My quest of exterior illumination began the second I swallowed that last bite of turkey. Heck, I was nearly on top of our roof as the mashed potatoes and gravy were sliding down my gullet. OK - I'm exagerating, but you get the point. Before the meal I prayed to God and thanked him for his goodness and salvation. After the meal, as I was on the roof, I prayed that I wouldn't fall and break my femur. God is faithful, and my femur is still in one piece.

Follow up:

No house in our neighborhood had Christmas lights up before we did, except the folks that just leave the lights up from last year. Yep, we gots a few rednecks 'round here. Now that God has blessed us with home ownership we have lights up. They're on the front of the house, and they go around the backyard fence. Probably nothing spectacular to anyone but us, but hey, Braden absolutely loves seeing Christmas lights and decorations around the house, inside and out. Planted in the middle of our front lawn are tall red letters proclaiming J-e-s-u-s. Little lights and metalic silver garland accent the letters and the flood light makes sure cars driving by can't miss it.

Last year Braden was sorta into Christmas. He'd open up the first gift, fall in love with it, and forget about the other boxes. This year he seems to be more involved than ever. He knows something is going on and he likes it. As birthdays and Christmas's have passed he has gotten more and more into opening gifts too. And I think we got his number this year. As much as I'm anti-gaming, (In my opinion video games produce couch potatoes and unmotivated kids) we bought him a Leapfrog Didj. The Didj is a little handheld gaming unit. But, unlike the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS, the Didj is primarily educational. That's the goal of their games. The PSP and DS are primarily for entertainment.

Braden's cousins have the Nintendo DS and Braden has shown quite an interest in the little time-wasters. So we caved and bought him the Didj. He's gonna love it! But it's also a gift to us. There are few toys that Braden can play with on his own, thus giving his parents some valuable time off from watching his every move. We're hoping the Didj is one of those toys.