A Sara Smorgasborg....

1st topic: Christmas. There's just not a good way of sharing all the pictures from our Christmas. So, I hope a collage works! We had fun riding plasma cars, decorating and eating gingerbread men, putting cookies out for Santa, baking with Gram, (adults) playing with (the boys') new toys, driving the train around Na & Papaw's Christmas tree, finding out there's a winery in California named Tobin James (our boy's name is spelled with an "e" instead of an "i" ... but what a neat coincidence!), and we also found a good bit of time to rest. (click on the picture to enlarge)

2nd topic: College football. (coming from me? yes, it's weird, I know...what do I know about football?) It was interesting reading all of the banter on facebook yesterday, and especially this morning, regarding the national championship game between Texas and Alabama last night. The Aggies are the team I root for, not the Longhorns, but all the same I was hoping a good game would be played. And a good game it was! I felt genuinely bad for Colt McCoy getting hurt in the very early minutes of the game -- his senior year, in the nat'l championship game -- but did anyone see or read what he said after the game? He's a stand-up guy. He played an active part in the game, even from the sidelines, and gave all glory to God for any and all happenings.

Part of me wanted to see the t-sips win last night so that a team in the Big XII would have the National Championship, but never did I root against either of the teams. They've worked hard to get where they are, and regardless of the fact that I graduated from A&M -- which happens to be the "rival" school to UT -- I feel that sportsmanship should always be foremost. So, to see some fellow Aggies actually bashing UT (not the friendly "I'm just playing" kind) and rejoicing when McCoy was out of the game just flat made me sad. It's one thing to cheer on your team, but to tear down another's team just for the sake of rivalry -- especially when one's own team isn't even involved -- is a different issue altogether. No, A&M isn't exactly a football powerhouse at this time, but should that time come I would hope that some 'horns out there would back us even if the game wasn't going our way.

I guess I got a tad riled about all of this because the area we live in seems to eat, sleep, and breathe football. We have two of the top eight high school football teams in Texas in our school district -- Katy and Cinco Ranch -- and when Katy recently lost the state game, many Cinco kids and parents were happy! Something was so wrong with that picture. Yes, Cinco lost in the state semifinals, one game away from playing for the state crown, and they had a record-breaking season. (side note: both Ryan and I graduated from Katy, and I taught at Cinco) However, why does that enable them to root against Katy, when they wouldn't have been playing each other for the state title anyhow due to UIL districting (Cinco was in Division 1 and Katy was in Div 2)? I fully understand being sad that they weren't able to play for the title themselves...but still. Grr.

We are in a very competitive world - nation - state - city, and I hope that Ryan and I will be able to raise our boys to be encouragers ... even though some friendly rivalry and competition can be good, nothing beneficial can come from continuously tearing down others for the sake of justifying yourself.

{stepping off the soapbox now...}

Can you tell the boys are taking a good nap today?

My football rant aside, we have enjoyed our cold weather snap around here. We don't even have it that bad -- my weatherbug on the computer says it's 28 degrees right now -- but folks around here sure take things to extremes when the temps dip below freezing. It's nice to hole up in the house and watch movies in order to avoid the news! Ha! I'm about to fix some hot cocoa, and I think Caleb might have his first cup ever.

And on that note, plus since this is a really odd post for this ol' blog of mine, I'll check ya later!