Family Dowdy has arrived! We're now in Virginia for the next 6 weeks or so (hopefully). After a long couple of weeks packing and sorting through our stuff and an extra long cross-country car ride (courtesy of Si), we've started to settle down in my parents' home for the winter.

I'll post next year (which for us here in the future--the eastern time zone--is a mere 4 hours away!)

Lately, when considering the prospect of another Christmas season, I've felt myself doing a Hulk-like morphing into this...

...I can't help but feel myself changing into a Grinch all to eager to steal Christmas.


For those of you who know me, this may send you into cardiac arrest for I've always been a fanatic of Christmas.

In college I developed a policy with my roommate where Christmas music was permitable in between August and April. Further, I had Christmas lights hanging up all year long.

Since college, I've thoroughly enjoyed going through town to enjoy the lights that were strewn about on homes and trees.

But lately, well things have changed.

I'm loathing the idea of having to wake up Christmas day to open presents. Or visit with loved ones for a night or afternoon of tossing gifts around the room while people around me rip into gift wrap.

For you who know me, you're probably well aware that the reason behind all this is mainly do to the materialism and commercialism that has come to define Christmas. So I won't regurgitate that tantrum again.

What I will do is to offer a bit of solace. Another favorite past-time of mine is to watch certain Christmas movies. Not the ones that ridiculously celebrate the idolizing of children's wishes like A Christmas Story does. Rather, I enjoy watching It's a Wonderful Life and even How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

So as I try to regain some of the lost love I have for this time of year, here's a memorable line or two penned by Dr. Seuss. May I find the same salvation as Mr. Grinch.

He stared down at Who-ville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!

Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?"
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
Maybe Christmas...perhaps... means a little bit more!"

And what happened then...? Well... in Who-ville they say
That the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!

The title of this news story is Peacekeepers Kill 3 in Darfur.

If only the world would call me a fool.

With all the noises that Si is making these days, we've finally been able to rehearse our father-son duets. What is Silas' first song he's been able to sing?

Why it's Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen" of course.

Here's a sample:

Me: Just like the white winged dove...Sings a song...Sounds like she's singing...
Silas: Whoo... whoo... whoo
Me: Just like the white winged dove...Sings a song...Sounds like she's singing...
Silas: Ooo... ooo... ooo


Thank you...thank you. We'll be here all week.