Merry Christmas!
Now go be with your family (or call them)!
Give Glory to Christ!

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman

It is Christmas Eve evening, and let me just say that 1) I’m stuffed and 2) Abby is getting a whole pile of presents tomorrow morning.
I think that if Santa were to eat at the Cheesecake Factory before going out to deliver presents that he’d never made it.
We went there for dinner and, even though the service was a little lesser than normal, we left stuffed.
We had great food, and as usual, a great heap of desserts that were tasty.

John and Karen have purchased enough presents for Abby that I think that some small countries could survive on the taxes they’ve paid by themselves.
Santa will be eating a whole lotta cookies.

Jesus will not wonder why he’s not invited to millions of homes in the world.
Being a dad this year (now that Abby’s older) really hits me harder about the Santa thing.
I don’t like the idea of telling Abby that Santa is real, only to later be telling her myself, or have others tell her that I’m a liar.
That being said, I want Abby to know the real reason for Christmas.
It’s not presents, family, mushy feelings, commercialism, German traditions, or tradition – it’s Jesus.
I hope that when we’re all done with presents tomorrow that I’ll be able to read the Christ child’s story.
Even if its not to the whole family, I want to read the story, to focus on the Word of God – to focus on the beautiful baby who would later be the savior in death and resurrection.

May you have a Merry, Christ centered, Christmas!

Randy “Party Pooper” Peterman

Today we went to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, what a great children’s museum.
It’s very large and was changed from the last time we visited it.
Abby had a great time and was immediately excited about the large (6 foot) snow flakes hanging in the entry.
The children’s museum had 5 floors, each with various themes and exhibits.
One exhibit, that we took pictures at, was an Indy car.

We started at the top, floor 5, and made our way down slowly, but surely, to the second floor, and never made it to the first floor (it should be noted that the entry way was on the 2nd floor).
We went to a kiddy area that was geared towards 4 and under kids.
Abby was just overwhelmed with all of the options, but got to play with a fun water
exhibit that allowed her to splash, play with a rubber duck, and get wet.
Then she played in the sand with Jessica, Kelsey and Kristin (think wet hands in sand at first).
After that we went to a little sensory maze where Abby could walk over a small wooden suspension bridge, climb on large stuffed animals, crawl through a tube, and climb on a large stuffed bumpy thing that I can’t describe easily.
After the sensory (overload) exhibit Abby played in a play house, which was lots of fun for her as well.

We saw an exhibit on puppets, which included some video footage from Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.
Abby liked the puppets, but was more entertained by the pencils and paper at one of the puppet
exhibits (for writing scripts for your own puppet show).
I was impressed by the wide array of puppets that they had.
I didn’t even think about some of the examples of puppets they had that I had seen.

Another interesting display is an area geared more towards 5-11 year olds which includes a Rube Goldberg contraption that is fabulous.
They also had a turtle/frog display that was really large and then on top of that they had some stuffed (taxidermy) animals.
Abby learned that owls say hoo-hoo, which was cute.
I crawled through some tubes and tunnels with her so that we could go down a slide in that area, but it was hard because I’m so big and not so nimble any more.
It reminds me I need to get in better shape.

Eventually we made our way down to a really neat exhibit on building and construction.
One of the displays talked about building skyscrapers: 2,000 people died falling off of sky scrapers between 1900 and 1920 (10 a month or one every other day and a half).
They also had large examples of joints in wood working, which was neat.
There was a large yurt built in the exhibit that was just cool to look at.
There was no metal in the yurt, it was held together with a lot of animal and wood products.

After the museum we came back home and John and Jessica made dinner – Pork Chops.
After a tasty dinner we played some games: Risk, Pictionary and Aggravation.
I actually won a Risk game, but it was not a great victory, everyone else was finally so week that I could sweep in, but it was not as impressive as a sudden
clincher.
Pictionary started out fun but bogged down because we kept rolling low numbers so moving through the board took a long time.
We finally just quit playing and switched to Aggravation.
Aggravation was fun Karen and I won, but it took a long time because we kept getting sent back to our bases.

Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve and there’s rumors of more cookies being made.
Currently there are six different kinds of candy, two types of cookies and some fudge.
If we don’t leave heavier than we came it is only because the Lord granted us self control.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Game Time” Peterman

This morning Abigail woke up and was making various noises so we got up and brought her to bed with us.
I said, “Can you say, ‘Good Morning?'”
She said, “Morning.”
I said back, “Can you say, ‘I’m Awake.'”
She said, “Wake.”

What a treat!
This little girl is so much fun.
She gets excited about the dogs and really likes it when they bark.
However, she really likes the cat which she calls ‘kittycat’, and sometimes ‘duck.’
I don’t know if she calls it that because she forgets, or if she just likes ducks, too.

Anyway, we love having fun with our little girl, and we’re having a great time in IN.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Abby’s Dad” Peterman

Today was a pretty relaxed day, I was so tired from lack of sleep
(Abby didn’t sleep well last night, again).
I went back to bed around 10 and took about an hours nap.
Afterwards I tried to help John set up his new office desk, except that Bush Manufacturing put holes (pre-drilled) that were way out of
alignment.
Later Jessica went with John and ‘the girls’ (Kelsey and Kristin) to see
The Nutcracker.

