American Idol in Omaha

THIS....is American Idol!

Hm. Tuesday night, the American Idol juggernaut landed in Omaha. Actually, to be more specific, they aired the show with the Omaha tryouts that occurred this past August and October.

Gotta say, I'm more than a little ticked at the producers right now.

Let's take a quick look at the very beginning of the show, shall we? Ryan Seacrest begins his voiceover..."over the past seven years, we've been to some of the biggest and busiest cities in the country.."

Uh oh...already I can tell this ain't gonna be good.

As he lists them off and we see short clips of each one, you can just see the setup coming. Here on the one hand we have bustling cities filled with life and vibrance and culture, and then, on the other hand we have...cowtown Omaha. *cue the chirping crickets and fiddle*

If only they had been that nice.

Check out the first 22 seconds of this clip.



Okaaaaaay....so, um, where exactly in that intro is Omaha? Yes, we get it. Nebraska has lots of cornfields. But unless I'm terribly mistaken, the tryouts didn't happen in Old Man Swanson's pasture. They happened at the Qwest Center, near downtown.

In all fairness, they did eventually show a few shots of the city itself. But even then, they kept coming back to the corn. Over and over and over. And over.

You know, I really don't mind them showing the people they showed...the goth girl with the wicked laugh was memorable, as was Chris Bernheisel from Fremont--the 25 year-old kid who couldn't sing but did land a gig, courtesy of Simon, of acting as the on-site reporter for Fox 42 (the Omaha affiliate) once the finale rolls around. Every tryout episode of American Idol is going to have its fair share of...um...interesting personalities and folks that just flat out can't sing. But the choices they made regarding how a city with three quarters of a million people was portrayed was unfortunate.

Here's a few views of Omaha that American Idol missed:

Heartland of America Park, with downtown Omaha in the background

Downtown skyline at night, with the Qwest Center in the foreground

Rosenblatt Stadium, home of the College World Series since 1951

The Old Market...great restaurants and shopping

The Gene Leahy Mall

There's plenty more that I'd like to add, but I've gotta get Kiddo to preschool soon.

Nebraska has enough of an image problem from people who have never set foot in the state without having people who actually have been here perpetuating a bunch of stereotypes. So now, for the 30 million or so viewers that saw this episode, everything they've ever thought about Nebraska has just been reinforced. Right here:

Hmmm...is this 72nd and Dodge?

Thanks a million, Nigel Lythgoe.

I do know this much. One of the things you regularly see in these tryout episodes are people who've been rejected leaving the room and cussing out the judges, the cameras, the producers, small woodland creatures, and everyone and thing that they happen to meet out of their sheer anger at not being selected.

Didn't happen once in the Omaha episode. Not once.

Thanks for representin', Omaha. Too bad American Idol couldn't have returned the favor.

LH

Things I Love About Being Lutheran

I love being a Lutheran. I absolutely love this particular expression of the Christian faith. As Tony Campolo said during a visit to Nebraska a few years ago, "you Lutherans really have a good thing going. Your theology is great--you have a message that the world needs to hear. It's too bad you keep it such a good secret."

If you're here looking for the latest Garrison Keillor-esque list that would inevitably involve lutefisk, tuna hotdish, jello, and coffee, that's not what this is about. This is about my relationship with God, how that impacts my relationships with others and with the world. This is about a worldview...a set of paradigms...a set of glasses through whose faith-lenses I filter the issues I face every day.

It just so happens that Chris over at Lutheran Zephyr wrote a blog post that perfectly captures the spirit of what I love about Lutheranism. Rather than try to re-invent the wheel (and not nearly as eloquently as Chris originally did), I've copied the text of his post. There's some really great stuff there. So with much thanks to Chris...and his blog, The Lutheran Zephyr, read, digest, and enjoy:

I was thinking about the charisms, the gifts, that Lutheranism offers to the church and world, in light of recent conversations about postmodern ministry. What follows is a slightly reworked version of an old post from September:

Lutherans know that God comes down the ladder. We are not able to climb up some ladder of righteousness or spirituality or piety or goodness to reach God and attain some status of holiness or purity. We are not able to climb up some ladder to achieve happiness, fulfillment, contentment. Though we constantly struggle to get up the ladder, to get above others, the ladders we climb just lead us further and further from God and true community. Rather, God comes down the ladder to us, blesses us, graces us, loves us. What did I do to deserve this? Nothing. That's just the nature of God.

