This year, I’ve wanted to make it memorable. I’ve been buying gifts here and there since summer; the children have lots of great gifts, and I’ve probably spent a little too much. I’ve been trying to think of new traditions and events we can have. I’ve badgered my parents and sisters into driving here and spending Christmas with us.

But something has still been a little bit off.

It came to me on the bus what that might be. I’ve been listening to a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a prominent Lutheran theologian. His strenuous denouncement of Hitler’s Nazi regime led to his execution after 2 years of imprisonment by the Gestapo. Sadly, the order came just days before the fall of Berlin.

While he was in prison, he wrote the following in a letter to his fiancé:

I used to be very fond of thinking up and buying presents, but now that we have nothing to give, the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ will seem all the more glorious; the emptier our hands, the better we understand what Luther meant by his dying words: “We’re beggars; it’s true.”

Of course this resonated with me, as a Latter-day Saint, who grew up with the words of King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon:

For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

This also brought to mind the oft-quoted words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself.

Then I happened on an interesting article about the psychology of gift-giving. The researchers concluded that gift givers buy extravagant gifts more because it satisfies their ego than because the receiver will be pleased, and they have some interesting results bearing this out. How much of my gift buying was an effort to show the children what a good dad I am? How much to show off how good I am at finding creative toys that the children will really love? It’s a good thing Santa takes on so much of the gift giving so parents can stay humble.

So Christmas isn’t in the presents, as we all realize. In fact, having too much can be an obstacle to understanding and embracing the gospel fully. St. Augustine, discussing the conditions of the Christian community after the sack of Rome, was answering the question of why God allowed Christians as well as pagans to suffer the same horrors and losses. Ancillary to that discussion was this commentary on how the early believers were taught by this loss:

But as to those feebler spirits who, though they cannot be said to prefer earthly possessions to Christ, do yet cleave to them with a somewhat immoderate attachment, they have discovered by the pain of losing these things how much they were sinning in loving them.

I think most of us, like the Christians in Rome in 410 BC, don’t prefer our possessions to our Savior. But I think it’s very easy to deprive ourselves, in the midst of all the gifts and activities, of the opportunity to share in the wonder and joy of our Savior’s birth. We really have nothing, and our lives are the briefest flicker of a moment. All our prosperity could go the way of Job in mere moments. If it did, would I still love Christmas as much?

Now, the kids are excited about their presents. And I am not saying that’s sinful at all. It’s wonderful to be able to give them toys they’ll enjoy. It makes me smile thinking about how they’ll react to the gifts they’ll open. It’s a great blessing to be able to be generous and not worry about uprooting for a little while. But better than the toys will be time playing with them, reading to them, and celebrating with them.

But I often yearn for that seemingly unattainable Christmas moment, that epiphany, that real gift of the good news. I hope that by taking time to study, ponder, and write what I think I’ll be able to become more acquainted with my Savior and share in the wonder of the Nativity. I want to give more as He gave. It seems like the closer we get to knowing Jesus the greater our gratitude is. That may be the very key to proper giving at Christmas.

So I’ll share my favorite holiday gratitude song. Merry Christmas everyone, and may you all be blessed!

Isaac read a LOT, and had come out to tell Kathleen all about the book:

Charlotte was asleep. Often she’s awake with her cat or just thinking, but sometimes she falls asleep quickly. Usually her bed is a mess; I fixed her blankets for her so she’d be warm.

Nicole almost always falls asleep looking at books. This is a huge Curious George book from the library.

Ila is often in a very silly mood when she ought to be asleep.

She also likes to climb up on her toy and as soon as she does she says “get down, Ila” until I tell her to get down.  Then she smiles real big and sits down.

We watched a couple of heats of the hydroplanes first, which was a lot of fun. My camera was acting up a little, but I did get a few videos:

Here’s Isaac with his binoculars trying to get a better look at the hydroplanes:

The air show came next, with a few really neat demonstrations. Air shows present some unique photography challenges, and my little camera wasn’t up to capturing a lot of good images, but I did snap a few shots. Things I didn’t get good shots of were a visit from a P-51 Mustang and a Spitfire. I couldn’t have captured the really great sound of those Merlin engines anyway. The did several low passes for us.

