To the 60 or so people

Who honored us by coming to our 2nd annual Christmas Cookie Exchange, here's to you! Our friends really make our lives sweet. You are all such a blessing to us.

Merry Christmas to you all!!

To view a slideshow, please click on this link...

Wiser Men Still--Harvest Pensacola

Here is the third video in the Christmas Story series at Harvest Church Pensacola. Enjoy.

Christmas Tour

Christmas Tour, originally uploaded by bekados.

Well, I know it's kind of late for the Christmas tour but I thought I would show a few pictures anyway. Enjoy!

Friday Funny

A friend sent this little bit to me and I thought I would share it around...

REMEMBER THIS AT CHRISTMAS TIME

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and
female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their
antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December.

Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring.

Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's
reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to
be a girl.

We should've known... ONLY women would be able to drag a fat man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.

Who does Christmas bother???

Note: I posted this item last year two weeks before Christmas. It was just brought again to my attention. I think it's still wonderful. Hope you enjoy it as well!

A friend sent this little speech in an email. I enjoyed it and thought I would pass it along. I checked it out on Snopes and it is legitimate.

Ben Stein

Ben Stein was born to American Jewish parents and grew up in the neighborhood Woodside Forest in Silver Spring, Maryland. He graduated from Montgomery Blair High School, where his classmates included journalist Carl Bernstein and actors Goldie Hawn and Sylvester Stallone. He went on to major in economics at Columbia University's Columbia College.
He graduated with honors in 1966, and then enrolled in Yale University Law School, graduating as the valedictorian in 1970.


If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on a CBS Sunday Morning Commentary............

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few
confessions from my beating heart: I have no
freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them
on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am
buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask
the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know
who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will
it change my life if I know who they are and why
they have broken up? Why are they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do
not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee
and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just
have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young.
It's not so bad.

Next confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors
was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little
bit when people call those beautiful lit up,
bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel
threatened. I don't feel discriminated against.
That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry
Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting
me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact,
I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers
and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It
doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger
scene on display at a key intersection near my beach
house in Malibu If people want a crèche, it's
>>just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred
yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a
Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting
pushed around for being Christians. I think people
who believe in God are sick and tired of getting
pushed around, period. I have no idea where the
concept came from that America is an explicitly
atheist country. I can't find it in the
Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the
idea come from that we should worship Nick and
Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we
understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where
Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we
knew went to.