Lutherans know that God dwells where we least expect God to dwell. We know that God is most clearly seen in odd, out-of-the-way places such as the suffering on the cross, or the shame of the animal stable, or among the outcasts. Or with people who can't climb a ladder to save themselves. When we humans draw lines dividing us from them, good from bad, righteous from unrighteous, God is on the other side of the line. And the Cross forces us to the other side of the line, the other side of the train tracks, the other side of life, to look at and experience God's presence amidst suffering and brokenness.

Lutherans take sin seriously. In our liturgy many of our churches proclaim, "We confess that we are in bondage to sin, and we cannot free ourselves." Lutherans admit that on our own we cannot escape the power of sin. We do not have a free will - our will and our whole being is bound to sin. Lutherans are, frankly, quite pessimistic about human nature.

Lutherans embrace paradox. We live in a complex world that is many things at the same time. Our world and our worldview is not black and white, either/or, but rather a mucky, messy simul (Latin, meaning at the same time). We Lutherans embrace many paradoxes, many tensions in our theology and practice:

• Simul justus et pecador - we are at the same time sinner and saint.
• God's Word is law and gospel at the same time.
• We live in two kingdoms - a kingdom of God and a kingdom of man - at the same time.
• By the grace of God we are free to live yet are bound to serve - at the same time.

Because we are people of paradox, Lutherans can't draw clear lines of either/or, us/them, etc.

Lutherans preach about God (not about us!). Preachers in our churches are called to proclaim the acts and comfort of God. Sermons, while addressing our human condition, do not proclaim (for example) 3 Steps to a Better Life or How to Have a Closer Relationship with God. Lutheran preachers proclaim God's grace, love, compassion, presence . . .

Lutheranism embraces the common stuff of everyday life. Martin Luther valued daily life and the vocation of common people (once saying that it is more blessed to change a baby's diaper than to be a priest). In the tangible things of daily life, Lutherans find God. Our spiritual life and encounter with God is daily - daily we die to sin and daily we rise with Christ. Church is not a Sunday recharging of the batteries that gets us through the week, because in the week itself we Lutherans acknowledge the blessedness of "ordinary" work that might not otherwise seem spiritual or important in the eyes of our world.

Lutheranism has such potential. For me, Lutheranism is less about traditional forms of worship or polity (though I greatly appreciate those things) and more about a theology and appreciation of the grace of God that speaks to humanity in many different ways. As such, I think Lutheranism has the potential to be the church in many different ways, proclaiming the Gospel/Good News and administering the Means of Grace - Baptism, Holy Communion, God's Word - in creative and comforting ways at the dawn of the 21st century.

LH

Friday Five--Winter

This week's Friday Five, from the RevGals:

1. What is the thermometer reading at your house this morning?
This morning, it was -7 F, though I see now it's gotten up to the lower 20's. But with a 30 MPH north wind, that wind chill goes down in a hurry!

2. Snow—love it or hate it?
Love watching it fall. Love looking at it on the ground, while I'm inside with a nice hot cup of coffee.

Hate absolutely everything else about it. Snow means shoveling. And cold, wet feet.

3. What is winter like where you are?
Being right smack-dab in the middle of the US, we pretty much get all the extremes. Summers get freakin' hot...winters get freakin' cold. There are places that are colder and get more snow, but when one considers the absolute variance between August and January, it's pretty amazing.

4. Do you like winter sports? Any good stories?
I don't do winter sports. I don't like being wet OR cold, and that pretty much rules out everything. Yeah yeah, go ahead, call me Mr. Winter Grinch. =) As far as stories, my first year as a youth director, I took my high school kids on a ski trip. The first day, I went out on the slopes, but quickly discovered that I hated skiing. I'd get up a little speed, get nervous, and fall down intentionally (the way they teach you in class, on your side almost like you're sliding into second base) after going about 50 feet. I did that the whole way down the mountain...50 feet, slide. 50 feet, slide. After a couple of runs down, I had pretty much worn off all the skin on that side of my body from falling "correctly" so often.

I spent the next day in the chalet, watching my kids through the window and drinking coffee. Now that's my kind of skiing!

5. What is your favorite season, and why?
I absolutely love love love love autumn. I love the changing of the leaves, I love the cool (NOT cold) weather, I love wearing sweaters and sweatshirts and walking through the trees and being absolutely comfortable, I love the feel and sights and smells and sounds of college football Saturdays, I love the relative warmth of the afternoon dropping to a slight chill in the evening. I love hayrack rides and roasting marshmallows and harvested fields and hot apple cider.

