I hope you are all having a great Christmas.  Enjoy the time with family, enjoy good food, enjoy giving and receiving, and of course, enjoy time off work!  And celebrate the thrill of hope as the weary world rejoices the birth of Christ!

My favorite pictures from Christmas 2006.  On the left is my dad, my brother (Ben), and my sweet girl. The only way this would have been more perfect picture is if Miles had been in it too. So, on the right is my other favorite picture from Christmas 2006, my sweet girl and the love of my life.

Here are pictures of Halleigh Jane at Christmas 2006 and Christmas 2007. Same sweet girl, but she sure has changed! 

We were sitting on a plane, on the tarmac waiting to take off, on our way to Utah to have Christmas with my family, and Halleigh laughed for the first time... it was the best gift anyone gave me that year! 

This is a picture of Halleigh during that first airplane ride.

Most of our reader will be getting one of these, but for those of you who either I don't know your address, or I don't know you... here is our Christmas Card.  This is a picture of the outside of it.  To read the letter click continue reading. Merry Christmas!

About the pictures (from top left going clockwise): Halleigh at Bear Lake, UT (August 2007), Travis Family Christmas picture (December 2007), Halleigh at the Durham, NC Christmas Parade (December 2007), Miles and Halleigh at the Outerbanks, NC (June 2007), Brooklynne and Halleigh at Bodie Island Lighthouse (June 2007), Travis family at Halleigh's 1st birthday party (September 2007).

Miles and his friend Matt have a great proposal for all you out there that are looking for a great cause.  Check it out by clicking here. 

I just got a call from my brother, and he passed his SEAL test. So after Great Lakes Navy basic training, he is off to Coronado, CA for SEAL basic training.

So the test is a combination of swimming 500 meters in 12 min 30 sec doing side-stroke or breast-stoke ONLY with a 10 min break, then at least 42 push-up in 2 minutes, then you get another 2 min break, then you have to do 50 sit-ups (real sit-ups, arms crossed over chest all the way down all the way up, feet on the ground) in 2 minutes, and then a 2 minute break, then at least 6 pullups in a row, and then a 10 minute break and then you have to run a mile and a half in less than 11 minutes. 

Ben swam in 12 minutes 15 seconds, did 52 push-ups, 50 sit-ups, 10 pull-ups, and he ran in 10 minutes 20 seconds. AMAZING!!!

I am so proud of him!

All of those who know me well know of my obsession with Laura Bush (I hope this doesn't send secret service to my door).

I think she is great. She is the picture of hospitality, kindness, and femininity.  Hillary Clinton was the first, first lady to have an office in the West Wing, and when it came time for Laura to take over, she filled it with children's books. She was a librarian by trade with a heart for children and she has reached out to children throughout her husband's time in office. She brought gentility and a soft side that had been lacking in the White house during the two previous terms. She brought back the meaning of first lady. No matter how much I disagree with her husband, he did a great job picking a wife. She has been faithful, respectful and supportive of him during some of the toughest times, especially during his presidency.

Anyway, another thing that I really like about Laura is that she likes dogs. The Bush's have two dogs, Barney and Mrs. Beazley.  They are both little black Scottie dogs... SUPER CUTE! So every Christmas they have a Christmas video as something fun to highlight the first dogs and to showcase the holiday decorations at the White House. (I know, I know great use of tax dollars... but it really is cute!) This year the video is entitled, Barney Cam VI: Holiday in the National Parks. click here to watch. Enjoy! (It takes a little while to load, but it is worth the wait!) 

As the video shows, the White House's theme this year is the National Parks, they decorated with handpainted ornaments depicting the different National Parks, for pictures of the ornaments, click here

O Holy Night is my favorite Christmas carol. It bring tears to my eyes if I really think about the words. It is amazing and beautiful. I wanted to know more about it, so I went to trusty Wikipedia, and here is what I learned.

O Holy Night ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" by Placide Cappeau (1808-1877), an accomplished amateur. Cappeau was asked to write a Christmas poem by a parish priest. It has become a standard modern carol for solo performance with an operatic finish.

In the carol, the singer recalls the birth of Jesus. It was translated into English by Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Music in 1855 (note the abolitionist reference in the third verse: "for the slave is our brother"), and lyrics also exist in other languages.