After the WWII planes, we had a demonstration by Vietnam-era choppers, a Cobra and a Huey. They did several maneuvers showing us tactics that were used in Vietnam. The Huey would go in first, low and fast, snaking back and forth, scaring up ground fire, while the Cobra would arc up high and take out any VCs who were shooting. Great demonstration, and some really low flying.

The Coast Guard did a nice demo, where a rescue swimmer jumped into the water and was then picked up. My picture is terrible, but you may be able to click through and see them hoisting him back in.

Next up was a demo from an AV-8B Harrier, which was really cool. It was also very loud, as loud as all the Blue Angels together. Isaac kept his ears covered. Here’s a video I took of its departure:

After this, they had a routine by a stunt pilot named Sean D. Tucker, in a little custom built plane for the Oracle team. Holy carp. I have seen some ridiculous things, but he was bonkers. He was doing prop stalls, strange high-angle ultra-slow passes, outside loops (-6g!), and a really silly series of front flips where he literally just whipped the tail around over the cockpit. Ridiculous. Amazing. My video stinks, so here’s a better shot of his routine if you’re interested:

Isaac LOVED this, and I thought it was amazing too.

We had a demo from the C-130 attached to the Blue Angels, Fat Albert. Here’s a video of their big climb-out:

They used to use RATO for this, but from what I hear they’re running low on those; not as much need for them these days.

Finally, we had the Blue Angels. I’d seen the Thunderbirds before at Hill AFB in Ogden, but this was my first time seeing the Blue Angels. We’d been watching them and hearing them fly around the city all week, so Isaac and I were ready. It was a great setting; they zipped all over the lake and over Mercer Island for their routine. Isaac was getting a little worn out by the time they were flying, so he wasn’t as excited as I expected, but he still enjoyed it. I was able to get one fairly decent shot of them in formation:

Once they were done, we headed back to a long, hot line for the shuttle, and then the train home.

There’s one picture I kept even though it didn’t turn out, and even though I’m looking a little scruffy. The reason I kept it was because Isaac took it. He’s getting more independent, and I sent him out with my camera to take pictures. Most of them were of the camera strap, or the ground, but he got everything but the focus right here.

It was a busy week, but a lot of great fun with Isaac.

On Thursday, Isaac came to work with me. After I got through my morning meetings, we hopped on a bus and headed down to the pier to get a tour of the USS Bonhomme Richard, LHD-6. This is named after John Paul Jones’ famous ship, which itself was named to honor Benjamin Franklin.

First I should probably explain what an LHD is, for those who don’t know. An LHD looks a lot like an aircraft carrier, and it is in a sense. In fact, it displaces nearly twice as much water as HMS Invincible, the lead British aircraft carrier, and nearly as much as the largest carrier outside the US, the French Charles de Gaulle. The big distinction is the role.

LHD is “Landing Helicopter Dock”, which is descriptive. The mission is to land and support as many as 1800 Marines and their equipment. To get them to shore, an LHD can utilize aircraft from the flight deck and hovercraft from the well deck, and it can pack a pretty serious punch with its strike aircraft as well.

Our tour started with a walk up the gangway, where we entered the ship through one of the large openings on the hangar deck.

This image may give you some idea of the scale; we’re standing about in the middle here.

They had an MH-60 Black Hawk here, but most of the aircraft were back in San Diego. Here’s Isaac with the MH-60:

From the hangar deck, we descended a long, wide ramp to the well deck. Here the Marines had brought a couple of HMMWVs, an LAV, and a big military truck. They were letting the kids climb all over and inside them. Here’s Isaac in a Humvee:

They also had a couple of LCACs, which are large military hovercraft. These can take LAVs, HMMWVs, or even an Abrams tank ashore on all sorts of beaches and at nearly 50 miles per hour. The well deck can accommodate three of these, though they only had two when we visited:

After a tour of the well deck and some conversations with the Marines and sailors there, we went back up the ramp to the hangar deck, and then up another large ramp to the flight deck. Our first stop was a brand new (about a week old) AH-1Z Viper. This looks like the AH-1W SuperCobra, but features some significant upgrades, including a 4-blade composite rotor, a new targeting system, and just better performance overall. Here’s a picture of Isaac and some other kids getting some questions answered by the Marine Lieutenant who flies it.

