Be proud of yourselves and enjoy your families.

Peace.

And goodwill toward all people. :0}

Ponderosa People...LISTEN UP!!

Out of curiosity today, I Googled my name. And even though I had interesting matches (apparently I'm also a musician) it took me to some of your blog sites as well as mine. Not surprising, right? Well, I realized that in our positions as Christians and involved in ministry (camps, churches, missions, etc..), if I was a camper or church member or someone curious to know more about us, they might question our faith based on some of the language exhibited in our blogs.

I know this might oust me from this 'little' community..., but I feel I have to speak up, especially in my position here at camp. Who knows when some 'charmed' junior higher (or board member in my case) will go looking to find more info about their camp favorite and finds our thoughts. I'm not saying I'm the 'favorite'. :)

Before it seems that I'm pointing fingers... let me say that I'm also guilty of this. For whatever reason we think that this is private. It doesn't take a whole lot to find this cache of our names. Some may think that because your blogs are listed under an alias or acronym that you're anonymous to the casual observer...how many of us have buddy link lists with all of our names down the side. All it takes is for one of us to mention another by name in our posts and it turns up in a search. Let's face it, this is the internet, not our private diaries. Ask Jasen about this type of situation. Which stinks because I loved his blog!

So what does this mean? Go covert? Invent a secret code language to address each other by? Why? So we can keep talking like sailors? NO! If people want to see what's the latest in my life, that's fine... I'm just going to post as an 'open book'. I won't care who opens that book.

I went through my old posts and either cleaned up the language or deleted the post all together which was not hard to do. I encourage some of you to do the same...because the questioning moment from someone will come. I've already had some myself. One was from...you guessed it....Dan Skipper! I didn't have an explanation for him. We don't talk like this at camp or in our churches or in front of strangers, why here?

I was reminded of my daily reading on Dec. 7th in Ephesians 5 where Paul says, "Follow God's example in everything you do because you are his dear children......Obscene stories,foolish talk, and coarse language-these are not for you. ... For though your hearts were once full of darkness, now you are full of light from the Lord, and your behavior should show it!"


Please comment or call me! Please know that my post is out of concern and especially love for you guys. I hope it makes sense... and if doesn't , well ...... call me, I want to talk.

Catching The Red Eye...by tired daddy-o

Well, she's here, if you didn't already know. The C-section was moved to the 30th of Nov., a week after the original date. Leah was born on Tuesday the 30th at 12:58 pm. She was 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long. Considerably smaller than Hannah was but still a good size baby. It was good that Rachel had the section done. Hannah is doing well with the adjustment, we think. I think it took a little getting used to for her that Rachel couldn't give her all her attention... but I've been giving her plenty to make up for it. Here they are from this morning... sorry the picture quality is bad.


Sleep is a little rare here this past week for me and even more so for Rachel.. trying to keep up with the feeding schedule of a newborn, but God is good and we are blessed. She looks just like Hannah did at that age.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to clone myself. I would be an excellant candidate...there would plenty of me to go around between Rachel, Hannah, Leah , my two cats(who are always meowing for attention lately), camp, friends, yada yada yada...

On a side note, if you have been on some distant moon and still haven't picked up the new U2 cd yet, get off your keister! I got mine at 11am on the release date and it hasn't left my cd player yet. I think it is awesome, especially track #3 "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own". The whole album is perfection in my opinion, but I also love U2... so I might be a little biased.

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? My went really well. I got to see some family that I haven't seen in many years and got reacquainted.

Hope all is well with everyone. I miss you all alot!

Hello, world!! My name is Leah Noelle LeBrun and I've been making sure that my mommy and daddy get as little sleep as possible. (Actually, that's not totally true, she's a very good baby.) My daddy says he's sorry for the lack of posts, but he's been a little busy with me , mommy and my sister, Hannah. He'll write soon.