Meeting, electronically, the siblings Christi and Lisa was one of the highlights of my year! This is the one inspired by Lisa (don't panic, Christi! Tune in tomorrow!)
This is one that I've always liked, but it seems to be too subtle for some folks. See there's a hand coming out of the snowman, and it's like there's a body inside...kind of a Chas Addams thing. 
We had some pretty harsh weather (for western Oregon) recently. We had snow, rain, hail and freezing rain all within the same day, and it carried on for a week or so. I've seen lots of extremes of winter weather driving skills - from 17 cars abandoned at the bottom of our hill because it was too slick to make it all the way up (not that they didn't try!) to people running chains on bare pavement at 50 MPH and trailing sparks behind them. Being a Utah boy, it just kinda makes me smile.
With thousands of missionaries serving in hundreds of missions around the world, I can guarantee this happened yesterday.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
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, good will toward men.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
This Isaiah drawing is another of the "Prophets" series. It's also an appropriate prelude to the next several days, in which we will be presenting the story of the Nativity.
So my friend Gary Weber (of newsphotographyexposed fame) asked if I could draw a cartoon for him to use on his blog. His blog entry this month is about covering the elections as a photojournalist, so I drew this one of what happened when he covered Mondale's announcement of Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate.
I saw in the paper a couple of days ago that Americans for the first time ever have lowered their debts. It wasn't by much, but it's significant.
The Church's Relief Society (the women's organization) is famous for its service, especially bringing in meals to those who need them. 
This is sort of drawn from a real life experience. I was a new senior companion in a new area (Fourth Ward in Pusan) and we had a non-existent teaching pool. We were pretty desperate for people to teach. To make things worse, our area was in the shadow of the mission home and the APs had me working on a special project which way cut into our proselyting time. If it would have worked, I would have stayed up late to teach Santa Claus -- or anyone else who happened to come down the chimney!
This was from a Christmas card that I did for Community Relations when I was at UDOT. The kids represent my boss (the dark haired one) and me. Our coworkers claimed we were on the naughty list because we decorated our office with ornaments that we "borrowed" from other sections.
Zach is finishing up the term this week and will be heading home soon. He's probably feeling like this about now!
We were decorating our home the other day, and we had more than one boy who was concerned about hanging the mistletoe. Some really wanted it, some were afraid. Go figure!
Daniel had his Eagle Court of Honor last week, and although it was short notice, he had a great turnout. He had two prominent local doctors come straight from work, several other professionals, along with an assortment of friends and family. The cool thing is, they all came for him, not for me or anyone else. And a good portion of them were sitting in the Eagle's Nest.
In the Church, we make an accounting of our tithing to the bishop of the ward at the end of each year. In the old days, people used to pay tithing in kind (rather than monetarily) with their flocks or produce or whatever. Since by definition a tithe is ten percent, I wondered how Dr. Frankenstein might do an in kind donation? Ten percent of his spare body parts? Luckily, I abandoned this idea before it progressed much further.
At both the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Utah Department of Transportation I've had the opportunity to work the customer assistance line. It's amazing the questions that come in, especially during winter. Chain laws seem to be the most confusing for people. So one day I was reading a Zits cartoon with Pierce in it, and my brain made a natural leap to here.
There are some things that I miss living here in western Oregon. Snow is one of them...it's pretty much impossible to make rain angels!
I used to have a boss who would come in late, go straight to break, take a couple of phone calls then head out to an early (and long) lunch. Once back from lunch, this person would take a couple more phone calls, go on afternoon break, and then spend the last half hour of the day complaining about what a busy day it was and how he (or she) could never get anything done.
You know how when you leave home on a trip there's always that little thought that you forgot something?
Ever feel this way around the holidays? Like you could use just one more day to get ready and then everything will be perfect...but the calendar never seems to wait.
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