The only downside to autumn is that I know winter will soon follow.

Bonus: Share a favorite winter pick-me-up. A recipe, an activity, or whatever.
My favorite crock pot recipe ever (and it's super-easy!). WONDERFUL winter comfort food!

Put the following ingredients into the crock pot:
A beef chuck roast
An envelope of dry onion soup mix
A can of cream of mushroom soup
About half of a smll bottle of A-1 steak sauce
5 or 6 chopped up red potatoes (leave the skins on!)
Most of a bag of baby carrots

Turn the crock pot on low...cook for about 8 hours...then eat. You won't need a knife...the roast will just fall apart with a fork...

...okay, I'm hungry now.

LH

Delight of my life

The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God's Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."
--Matthew 3:16-17 (The Message)

“This is my son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” Wow. What powerful words God speaks here. The account of Jesus' baptism is a passage you hear a lot, sometimes so much, that after a while, it loses some if its punch. That’s why I used a version above that’s a little bit different—to hear these words through new ears. In the Lutheran church, when we baptize someone, the pastor says “Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” What we’re doing in our baptism service is paraphrasing what God is saying about his own son, Jesus.

Friday will be four years since Kiddo was baptized, and as that anniversary comes, I've been doing a lot of thinking about baptism. It occurred to me that God's statement about Jesus in Matthew is what God is calling us to remember about our own baptism. You are chosen. You are marked by God’s love, and you are the delight of God’s life. You are loved. You were created by God, and God loves you, through no doing of your own. That’s what baptism is all about! God has chosen you! So often, we think or we hear of being a Christian as us choosing God. We choose to believe, we choose to live a “good life,” it’s all up to us. It’s a very common perception in today’s world—you hear people speak of when they chose to become a Christian, or when they chose to follow Christ, or when they chose to accept Jesus as their Lord and savior.

That’s the perception, but this is the reality—it’s not up to us to choose. And thank goodness for that! I make choices every day—and just as often as not, I choose wrong. I choose to sin, I choose to let people down, I choose to put other things before God. Left on my own, to my own devices, to make my own choices, I’m lost. But listen to the good news—God has chosen you! God has chosen to love you, even before you wanted to be loved. God has redeemed you through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, even before you realized you needed forgiveness. And God is active and with you today through the Holy Spirit, even if you think you’re on your own, and even if you just want to be left alone!!!

So then, what’s the point? What’s living a Christian life all about? It’s not about pleasing God—it’s about a response to the grace that God has already shown you! My friends, may you remember that. God came to us, and because he made the first move, we are free—free to live in the grace that he has shown us. He has forgiven us, and so we are free—free to show that same forgiveness to others. He loves us, and so we are free—free to live in joy and wonder, free to be amazed at the almighty, all powerful God who cares about you. He cares about you so much that he came to us first, because he knew that we wouldn’t have the power to come to him on our own. Go then, live in that freedom, live in that love, live in that forgiveness, live in the life that God has given you.

You are chosen!

You are marked by God’s love!

You are the delight of God’s life!

Amen!

LH

WWYD?

WWYD? No, that’s not a typo. Remember the WWJD craze a few years ago? I think I might even still have a WWJD bracelet lying around somewhere. When confronted with a situation and a choice, we were to ask ourselves the question “what would Jesus do?” It’s a good idea really, a good way to remind yourself in whose steps you’re trying to follow. If we’re living the lives that God wants us to live, then it would only make sense that we would try to make the decisions Jesus would make.

Isaiah 42:1-9 is concerned with the question WWJD? This prophecy is about the messiah, and describes the kind of person and the kind of savior this messiah will be. Listen to the prophet’s description: “he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth.” Someone who brings justice, a quietly strong leader, someone gentle and healing—when he sees a bruised reed, he will not break it. A dimly lit flame he won’t put out.

Do you ever feel like your flame is dimly lit, and that you are damaged goods—bruised, broken and battered? Good news—the messiah, Jesus, came to give you life! At the end of the reading, God speaks directly to his messiah, saying “I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” Wow…what great promises, and what great things Jesus has done for us. He has released us from the prison of death, from the darkness of our sin and has given us new life through his death and resurrection!