After this, we moved on to a nearly-new MV-22 Osprey:

This is a really neat aircraft; it’s got excellent speed and range when the rotors tilt forward, but it takes off like a helicopter so it meets many of the needs of the Marines. Here’s Isaac trying it out:

I had lots of questions for the flight engineer, about auto-rotation, range, noise, gun placement, and so forth. I am a nerd for this stuff. It really did still smell new.

From here, we went on to one of my favorites, the CH-53 Sea Stallion:

This thing is a beast. It’s the largest chopper in military service these days. I had a nice chat with the pilot while Isaac was trying out the controls.

The pilot told me about another little kid; he’d showed the kid a button, and said DO NOT PUSH THIS, it will make the chopper fly away! Then he pretended not to be looking, and saw the kid pushing the button. Isaac thought the Sea Knight was pretty great, so we bought a nice picture of it from the crew (proceeds go to fund their unit’s annual ball) to hang on his wall.

I didn’t know if I’d mention this or not, but I’ve decided I will. As we were touring, I kept thinking of all the WWII footage I’ve watched of ships like this in harm’s way. I thought about these young sailors and Marines going to war for us, and I worried about how precarious things seem in the world today. I’m very thankful we have these volunteers, who understand the risks and responsibilities they’ve chosen, but who are willing in spite of it to fight and die for us. I tried to explain some of that to Isaac on the bus ride home.

Anyway, a great tour, and a fun day downtown with Isaac. He wore his Crocs, so he had a couple of blisters by the time we were back at the office. I left him there to rest his feet and ran out to get him a sandwich. The kid eats like a Marine, I’ll give him that; he ate a big old sandwich and nearly all my chips.

Text:  He is as handsome as a cupcake.  He is as strong as a wall.  He can lift 11 lbs and is super tall.  His favorite food is spicy food.  His favorite activity is video games.  In the good ole days when Daddy was little, he used to ride the Ferris wheel.  I think my Daddy looks funny when he is in the game Terraria, but I know he is really mad when he (he signs in it?).  I wish my Daddy would ride the monorail with me everyday.  I would not trade my Daddy for anything.

I was curious to see how Charlotte would fill in the same blanks.  Here is what she came up with:Text:  He is as handsome as a banana!  Just teasing, bananas aren’t actually handsome.  He is as handsome as Isaac.  He is as strong as another Dad the same size as him.  He can lift a whole couch and is as tall as another Dad.  His favorite food is hummus.  When Dad was little he used to play fun games that he likes to play.  I think my Daddy looks funny when he is wearing silly costumes, but I know he is really mad when he sees me do something bad, like when I steal his candy.  I wish my Daddy would play hide and seek with me outside everyday.  I would not trade my Daddy for a different Dad. (she drew our cats at the end)

The other side of Isaac’s paper was this: I won’t type it all out, but you should be able to read it if you remember videw = video.

Charlotte’s version: Charlotte’s Father’s day card for her Dad:

This is the front and back covers.  The front is a picture of her cat, Jill Pole.  The back has a picture of Charlotte saying “it’s almost Father’s Day!” On the inside she drew a picture of me saying “I am so excited to make presents for Dad for Father’s Day”  and she drew a picture of her Dad saying “I’m so excited for Father’s Day!”

