Christmas at the Emerson's has been lots of fun. little Lincoln has been loving the toy holly got him for me, though it took us three times before we finally got one that worked. The first one was DOA, and the second one only partially worked. while Lincoln played with it for a little while, he kept giving us these puzzled looks. he knew it wasn't working the way he remembered. now we finally got it right, and Lincoln is a happy kid.

His grandma + grandpa got him a motorized vehicle for outside. lincoln loves to push it around the cul-de-sac instead of driving it. at least it's good exercise.

other than playing with lincoln, i've just been eating, sleeping, and breaking in my mac.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope santa brought you everything you deserved, wanted, or needed. i know that's quite a range of options, but you should know by now that Christmas is not about gifts. It's about celebrating Jesus Christ coming to our little messed up world to be our light and life.

And Christmas is about celebrating with your family. I got to meet my newest nephew on Christmas Eve! What a fun kid! I'm told that on their way back from Russia, as he was reviewing pictures of his new family, he saw my pictures and said that i was just a friend of the family. ha, ha! But his mom and dad set him straight, and he now calls me uncle--in Russian, for now--and gives me big hugs.

it's been a great christmas.

and if you didn't get what you wanted for Christmas, then take a tip from the Homer family. You'll never be disappointed Christmas morning if you buy yourself the gift you want the most!

i really want a mac laptop.

i've been deliberating on the decision for a while now. i was going back and forth between buy ing now or waiting for christmas, or bonus time, or the new year, or after the mac expo when they might announce new models, thereby driving down prices on the current models. my first plan was to buy the basic version macbook pro new from amazon, which had quite a discount plus a rebate. but i agonized over spending the money. then amazon's price went up a few times. oh well, it wasn't meant to be. then i remembered my brother had mentioned buying refurbished apple products from the apple website. so i looked there and saw that i could buy a refurbished model at a discount. then an ichat with my brother brought up the idea of getting the more powerful version. and since it's refurb, the upgraded model is within reach.

last night i put the macbook pro in my online shopping cart, filled out payment and shipping info, and then hovered over the 'purchase' button for a few minutes. should i really buy this? what am i doing? but i want it now. why wait? common sense prevailed. i hit the purchase button.

so santa came early this year! okay, actually i just went and splurged on myself. whatever. i'm getting a mac in the mail next week! merry christmas!