That’s what Paul’s talking about in Romans 6:6-11. He tells us how our old selves were crucified with Christ so that we might no longer be slaves to sin. There’s a saying that goes something like this: in every person’s life there is a cross and a throne. If Christ is on the throne, then our old sinful selves have been crucified on the cross. If on the other hand it is we who sit on the throne, then what we do is crucify Christ again and again.

I think in our lives, the more pertinent question is not “what would Jesus do?” I think we need to ask ourselves WWYD? What will YOU do? We know what Jesus did—he defeated death and sin on our behalf. So then, not out of any obligation, not out of any desire to live up to a standard or earn our way into God’s good graces, but merely in response to this amazing gift…in response to Christ’s sacrifice, in response to his love, what will YOU do? How will you live your life? How will you tell other people about what God has done for us? How will you shine the forgiving, transforming, life-changing light of Christ in your life? Dear friends, may we all look for ways to answer the question WWYD? I pray that God would guide us, and that our response might be a faithful one that helps shine his light into the broken and dark places in the world.

WWYD? What will you do?

LH

Anybody wanna buy a football?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the latest example of the law of supply and demand, Nebraska-style.

An astute reader and poster at HuskerPedia.com noticed something interesting on a website that sells Husker football paraphenilia:

1) You can buy a football that was autographed by former head coach (fired in November) Bill Callahan for $19.99. The link is here.

2) OR...at the same website...you can buy the exact same football...WITHOUT an autograph...for $29.99. That link is here.

A football with a former coach's autograph is $10 less than a blank football. As the poster on HuskerPedia remarked, that's just "evidence that graffiti reduces property value."

Anybody have some whiteout? I suddenly have a money-making idea...

LH

For Better or For Worse

For years, I've been a big fan of the comic strip For Better or For Worse. I've loved the family-based humor, I've loved that it can be alternately hilarious and touching, that it can deal with the silly and mundane but also touch on the "big" issues, and I've loved that my family has basically grown up with the family in the strip. My parents are of a similar age of John and Elly, I'm a year or so older than Michael, and Lil' Sis is a couple of years older than Elizabeth. We even had a dog that was about the same age as Farley. I remember crying when Farley died.

One of the big differences between For Better and For Worse and most other comic strips is that in this particular comic, the characters have aged in "real-time." As my family grew up, so did the Pattersons. Michael graduated, got married, and started to have kids all within a year or so of when I passed those milestones. As I watched my parents transition from middle aged to empty nesters to grandparents, I watched John and Elly Patterson deal with many of the same issues and experience the same sorts of joys.

So over the last few months, I've been wondering what's been going on with the comic strip. Suddenly, most of the strips have been "re-runs," and very old ones at that. I was afraid at first that the creator of the strip had decided to retire, or maybe had developed some sort of chronic disease or something like that.

During my illness, and all the time on my hands it produced, I decided to do some looking into my questions. According to the official website,

FBorFW is now a mix of selected strips from the past and newly drawn panels
that will help reintroduce favourite storylines. The strip's current storylines
will be interlaced with Patterson family remembrances until sometime in 2008. At
that point, time will stand still for the Patterson family, but not for their
stories! Earlier story arcs will be expanded upon and relived by a current
generation of fans and introduced for the first time to a new generation.

In a nutshell, what that means is that from now on, the Patterson family will no longer age. They'll have new storylines and such, but their characters will remain static. Makes sense from a creative point of view...I can't imagine how hard it's been to have them realistically "grow up" over the years. But, as silly as it may sound, with this has come almost a sense of mourning for me. Having lived such parallel lives for so long, having grown up alongside these characters, even though they're fictional...I'm gonna miss it.

LH

Ask and ye shall receive...

Lil' Sis left a comment in my previous post, asking if there was anything from the Sesame Street Disco album out there. When we were little, we had that album on vinyl...we'd sing and dance to it, and pretty much had the whole thing memorized.

Lil' Sis, check it out: none other than the Cookie Monster classic Me Lost Me Cookie at the Disco!



LH

Tripping down amnesia lane...

My last entry was about happy songs...in one of the comments, hereistand provided a link to a Sesame Street oldie but goodie: What's The Name of That Song?



