Bless me father for I have sinned.

Bless me father for I have sinned. It has been 3 years since my last blog post.  What to report? 

In the past few years since my last post I have put my failed startup to rest and returned to working for a living. Giving up on a dreams is almost as hard as following them.  Today is not the day to think about my day job. Though I am proud of my work, this is my first full day off in a long time. No shop talk today. 

I am proud of my children.  They are growing in strength and intellect.  Robbie recently made the cut to go a regional social studies competition for his turning point in history presentation.  He makes the argument that Teddy Roosevelt's trip to Yosemite inspired him to start the National Forest Service.  He also argued against his own thesis as part the project.  Pretty cool for 5th grade.  Anna recently completed her 4th grade Texas history Alamo project.  Together we spent a Saturday recreating the entire Alamo fort (not just the chapel) out of candy.  Base made of brownies, walls of graham crackers, ramps and fences stick pretzels, bricks of carmel, gummy bears for soldiers and cannons of tootsie rolls with skittle wheels. I helped with the scale model, but Anna did the poster and research all by herself.  Together we nailed it! (reference to baking reality TV show). 

Jane recently had art work shown at the Frame Gallery downtown. She is really amazing.  Working artist, property manager, kick ass mother, and my partner in everything.  After her recent trip to Art Bazel in Miami she is full of inspiration and ideas. I look forward to what she will create next. 

Just last week my friend Scot came to visit which was a real treat.  Scot is working remotely and traveling around the North America. We took a 14 mile round trip bike ride to Lake Bryan,  attended the annual Arbin Christmas party in College Station, camped and fished at the family ranch in Grimes county.  We also smoked a brisket, ran the dog and gazed at stars.  Scot is a good listener and a thoughtful person.  It was a blessing  to spend some time together. 

I traveled quite a bit this past year.  Work conferences and meeting brought me to Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Germany, and India. Family vacation brought me deep into Bavaria Germany, Morelos Mexico, and Zion National park in Utah. Each of these trips probably warrants a blog post of it's own, but sadly may not get them. 

Today (fell asleep last night writing this) is Christmas Eve.  Tomorrow we Christians celebrate the birth of Christ into the world.  As with most religious mythology this has meaning on multiple scales:  the individual, the community, and the cosmic.  (I wonder what Christ could mean at the micro scale). For Christians Easter is the greatest holiday because it is in dieing to one's self, one's misconceptions, one's desires, one's guilt and baggage, one's bad habits, in death and rebirth that we are saved and are becoming saved.  Easter is a mature holiday.  A coming of age, personally, in community, as humanity.  It is more meaningful later in life when you have made more mistakes and require more salvation.  

Christmas is for kids.  It is the foundation being, being beloved, Being celebrated as the children of God, being valued as individual in the context of family, community and even within the whole cosmos.  Yes, it the birthday of Jesus who will in the gospel stories become the Christ and because of that it is also symbolically all of our birthdays all at once.  Guess that is why we all get presents.  

Merry Christmas y'all!