On 24 December 1906, Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor, broadcast the first AM radio program, which included him playing "O Holy Night" on the violin. The carol therefore appears to have been the first piece of music to be broadcast on radio.

I have added the lyrics to O Holy Night and the English translation of the poem, Minuit, chrétiens in the extended entry.  So if you would like to read the lyrics or the poem, click continue reading.  I think that it is really interesting to note that the English version of O Holy Night is not a direct translation of the French poem.

I stole this from Cory's Uncle Moustache site. I love this song.  It's so nostalgic... so Christmas in elementary school. Enjoy!

I love REAL SIMPLE.  I had a subscription for a couple of years, but the last year I haven't gotten it and I miss it.  Miles gets Sports Illustrated and I get Time Magazine. I thought that I would really enjoy that, but I have decided that I would rather have Real Simple. I was at the checkout stand a couple of days ago and the December issue of REAL SIMPLE was calling out to me… I had to buy it. And I have been oh so savoring my time reading the issue, feeling like I am rationing out the pages, in order for it to last as long as possible. ha ha ha I know, I am obsessed.

Miles laughs at my love of REAL SIMPLE, since one of my explanations as to why I love it was that, "it tells you how to do great things like getting rid of stains and other cool stuff."  I think that, contrary to recent post on both our blogs, REAL SIMPLE has more information that directly pertains to my life.

So, I tore out the subscription page and as soon as my Time Magazine subscription is up, I am sending it in. It will be a sweet reunion.

Today Miles and I were watching the rerun of Wednesday's CNN/YouTube Republican debate.  It was really interesting and I learned a lot about the candidates.  But the most incredible answer came when Ron Paul was asked if he were to become president what three federal programs he would reduce in size in order to cut spending... you know what his first "agency" was?!?!? The Department of Education. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? What an idiot!  Maybe you and No Child Left Behind loving Hillary can hook-up on a bipartisan ticket... YOU BOTH ARE CRAZY! (Slightly to his defense, I would guess that he would want to cut federal spending and increase state spending; but even then, A LOT of the states' money come from federal subsidies).

I think I am going to have to add Ron Paul to my list of "if they become president I am moving to Canada" list... currently it just contains Hillary.  ha ha ha

All ridiculousness aside, my favorite answer came from Giuliani when he was asked why he believes that citizens should pass a written exam to own a gun.  His answer was...

We have to be very aggressive in how we enforce gun laws that exist.  I had a city in which when I took over there were 2,000 murders a year, 10,000 felonies a week, and I enforced the gun laws very aggressively. I enforced all laws very aggressively. And that is why we reduced shootings by 74%, we reduced homicide by 67% and we went from being one of the most dangerous cities in the country to being one of the safest. As far as that is concerned what I believe is the second amendment gives individuals the right to keep and bear arms; government can impose reasonable regulations.  Generally, those reasonable regulations would be about criminal background and a background of mental instability; basically the ones that are outlines in the opinion of Judge Silberman.  If those regulations go beyond that then those are unconstitutional.  I think states can have a little bit of leeway, New York can have somewhat stricter rules than let’s say Kentucky; Texas might have different rules than Ohio, but generally you have got to comply with this rule. Now the Supreme Court is going to decide this probably within the next six months.  The Parker case (Parker vs. District of Columbia) has been taken to the Supreme Court and they are going to decide whether it’s a right that pertains to the militia, which I don’t believe that it is, or is it a right that is a personal right, I believe that it is and I will live by that and people will be allowed to have guns and I am not going to interfere with that.  Generally, decisions are going to be made on a state basis and they are going to have to comply with the constitution.

 I loved it; it doesn't mean that I will be voting for him, but still, it was a good answer. I don't really agree with the 2nd Amendment/ Gun Control issue, I think that the second amendment doesn't pertain directly to our societal situation, but none-the-less, until it is amended; a good Republican answer was expressed by Giuliani.  He put the responsibility in the states hands to regulate themselves. And that really is where most of the power should be (this is my Republican roots coming out). Giuliani is right, things are different in Texas and Ohio, Montana and Virginia, etc.. I don't care if we are taking gun control, education, etc. states should have the majority of the power to govern themselves. Thank you Giuliani for saying it; for standing up for your party, staying red and not trying to appear purple! (Although I would call myself more moderate, therefore more purple than red).