Thanks to the magic of YouTube, it's now possible to peruse these wonderful old Sesame Street clips, many of which will probably never be seen again on TV, if only for the sake of continuity. Bob, Gordon, Olivia, Maria, and Luis are all still on the show, but as one might guess, they've all aged considerably...I could just imagine the look on Kiddo's face if these people who look sorta like the characters he knows (but wearing weird clothes and hairstyles) and with those characters' voices suddenly broke into song on tomorrow's episode of Sesame Street.

Yeah, I understand why they can't run some of these clips. But with others, it's a crying shame.

Take for example anything having to do with Kermit the Frog. Correct me if I'm off-base, but it's my understanding that after Jim Henson's death, his family had some sort of dispute with the Children's Television Workshop which resulted in them denying CTW's use of Kermit whatsoever in future Sesame Street episodes. No matter what the reason, the bottom line is that there's an entire generation of kids missing out on classics like this "Sesame Street Newsflash" from Peter Piper's Pickle Patch:



Well, after looking up those two clips, I couldn't just stop there, could I? My next stop on my Sesame Street journey was the segment that, as a kid, I lived for. Every episode, I watch, hoping this segment would be a part of it. And when it did come on, I'd sing along, run around, and just make a general fool of myself. Still brings warm fuzzy feelings when I hear it. It's the song Hard Workin' Dog:



And of course, no exploration of Sesame Street would be complete without a classic Bert and Ernie sketch. This is one that I always loved...it all starts when Ernie broke the cookie jar...but then the cookies had to go somewhere, so he put them in the sugar bowl...and...well, you can see where it's going:



So many wonderful old clips and sketches...I could spend all day doing this if I let myself! So one last clip. One of the things they've done (and still continue to do) that I just love are the unrehearsed one-on-one conversations between a muppet and a young child. In this one, Kermit's trying to get a little girl to sing the alphabet. Adorable and hilarious!



LH

Happy songs redux

First of all, thanks for the prayers and well-wishes. I'm not back to full health yet, but I'm well on my way. Turns out I had a particularly nasty case of strep throat AND what seemed to be a sinus infection all at the same time. Lemme tell ya, it wasn't pretty for a few days, but I'm getting there. Voice beginning to come back, coughing at a minimum, no more sore throat and no more expectorating blood and phlegm and other such things multiple times per day.

Life is slowly getting better.

I had plenty of free time on my hands over the last 10-12 days, and when one has that kind of time and one is alone and one is on powerful medications, one's mind will wander...that is, when one isn't asleep. Which one was. Quite often.

One of the things I thought about--probably since I needed something, anything, to serve as a pick-me-up, was the question: what songs do I consider "happy songs?" You know, those songs that are guaranteed to lift your spirits, to transport you, songs that invigorate and refresh and renew. Songs that, no matter how you may feel, make you smile when you hear them on the radio. I think we all have a catalog of "happy songs."

I first wrote about "happy songs" in this post back in August, and said that my absolute favorite "happy song" is I Got a Name, by Jim Croce. Still holds true...in fact, it deserves to have the song re-linked (especially since the original linked video is no longer available). So here you go:



Another one of my faves is '65 Love Affair by Paul Davis. Especially when you get to the middle section with all of the "doo wop diddy wop diddy wop doo"-ing. I just saw a picture of Paul Davis for the first time, and he definitely doesn't look like the kind of guy who would sing this song:



He rather resembles a biker. One who will kick your you-know-what if you look at him the wrong way. But here's his happy song:



Much of what James Taylor sings is pretty mellow, and often leans toward melancholy. Nuthin' wrong with that...he's one of my fave singers. Your Smiling Face stands in contrast to so much of his other work...mood-wise at least.

I. Totally. Love. This. Song.

How can you not be smiling at the end of it? I defy you to try:



Okay...one more. Here's where I allow my innate cheesiness to shine with this selection from The Carpenters. Ever since I was a little kid, I've loved the song Top of the World. And I don't care if the Carpenters aren't "cool..." this song never fails to make me smile.



Any other "happy songs" that ought to be added to the list?

LH

*sigh*

(Warning: The below post ought not to be read by those who become easily queasy by accounts of illness. Otherwise, read on:)

I. Am. Sick.

Not sick in a cool way, as in "those were some sick moves the wide receiver put on the defensive back," and not sick in a freaky way, say, like Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs (Hello, Clarice...).

Just good old fashioned "lay in bed and moan out of sheer misery" sick.

