As it turns out, it was just what I needed. Check out some of my favorites:

Still in love after 29 years! Still on our honeymoon! I love you squirrel! Love, Butch

Atta you, Butch.

LIKE BEER & PEANUTS We Go Great Together I LOVE YOU!!! PD & MT

I’ve never been much of a beer drinker, but I’m sure that’s romantic.

I will never forget the first day we met … when you called me TPT! I love you! Your flipflop wearing girlfriend.

Picture included with that one. And my personal favorite:

I love you human furnace, snuggle bunny, muffin pie, and I’m a lucky wifey to have such a lovey guy! Happy Valentine’s Day Love! I *heart* you! Love Always, Your Loverton

After laughing through a few, Silent Jay wisely opined, “If this is true love, I have not yet attained.” Well said.

Have you ever noticed how something about Christmas music allows Christian radio stations to play secular music (e.g., Jingle Bell Rock), and secular music stations to play overtly Christian music (e.g., Hark the Herald Angels Sing)? Curious.

And while we’re on the topic, I was saddened to hear that Dan Folgelberg recently died. It was only last year at this time that I discovered he sang Christmas tunes.

Merry Christmas!

^[1] Does not include anyone singing Felice Navidad or anything being sung by Gloria Estefan.

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day. Rachel and I didn’t have much planned, other than some catch-up work around the house and perhaps a nature hike to see some of the fall colors. Through the normalcy of the day, however, I was thankful for some reminders about the reason for this particular day of observance.

The first reminder involved friends of ours that lived across the street. We were getting to know them fairly well, and enjoying having someone close by that was raising a family, appreciated similar things in life, and shared many of our same values. It was great having some neighbors with which we could share tools, ladders, and toys, and even help each other with kid duty. However, he is in the military and last week they moved to Germany for three years. We’re selfishly disappointed we didn’t get to know them better, or have more time to spend with them. While I’m sure it will be an exciting time for their family, it is a huge sacrifice for them to leave friends and family and move to an unknown part of the world. And yet that’s a common occurrence around here, impacting all areas of life (housing market, church membership, friendships kids make at school, the number of home schoolers, etc.).

The second reminder came at the Prince William Forest Park, where we went to see some of the brilliant fall colors. It’s a gorgeous area, and definitely a great time of year to visit. While we saw various people throughout the park on the scenic drive, once we got out and walked down one of the paths, we had the place to ourselves. It was enjoyable time as a family (even Moby came along). And though we seemed removed from all the noises and sights of everyday life, there was the ominous sound of artillery rounds coming from the neighboring Quantico base. It was hard to shake the fact there were men and women training for combat while we were out enjoying the colorful leaves.

It was an enjoyable Veteran’s Day, and living here in VA my appreciation for those willing to serve and sacrifice continues to deepen and grow.

When my brother and sister-in-law came running down the stairs with their girls last night and rushed outside, we wondered if maybe it had started snowing. It hadn’t, but they knew Santa was on his way because they could hear the sirens coming. Apparently he makes his way through all of Stafford this way every year.

It was the weirdest thing I’ve seen in quite some time, but for everyone here it was a typical Christmas Eve event.

This weekend we were watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which we do every year at Christmas (along with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, of course). This is the first year we’ve watched it with closed captioning enabled. At the point where Clark finally gets the Christmas lights on their house to light up, a snippet of the Hallelujah Chorus begins playing in the background. Instead of, “For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” the closed captioning displayed, “Lord God Our God and King, Oh Let us praise Him.” After replaying it a few times, we could hear the similarities in how they sounded. We were amused.

“I hope this adds to your enjoyment of the holidays.” — Clark

That station played a song that got my attention, mostly because of its cheesiness. It was one of those songs that shouldn’t count as a Christmas song, but it mentions Christmas Eve and snow, and thus gets played. The lyrics made me laugh, as they talked about meeting an old acquaintence in the frozen food section of a grocery store. The second or third time I heard it, the DJ announced it was Dan Fogelberg’s, “Same Old Lang Syne.” More than once I’ve had the song stuck in my head, much to my dismay. The tune is fairly catchy.

The first thing I thought of when I heard Dan Fogelberg is a game my friends and I used to play in high school whenever we’d drive somewhere. We’d put the radio on scan, and you tried to be the first person to correctly identify the artist of a song when it came on. Invariably, if no one knew the true artist, someone would shout out Dan Fogelberg. I’m not really sure why we chose him. Perhaps because Rhythm of The Rain was somewhat popular back then, or perhaps because he had a funny name and no one would every really know if you were correct or not when declaring him the artist. Even if you did, you wouldn’t want to admit it.

In an effort to redeem myself (and this post) a bit, I will say “Oh Holy Night” and “Do You Hear What I Hear” are probably my two favorite Christmas songs right now. I’ll even go so far as to admit I like Josh Groban’s “Oh Holy Night” quite a bit. Not sure if Dan Fogelberg sings that one …

Today’s trip home: 1 hour and 50 minutes … for 35 miles. Not at all that bad. (A little Hot Tracks lingo there. Any MI people still watch the show?)

So who are all these people, and shouldn’t they be on vacation some where?