While they were there Abby said ‘night-night’ for the first time.
Karen said it to her and she replied it back… it was sweet.
Abby’s had multiple firsts at each of the grandparents’ houses and its been neat.
It’s cool being a dad.
Karen and I had a good talk while Abby was down.
One thing is for sure (and Karen will tell you this when you meet her) – she
doesn’t hold anything back.
Her honesty about what she’s thinking is always good, she tells me when I’m being
too technical, or theological, or any of the other things I get too
detailed on.
It keeps me grounded.

Tonight the plan is to play several games.
Games are often the centerpiece of our evenings here, which is great, because I
really enjoy games.
I hope that having practice with Empire Earth will help me win at Risk (Mission Risk).
When I married Jessica I had no clear idea of how to play Risk, John has
indoctrinated me 🙂

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman

We have officially arrived in IN.
Abby is having quite a time being treated to the attention, and is pretty upset that she can’t open all of the presents yet.
Since I’m here I may not be able to update the blog too often, but as I have time I’ll do my best.

John and Karen have redone much of their downstairs area and have re-arranged things. It looks real nice.
OK, I better not be too distracted by the computer or I’ll get in trouble 🙂

Resting in Him,

Randy “Voyager” Peterman

Last night
Tony
Nuzzi and I played Empire Earth together for some time.
We experienced a few technical difficulties, but over all had a fun
experience.
However, we didn’t get to finish because we had to go to bed.
We’re getting ready to go to Indiana tomorrow, and we’re looking forward to
the fun we’ll have there.
The snow that I think is there should be fun for Abby, but only if she’s
feeling better, she’s been running about with a slight cough.

Tonight I’m going to try to get some more pictures of Abby up, and maybe
even some footage of Abby opening presents.
She’s become quite the accomplished actress, a drama queen, by most accounts.
The best part is her overly exaggerated “Hi’s and Bye’s.”
The worst part is the dropping to the floor when she doesn’t get what she
wants.

Well, I must go to work and then to my chiropractor’s appointment.
Have a blessed day and a blessed Holiday season.
May the peace of Christ dwell in you richly today and every day!
One last thing: I should be able to put up articles remotely, but I won’t be
able to put pictures up until after we get back home.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Pixelator” Peterman

You may not be a Lord of the Rings Fan, but if you’re like me you are always curious about movie takings (box office revenue).
One site to check out for a daily tracking is
Box Office Mojo.
What’s fascinating is that they have all of the weekly statistics up for all
of the movies.

That’s all for now,

Randy “Stats Man” Peterman

Due to some private things that took place last night I’m pooped again today.
It’s the holiday season and I’m so distracted by work, the issue that came up
last night, and the fact that the leaves are finally turning fall colors
here that it doesn’t feel like Christmas yet.
Maybe I’m just so used to snow from Nevada, or at least ice and cold weather
here (we’ve had that previous winters at least) that it just feels sort of
‘ho-hum’.
Jessica of course tries to keep things festive and Abigail is so cute opening
presents that its hard not to smile really big (we’re opening presents
early because we won’t be in town for Christmas and we’re surely not going
to haul them to Indiana and then back down).

Other More Happy Things

• I’d like to also point out that
  FeedDemon
  is just nearly out.
• We watched Freaky Friday last night and enjoyed it.
  It’s not mediocre, or bad enough, to go in my reviews section.
  Sometimes I had a hard time remembering that each person was really
  just the actor, and not really switched around, which means that they
  did a good job.
• The US is not going
  to torture Saddam Hussein.
  Well, not technically any way, we’re going to interrogate him for hours
  and days, we’re going to make him watch videos of people being
  killed by his men, and we’re going to make him have to wear a tutu.
  OK, that last part is made up.

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman

Jessica is all excited about some starchy movie that’s been released on DVD
this week, Freaky Fry Day.
It sounds like a bad teenie bopper movie about some teens who work at a fast
food joint and discover that their deep fat frier is creating monsters
that will take over the world if they don’t figure out the write mixture
of other fast food chemicals to counter the morbid fat.
However, I’m actually an informed individual and I know the movie is really
just a straight to the store take-off of Toy Story.

This of course looks like its going to try to ride on the coat tails of
another smash food hit, Lord of the (Onion) Rings.
You’d think this sort of trash wouldn’t sell but apparently the American
public is not discerning in its eating patterns or entertainment.
That’s of course not a big surprise, I mean we’re on Survivor 6 (or is this
600? I haven’t watched a full episode before).
Technically if you want to see people survive make them eat
only fast food for weeks at a time and watch what happens
to them.
It could be more tolling than the latest strain of the flu.

Actually, after I’m done typing this up I’m going to be going to be going to
rent Freaky Friday and I’m going to watch it with Jessica.
I understand that there is some really funny stuff in the movie.
I also understand that my humor is not main stream, which is why
Dave Barry
is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and I’m a self supported blogger.

Speaking of Dave Barry, I’m reading his most recent (to my knowledge) body of
work, Boogers Are My Beat.
This is great!
It is actually a compilation of his writing for “The Herald,” but they’re
good writings, ones you’d put on your refridgerator when your kid brings
them home with “Good Job!” in red ink on them.
If you don’t have any kids then you might not do this, however if you have
kids you have or will do this, trust me, I have done this lots of times
with my imaginary kids.

The End

I’m so close to the end of the book of “The Revelation of Christ”
(Revelation) in my reading through the New Testament that I can almost
taste it.
I’ve only got a chapter and a half left, I hope to finish tonight.
Next year, I’d like to invite you to read through the Bible with me.
It’ll take dedication and self control, but if we read about 4 chapters a
day we can do it twice in a year.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Is a Really Punny Guy” Peterman