Finally, huh?! Well, we’ve been really busy, plus I wanted Mom and Di to get their hard copies in the mail before I blessed the rest of you with these beauties. 🙂

Max
and Sam fishing in the local pond (no fish were harmed in the process). On
our hike to the Natural Bridge Fun
with Uncle Rob Thanksgiving
family shot Mom
and Don All
the pretty girls! Happy
to eat some turkey soon
Riding a mini-train at the Christmas festival in 17 degree weather

The below was originally posted by Mary
Katharine Ham at Hugh Hewitt’s
Blog on 6 December 2005, with the most excellent title of ‘And, Lo, the Network
Execs Were Sore Afraid’. I don’t know if it is any copyright violation to re-post
the whole article, but it is so good and so timely that I’ll post it anyway. The
original post can be found at Hugh Hewitt’s blog.

And, Lo,
the Network Execs Were Sore Afraid There is no time in my life that I don’t
remember “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” It’s always been there, every year. I first
watched it sitting on my dad’s lap, back when my two brothers and I were small enough
to all fit in one La-Z-Boy with him– one kid in the nook beside each armrest and
one kid in the middle. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” turns 40 this year. It airs tonight
on ABC. It’s been around so long, I’ve never bothered to think about what made it
a classic– what differentiates it from a thousand other tales of animated giving
and golden rules and striped-y stockings with silver bell soundtracks. But in 1965, execs
thought the show was “defiantly different.”

When CBS bigwigs saw
a rough cut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in November 1965, they hated it. “They said
it was slow,” executive producer Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. There were
concerns that the show was almost defiantly different: There was no laugh track, real
children provided the voices, and there was a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince
Guaraldi. Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez fretted about the insistence by Peanuts
creator Charles Schulz that his first-ever TV spinoff end with a reading of the Christmas
story from the Gospel of Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus. “We told Schulz,
‘Look, you can’t read from the Bible on network television,’ ” Mendelson says. “When
we finished the show and watched it, Melendez and I looked at each other and I said,
‘We’ve ruined Charlie Brown.’ ” Good grief, were they wrong. The first broadcast was
watched by almost 50% of the nation’s viewers. “When I started reading the reviews,
I was absolutely shocked,” says Melendez, 89. “They actually liked it!”

Thank
goodness Shulz made it in 1965. That baby would be a Veggie Tales straight-to-video
these days. With all due respect to Bob
the Tomato, I prefer the Gospel of Luke coming from Linus. But it turns out that
what scared execs about Charlie’s low-key, surprisingly soulful Christmas is exactly
what made it beloved:

Parents like Molly Kremidas, 39, who grew up adoring
A Charlie Brown Christmas, watch it with their kids. “It’s the values in the story,”
says Kremidas, of Winston-Salem, N.C. She’ll watch tonight with daughter Sofia, 6.
“Would there be any programs for children on today that could get away with talking
about the real meaning of Christmas? I don’t think so.” Parents say the combination
of humor and bedrock values is what draws them and their children to the show. “It
does provide a balance, but it’s a balance that we as a society have forgotten about,”
says Patrick Lemp, 43, of West Hartford, Conn. He’ll watch tonight with son Brendan,
13. “This is one of the last shows that actually comes out and talks about the meaning
of Christmas. As a society, we’re taking religion out of a lot of the trappings of
the holiday. This one is different.”

The ‘War on Christmas’ has been
a big buzz phrase this year, and I’m not going to harp on it a lot. But it makes us
look rather silly to walk around Christmas shopping, taking Christmas vacations, wrapping
Christmas presents for under the Christmas tree and pretending that this winter “holiday”
is about nothing when everyone knows what it’s about. Yes, not everyone celebrates
Christmas and it doesn’t mean the exact same thing to everyone who celebrates it.
We should be mindful of that with our friends and family– that’s just plain good
manners. But removing the word “Christ” from the holiday is kind of like spelling
out cuss words in front of your teenager. You’re not fooling anyone and there ain’t
a whole lot of harm in just saying it. Linus wasn’t offending anyone. He was just
being honest when he read, “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, and goodwill toward men. And that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
(Luke
2: 13-14) Shulz created a special for a holiday that commemorates the birth of
Jesus and in that special, he told the story of the birth of Jesus. Makes sense to
me. But these days, it takes the Peanuts kids to act like adults about it. Perhaps Linus
has a security blanket he could lend the rest of us. Judging from the tremendous
success of Charlie Brown’s honest Christmas story, network execs would be wise to
heed another
verse from Luke:

Fear not: for, behold, I bring
you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

“A
Charlie Brown Christmas“

Well whew! once we got out of Dallas and got to Lexington, things started to get much better. It took all of 2 seconds for Max and Samantha (his 6 year old niece) to become 2 peas in a pod. They played so well together that I don’t think we had to intervene at all! None of that “Don’t bug her, don’t hit him” or anything – it was really flawless. The weather was pretty darn cold – so I’m glad I packed all the scarves and hats, etc. We used it all.

Some highlights included:

-Our day trip to the Natural Bridge about 1 1/4 away. Max, Sam, Rob, Matt and I went to this resort (not especially fancy) where we had lunch before our hike. Matt tried a KY specialty – the ‘Hot Brown’ – a meat filled sandwich with meat in it (and more meat), served in a bowl totally smothered with cheese. Really good for the heart – you know? Then we went on this great hike up to the Natural Bridge – it was cold but clear and really fun. The kids loved the adventure of it.

-Matt and I got to have a date-night where we ate at a local Applebees (which is what Rob does – he is the big boss over many of these in KY) and got to see the Harry Potter movie. Crazy – in the absolute climax of the movie -the projector broke 3 times. I thought there was going to be a riot in that totally full theatre! But – it got fixed and we saw the rest – really good flick.

-Thanksgiving Day – My mom and Don joined us at Di and Rob’s house – it was really so fun. For the big meal several of their local friends came to – it was a full house. I played Activity Director and led the ‘what are you thankful for’ rounds and then we did some Thanksgiving Trivia that I got from the internet.

-Kentucky Lights – We ventured out into like 17 degree weather for a drive-through light show situated in a horse racing property. They also had a petting zoo, miniature train museum, little train rides. The kids just loved it! Did I mention that it was coooooooooollllllllddd? We were doing ok when Lucy just burst into tears – she had no good coat (only layers) and no mittens (dumb Mommy forgot them) and she was fed up! We warmed her up in the car and all was well.

-Just hanging around the house – Di and Rob have a really lovely and large home. It fit us all quite well – with space for the kids to play. Bounce house in the basement included! Better than Chuck E Cheese – cuz you could stay in your pajamas.

What a blessing our family is to us; it was a very memorable time. We’ll put pictures up soon. 🙂

From Toby’s previous
post, you know that we were in Dallas for an overnight. Toby did not have any
of her sleeping accessories for that night. I didn’t have any chance of getting a white noise machine but I felt confident I could find some ear plugs. Toby had already been to the Qwik-E-Mart at the Shell gas station, and they didn’t have any ear plugs.
Since we were in an area with so many hotels, I thought that it wouldn’t be any problem to get them at a gift shop (our hotel didn’t have any). I took Max with me to walk to another hotel. It was about 9 pm local time, but 7pm body time. We walked to the closest hotel, and they didn’t have any either. The next hotel we walked to had just sold the last pair. I didn’t want to be out all night, so I thought I would go to the most likely place to have them. There was a big Marriott hotel looming over all the rest.
The Marriott was farther than the others, it appeared to me to be about a quarter mile away. But I could walk that, no problem. Max and I started off. We cut through the parking lot of one hotel, and then across a field to get to the road that led to the Marriott. We stepped over a little cable fence and were walking on the shoulder of the road. It was much farther than a quarter mile. As we were walking alongside the road, I wondered why there was no side walk. But it was Texas. Maybe they don’t have sidewalks.
Also, cars would pass us at very high speeds. I decided that Max and I would walk in the dirt next to the blacktop. Max quickly got tired of walking, and so I hoisted him on my shoulders. Cars were passing us at much too high of speeds, and when I saw the big green sign over the street, I realized I wasn’t on a street, I was on the shoulder of the freeway! But the Marriott was just a little further…
It took about 35 minutes of speed walking to get to the Marriott. We came up on the back side of the hotel, and almost immediately a security guard came up and shined his flashlight in my eyes. He said that we couldn’t use the back entrance to the hotel and I would need to go around the hotel to main entrance. I replied that I was looking for the front entrance. He seemed a bit confused by this and after a couple turns of the wheels in his head, he decided that he could escort us to the front of the hotel. As we were walking he explained that the Dallas Cowboys were staying at the hotel and the back portion of the hotel was sealed off. I didn’t really care, I was just hoping that the earplugs were here.
Praise God, the gift shop was open and had ear plugs for sale. 89 cents. After the purchase, I asked the concierge where the cab stand was. He said the cabs were right out front. I went out and didn’t see any vehicles with any markings that identified them as cabs. I went back inside and asked where the cabs were. In an exasperated voice (and a slight eyeroll) he said they were right outside the front. In fact, he said, there were 3 cabbies coming in at that moment. I asked the group if I could get a cab back to my hotel. Sure, one said, my cab is right out front. I followed him to the ‘cab’. He opened the back door of a Lincoln and motioned for me to get in. There were no signs, no markings of any kind that this Towncar was for hire. I got in and told him where I needed to go. We went a different way (not on the freeway), but the distance from the Marriott to our hotel was just under two miles. Quarter mile, hah!
That cab ride was the best $10 I spent in Dallas.

After an exciting and relaxing week in Kentucky with the Perez family (more on that
in a future post) we arrived home late last night (about 12:30 am). This morning was
cool and clear. After breakfast, with Toby and Lucy taking naps to recover from jet
lag, Max and I spent some time in the front yard. I read a
book and he played on his fort. It was a beautiful morning.

When naps were over, our family got on our bikes and headed to the beach for some
eats. We cruised along the ocean on a short bike ride and enjoyed our sunny afternoon
with temperatures in the mid-60s. I was wearing shorts.

Such a contrast to the high of 31 and low of 12 degrees we experienced on Thursday
in Kentucky!