Since Monday night, I've had the following symptoms...not always all at once (though occasionally so, like pretty much all day Thursday), but at one time or another they've been there: throat so sore that I didn't eat for 2 days, coughing phlegm out of my throat, vomiting phlegm, severe headache, fever (up to 103.8), fatigue, chest tightness (probably from a collection of...you guessed it...phlegm...in my lungs).

I haven't been to work since Monday, which considering how much I love my job and how busy the next few months will be, says a lot. But it's not like I'd be getting much done anyway--and I share an office with someone else, and that would be just oh-so-neighborly to share this wonderful illness with them.

I've also had a hard time sleeping, which is why I'm sitting on the couch right now typing this instead of restlessly rolling around in bed and coughing upstairs. I think I may sleep on the couch tonight--I can breathe easier and don't cough as much when I'm half-sitting. And I don't have to worry about waking Sweetie up with every coughing attack. Especially since my coughing right now tends to be so...um...shall we say "deep," (okay, I'm basically hocking up giant loogies all the way from the bottom of my throat) that in Sweetie's 8 months pregnant state, listening to it makes her nauseated. And she has a hard enough time sleeping right now as it is--having a 5 pound or so baby rumbling around in your abdomen will do that to you, I suppose.

So there endeth my rant. That's what's been up this week. Hopefully it will be done soon.

But for now, I gotta get some sleep. Goodnight.

LH

"The Year In Review" Meme

A great idea from RevScott:

If it's been going around my friends, is it a viral meme? I dunno. Anyway, the idea is this: go back and find the first sentence of the first blog post of each month for the past year. Consider yourself tagged if you've stayed with me this far.

January:
Okay, so this isn't technically one of the patented "Dr. Cox rants," but it's funny and involves Dr. Cox and makes a point, so I wanted to post it.

February:
Last night while lying in bed, waiting to fall asleep, I had one of those nighttime revelations: a year ago today was the first day that I was no longer officially employed by the Lutheran Student Center.

March:
Paul Simon (the musician, not the politician) was at my church Wednesday during our Lenten worship service.

April:
You know Palm Sunday has made an impression on your three year-old when after church, he hears the 80's pop hit Rosanna by Toto and starts singing along with the stereo: "Hosanna, hosanna..."

May:
It's been a busy couple of weeks, hence my absence from the blogosphere as of late.

June:
Once again, an unintended long absence.

July:
Saturday night, Sweetie and I took Kiddo and his best friend Peanut (like "Kiddo", not his real name) to a baseball game in Omaha.

August:
Well, we went in to see Sweetie's OB doc today so she could get an exam and have an ultrasound done.

September:
I'm still around, and I'm still planning on blogging...this pregnancy has just been kicking Sweetie's and my collective butts (whatever a "collective butt" is) the past month.

October:
My aim yesterday was to celebrate the coming of the major league baseball playoffs (and the Red Sox's win in game one) by taking a video of Kiddo singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

November:
Well, Sweetie had her 2nd trimester ultrasound on Wednesday afternoon (yep, that's right, Halloween).

December:
I stumbled on this and it was too well done not to share...especially if you're a fan of the old Muppet Show.

LH

Should auld acquaintance be forgot...

Happy 2008, dear readers...all three of ya. =)

Last night, our little LutheranHusker family journeyed to the Lincoln Children's Museum to celebrate the ringing in of the new year...

...at 8 PM.

It was really cool. They open the doors at 6:30, give everyone (parents AND kids) party hats and noisemakers, let the kids play in the museum for an hour and a half, and then at 8 have a full scale New Year's countdown. We wished Father Time farewell, greeted Baby New Year, counted down from 10, then had a couple of hundred balloons dropped on our heads from three floors above us.

Kiddo just took the whole scene in. It was fun to watch him watching it all.

We were home home by 8:30. Kiddo was in bed before 9, which gave Sweetie and I a chance to watch a movie, which ended promptly at 11, which gave Sweetie a chance to promptly fall asleep. I woke her up at 11:50 to give her a chance to shake off the grogginess, we watched the Central Time replay of the Times Square ball drop, toasted the new year with some sparkling grape juice, and made it to bed by 12:05.

The fact that I considered it a pretty ideal New Year's celebration must mean I'm getting old. =)

Here's some pictures from our evening and the video of the countdown and balloon drop last night at the Children's Museum:


On the 3rd floor by where the balloons will drop!



Kiddo and Sweetie get ready to ring in the 8 PM New Year!



Happy 2008 from Kiddo!



LH