It’s sometimes difficult to believe but, like us, our children do grow up. And when they grow up with good character, a keen sense of humor and, most importantly, a kind heart, they make their parents proud. Today is youngest son James’ 38th birthday. It seems like only a few short years ago that we were laughing at the way his diapers drooped when he played in the little wading pool in our back yard - he was a trend-setter even then. And now he’s grown! He’s still cute and funny but, thank goodness, he’s no longer wearing droopy drawers!

“Lights please…

‘And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” - Linus Van Pelt

We’ll be taking tomorrow “off” to enjoy the long holiday weekend. See you Monday!

Today is my wonderful wife’s birthday. We celebrated with friends Saturday at TSO’s annual Sacramento concert from a suite at Arco Arena, then spent yesterday with son Rick, Kim and grandsons Chris and Jacob. The Sandhill Cranes are migrating, so we all drove down to Lodi to witness their “gathering”, a spectacle of several thousand birds descending for the evening on a small patch of wilderness preserve. Afterward, we shared a birthday dinner at BJ’s, vowed to photograph the cranes’ sunrise liftoff next weekend, and finally called it a great day.

Happy birthday, Sweetheart.

Lori sent photos of grandson Dakota and his date, Alyx, at Ponderosa High School’s Homecoming a couple weekends ago. He’s growing up so fast! And don’t they make a cute couple?

My older younger brother (think before you ask) recently joined Facebook and asked me to sign up in order to share his photos. So, reluctantly, I did. Surprisingly, I found the interface to be infinitely more intuitive than Myspace which I hate but joined in order to communicate with my grandson, Dakota, while he was in Europe with his soccer team. I know, lots of folks love Myspace, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that thinks it’s a bloated, clumsy clunker.

Anyway, between the two, Facebook appears to provide a smoother user experience and a better sense of humor. For example, I found this post on the site’s own blog somewhat amusing. Apparently, some folks aren’t choosing a gender in their profiles, an omission that has caused some problems for Facebook’s language translators, so much so that they’ve asked members to kindly select one or the other. Of course, not to appear insensitive to users who haven’t yet decided which gender they want to be, Facebook has granted an exception:

“We’ve received pushback in the past from groups that find the male/female distinction too limiting. We have a lot of respect for these communities, which is why it will still be possible to remove gender entirely from your account, including how we refer to you in Mini-Feed.”

The male/female distinction is “too limiting”? How so, I wonder. What other distinctions might there be? Anyone?

When we vacationed last July with Cindy and Ray, Cindy had just bought a mobile GPS to help her navigate our Sacramento>Carmel>Yosemite>Folsom road trip in case our cars became separated. As I recall, she had some problems with it… beginning with getting it to stick to her windshield and later with its disagreeing with the fancy schmancy GPS in our car. So when I saw this Randall Munroe ‘toon, I immediately thought of them… and the wonderful memories came rushing back.

It seems like only yesterday… such a cute little guy, all smiles and giggles… I called him “Slick” and helped him learn to walk in front of our 4-plex apartment near Mather AFB where I was stationed… He was our first born… Yet today, somehow, he turns 45… with a beautiful family of his own! Is that possible?

Time passes far too quickly. I yearn to turn back the clock, to hold on to those precious early years… but then I would have to wait too long to know the fine man he has become… Happy birthday, Son!

It’s sometimes difficult to believe but, like us, our children do grow up. And when they grow up with good character, a keen sense of humor and, most importantly, kind hearts, they make their parents proud. Today is youngest son Jamie’s 37th birthday. It seems like only a few short years ago that we were laughing at the way his diapers drooped when he played in the little wading pool in our back yard - he was a trend-setter even then! And now he’s grown. He’s still cute and funny but, thank goodness, he’s no longer wearing droopy drawers!

“Lights please…

‘And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” - Linus Van Pelt

A tradition Dawn and I look forward to each Christmas season is “The Singing Christmas Tree” at our church. We went Saturday night a week ago and agreed it was the best performance we’ve seen. Of course, having seats in the 6th row helped, but the theme this year - Christmas celebrated around the world - was especially enjoyable. It’s the Tree’s 51st year in production and more than 25,000 people see and hear it each year. The church membership includes so many talented performers, and the production is done so professionally, we’re always amazed. We’ve already bought our tickets for next year.

