Christmas in August?

For those who like to revisit their holidays 8 months later, there's a link below to my Christmas 2005 photo album. BUT, for your own safety, and of those around you, (or if you want to download/print the full size version of a picture), please read the instructions below.

1. When you get to the web album, click on an image to get a medium-sized version
2. After clicking on a photo, to the right there will be a "Download Photo" link. This saves the full-size image to your computer for printing or putting in your own photo album.

Click here to see the photo album:

Christmas2005

Musings on Humility and Gratitude

Humility and Gratitude are strengths beyond understanding. Forget not to consider the value of others and what they do, and your life and theirs will overflow with goodness; their support and even devotion will be strongest because it is willfully given. If those with whom you live and work ever say, "No one notices what I do until I don't do it," then you have failed.

Quotes & Notes

Aristotle: The Law is reason, free from passion. STL: It makes me wonder if Aristotle, and probably many after him, regarded passion as negative by nature. If reason is considered the only worthy guide for determining behavior (and what is law but governance of behavior?), then for what purpose do we have passion? While it may sometimes lead to all sorts of evil, passion is certainly capable of producing the opposite. And is reason all that trustworthy? The rationalism of a wise person may be, but not all people will arrive at the same reasoning. Indeed, rhetoric and debate likely originated with one wise leader trying to pursuade another to agree with the first's reasoning. Only perfect reason, and perfect rationality will always lead to the right course of action or behavior. But I submit that perfect passion would do the same. If Aristotle is correct, then it must be that imperfect reason is preferable to imperfect passion in creating law and governance. Of course, who am I to judge Aristotle?! For a multitude of other quotables attributed to Aristotle, read this Wikiquote page.

Fall 2005 family pictures

I was up in Westborough, Massachusetts for Labor Day weekend and got some more pictures of my nieces. Why is it that taking pictures of kids is so much fun?!

Claire and Bridget are growing fast, and talking a lot. They even say grace at dinner quite often! Audrey has started kindergarten and rides a school bus every day for this first time. She got a new backpack and lunchbox for this year! Brenda and Richard settled the debate over whether to get rid of the twins' cribs when they discovered they could remove one side of each and turn them into a kind of day bed (for little people, of course).

Audrey is amazing with wanting to help with everything, even when dad wants to go shovel mud off the driveway! She also seems to enjoy gardening with grandpa and cooking with mom or grandma.

Grandma and Grandpa Lyle are doing very well. I didn't get any good pictures of them this trip, so I'll have to rectify that during my next one.

Me and Audrey	Richard and Claire hanging out
Hide-n-seek...counting to 10	Hide-n-seek...no peeking!
Hide-n-seek...Claire's hiding place	Audrey's first day of kindergarten!
Claire & Bridget seeing Audrey off to school
Claire, Bridget and Audrey	Audrey with butterfly hair pin
Brenda reading to her girls

Frazier, this is for you...

This is for you, Derrick