He was also allowed to bring in a favorite snack to share.  He wanted to bring in corndogs and chips, but I didn’t want to provide all that for 25 kids so we made sugar cookies in the shapes of things Isaac likes and frosted them in his favorite colors.  After we made them, I thought it would have been even neater if we made them in the shape of little gears.On Thursday, Charlotte and I went to Isaac’s class just before lunch for his VIP presentation (many thanks to Jess for watching the other girls).  He demonstrated how to build a snap circuit and showed the class how it worked.  He seemed flustered and nervous.  He stumbled over his words a little, but he was happy to show off his things.
He showed them his posters and talked about them: After the presentation, the kids got a chance to ask questions or give compliments, Isaac called on students with their hands up.  Then he got to pick 4 kids to join us for lunch at a table in the back of the room.
After we ate, Charlotte and I stayed for recess.  Isaac was very excited to show Charlotte all the things he liked to do on the playground.

Charlotte had a blast.  She ran from one set of equipment to another and attracted a small group of followers (a few girls that followed her around and tried to help her). I also learned that I was not allowed to take pictures on the playground because I didn’t have permission from the other kid’s parents.

my favorites:
color:  blue and green
place:  a french fry store with a play place
toy:  Legos
book:  The Polar Express
tv show:  Tangled
sport:  football
food:  mac n’ cheese and corn, potato, and bacon soup

(Lately he has been telling me that everything I cook is his favorite food.  He’s a great kid to have at meal time because he raves over every meal and tells me that I’m such a good cook and he loves everything I make.)

One question asked him to list 3 wishes.  He insisted that he didn’t wish for anything and when I pressed him he said;  “I’m not the kind of kid that has wishes.”  I asked him if he wished that he had more Lego sets and he said yes.  Here are the wishes he came up with:

1.  I wish I had all the Legos for Lego city
2.  I wish we had a train set that ran through the walls
3.  I wish my friend Ryan lived next door

(I cheated a little on this list because he couldn’t think of anything and then when I suggested Leogs, he wanted two wishes about Legos and to leave the third one blank.  So I suggested several things and he told me which things he wished).

The last question was about what he wanted to be when he grew up.  He said that he wanted to design buildings that people would build so I wrote “architect” on the poster. 

Over the weekend, Zach made Isaac frozen burritos.  Isaac raved about how wonderful they tasted and said he thought his Dad should open up a restaurant to make and sell burritos.  On Monday morning, just before he went to school, Isaac asked me to cross out “architect” and write “make burritos”.  He was insistent, so I added "or burrito engineer" to his poster.  When I mentioned this exchange over dinner, Isaac explained he that that he could do both.  Some days he would be an architect and other days he would make burritos.

For a little while Nicole was climbing into Charlotte’s bed each night. Both girls would giggle and hug.  They loved sharing the bed, but they kept each other up and Nicole fell out of the bed once and another time she woke up and started kicking Charlotte in the middle of the night.  Nicole was very unhappy when we wouldn’t allow her to sleep in Charlotte’s bed anymore.  One night  after I had seen Nicole asleep in her own bed , I found her in Charlotte’s bed the next morning.

Text (including random capitalization and punctuation errors):  Dear Grandma Bunny,

are you having a good Day!  It’s your BIRTHDAY!  Banana.  HAHA I made you read banana!  I mIss you

Love Isaac

Charlotte: I always love Charlotte’s cards because they’re unique and random, but usually include a box of bananas.

The following were taken on March 22, 2011 at Portrait Innovations:

This one was part of a “decorator.”

Listen for the following words:  unbuckle, no, walk, have a good day, and thank you.  She prefers to say “have a good day” over “good-bye” as you may notice at the end.

Here she is saying “Peek-a-boo”  I love that she says all three syllables:

Here she says “apple.”  Apples have become one of her favorite and she requests them everyday.

Here she is calling for Isaac:

Her vocabulary includes:  Charlotte, banana, bubble (when she wants a bath), stinky bottom (she has said these words together as I change her diaper), Mommy, kitty, meow (sounds like mnow), more, Daddy (Daddy always gives her a big kiss so she now says Daddy then makes kissy lips), hi, hello, oh no, uh oh, cracker, and my all time favorite is her “I love you” which she says as she gives me a hug and kiss.

Ila enjoyed looking around too:

Ila was particularly intrigued by this little music box with a bird in it:

Isaac thought that it was neat that you could walk around in a circle in the house.  I took this little video of him showing how you could start in one room and walk around and end up in the same room through a different door: