What Christmas is All About . . .

A little reminder from Charlie Brown . . .

Doggonit

OK, I have a confession to make. I haven't posted again about our new dog that we were trying to name because I didn't want to be named 2008 Bad Dad of the Year. I was feeling sad and a little ashamed.

Here's the story. We had the awesome little dog for one night and Laura and I woke up the next morning and couldn't breath and had noses running full bore. We both have asthma and allergies, although mine have been under control for quite some time. I knew I was allergic to cats but wasn't aware of what dogs could do to me.

As Cindy started looking the next day, our little dog was a Jack Russell Terrier and she found out that they are one of the worst kinds for allergies because of their continual shedding. (Go figure, intuitively it would have made sense to me for short haired dogs to be better for allergies . . . but no, they actually shed more - and ours was a smooth coat which sheds the very most.)

So Cindy & I felt terrible, but yesterday we had to take our little just named ('Dash' had won) doggy back to Pee Wees Animal Shelter. O' man did that stink. He had slept with Luke and Luke loved it. But all the kids were great sports and understood.

Now the good news is that Pee Wee's had a cute Westie (West Highland White Terrier). Westies are one of the best dogs for allergies and we took her! (She even came named - Abby)

This is her although I was having a hard time taking a good pic as she isn't feeling too good - long day as she not only got a new home but got 'fixed' at the vet today :(

So we are thankful . . . and now I feel confessed up.
And if you need a last minute Christmas present, Pee Wees has a great little Jack Russell Terrier.

Christmas Funny

OK, this is funny . . . Thanks Lauren Garcia for creating such a great show(and making fools of us!)

Click here to check out the staff elf dance and then see if you can outdo it!

Christmas???

Yes, it's hard to believe but I've already seen Christmas stuff in Hobby Lobby and I'm sure that the celebration of the almighty Santa dollar will soon begin all over the marketable world :)

My heart this Christmas season is that we learn to practice more and more giving ourselves away as Jesus would want us to! We are going to have three unique opportunities as a body to do that and I hope that you will consider being a part of all three! I wanted to preview them all as we get close:

1) First and very soon (like this Sunday!) you will begin seeing Operation Christmas Child decorations. We have participated in OCC for about 6 years now and it is such an easy and powerful way to impact children and families around the world. It is also a great way to begin to teach your children to give themselves away. More info will be coming at you this week and OCC collection will be November 23rd.


2) Many of you remember Advent Conspiracy from last year! This is an incredible way to use our resources for compassion instead of consumption. The gist of AC is that we will be asking you to forgo some of your normal Christmas consumption (i.e. don't buy so many gifts!) and give that money towards the poor and needy.
What makes this even cooler is that this year we have 6 or 7 other Corpus Churches participating with us! More info will roll out soon . . .


3) Compassion Trip to Mexico - What could be better than giving ourselves away by going to the Pan de Vida orphanage in Querataro, Mexico.
This trip will be December 26th-January 4th and there will be the opportunity to join in various projects with our hands as well loving the children and staff of Pan de Vida!
Because of passport and other preparation needs, this is an opportunity that you need to begin preparing for now! Tim Klaus is leading the trip and you can get any information you need by emailing him (click here to email Tim).

Advent Conspiracy

Get Ready Creekers! This Advent Season we are going to substitute Compassion for consumption . . .

We are joining many other churches around the country in Advent Conspiracy.

We are conspiring to return Christmas to it's right place of worshipping Jesus and changing the world!

I'm pumped about how God is going to bless this Christmas as we focus truly on why Jesus showed up on earth!


Coming December 2nd . . .