Another traditional holiday event for us is attending “A Peter White Christmas” in the Gazetta Grand Ballroom. We went last Thursday night, enjoyed fifth row seats and heard some great Christmas music performed by Peter White, Rick Braun and Mindy Abair. It’s always a nice evening this time of year and helps keep us in the holiday spirit. We forgot a camera, so we grabbed a couple shots with Dawn’s iPhone. I’ll post them if they’re decent. The iPhone is great, but the camera is “iffy” when hand held in low light.

I say every year that you won’t catch me near a shopping mall during the holidays, and most years I’ve managed to steer clear of mall crowds. But despite my resolve, Dawn and I found ourselves in the “crunch” of it this season. I’d thought we were pretty much finished with Christmas shopping - we started well before Black Friday - but there were still a few straggler items we needed to procure so, much to my chagrin, we were out “in it” last night.

The worst part for me is always the standing in line; I’m a particularly poor “line stander,” especially if I’m alone. But Dawn was with me last night and it wasn’t bad at all. We got in, grabbed what we needed, and got out. And now we’re finished!

After wrapping up the shopping, we drove through some of the neighborhoods known for elaborate Christmas lights and decorations. We haven’t done that the last couple years and we’ve missed it. The homes in the “Fab 40’s” were especially well done. It was a wonderful way to tie off holiday shopping. After a relaxing dinner at Tahoe Joe’s, we drove home to watch “White Christmas” but fell asleep before it even started.

With money tight this year, we made a lot of gifts and, quite surprisingly, found that despite the work involved, we really enjoyed it. It helped us regain some of the true spirit of Christmas that we sometimes misplace when it’s all about shopping. Sure, most of what we’ll be giving the grandkids is “retail”, but much of what we’re giving the adults in our family are things we made ourselves. Dawn especially outdid herself this year, making several gifts that reminded me how truly amazing and talented she really is. She worked hard on them but was proud of what she’d accomplished when she finally finished.

We’ll be having our Christmas Eve dinner and family tree at Steve and Lori’s home again this year and we’re really looking forward to spending the evening surrounded by the kids and grandkids. Our family gets together with some regularity and it’s always fun, but Christmas is our favorite time to be with those we love.

It’s like Linus says: “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

Maria, a friend and neighbor of daughter Shannon, does an amazing job every year decorating her yard for Christmas. I photographed it last year because my youngest grandson, Connor, was one of her featured “angels.” You see, the central theme of Maria’s decorating, and the thing that makes it unlike any Christmas decorating you’ve ever seen, is angels and other holiday figures she’s constructed and to which she’s affixed photographic faces of neighborhood children . It’s amazing, beautiful and quite unique!

Shannon and I contacted KOVR’s Dave Bender last year to get Maria’s yard featured on his annual “Twelve days of Christmas” feature where he broadcasts the weather from beautifully decorated houses and neighborhoods over a twelve night period leading up to Christmas. Dave’s schedule last year was full, but he promised to include her this year and Wednesday was the night. I wasn’t able to be there, but I hope to photograph the display sometime during the next week and will post new photos then.

Meanwhile, to get an idea of what Maria does, flip through the 2006 album. She’s truly an amazing artist!

The Thanksgiving Day Run to Feed the Hungry is Sacramento’s largest “fun run” and a major fund raiser for the Sacramento Food Bank. Now in its 14th year, the event this year drew more then 21,000 participants who either ran the marked 10K (6.2M) course or walked/ran a 5K course through the streets of East Sacramento, raising more than $500,000 in pledges.

My 14-year-old grandson, Dakota, ran the 10K for the first time this year and finished 14th in his age group and 404th overall! He posted a very respectable chip time of 47:49.6 (48:21.0 gun time) and a pace of 7:43/M! Good job ‘Kota!

I think he plans to make it an annual event. And I don’t need to tell you how proud we all are of him. If I can drop some weight, I may train for next year’s run myself. I’ll be 65 then and who knows, maybe there’s one more 10K in these old knees of mine…

I’ve posted links to video of the entire race (in several clips) and overall race results. A new 10K race record was set this year by Alene Reta of New York City who posted a chip time of 28:37.4. Wow!

Congratulations and thank you to all the participants who dedicated part of their Thanksgiving holiday for this very worthy cause.