2008 Holiday Images

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Obviously there are LOTS of pictures from this holiday. I'll try to update theschiebers.com at some point to present a much larger gallery. For now, enjoy these three (you can click on the photos for a larger image):




This is one of our blue spruce out front, covered in snow.




On my way home from the hospital on Christmas morning, I took this photo with my phone out the front of the truck window, driving down 3rd Street.




And you gotta love the "Pick Your Nose" cups from my parents.

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New Life

Every birth touches the lives around it.

Seven years ago, on Christmas, I delivered a baby into the arms of it's mother and father, and family. We all knew the baby would not live. The baby had a condition that would not allow it to survive outside of the womb. For 15 minutes, an entire lifespan, this child was held, and loved, and cherished.

Yesterday I watched a young mother in tears as I discharged her newborn child into the arms of a foster mother. The birth mother had broken too many rules, put herself and her unborn child at risk too many times for her to be allowed to be primarily connected to this life she had carried for the past 9 months.

Today I was called away from family reunions and celebrations to help with the urgent surgical delivery of another child. He did fine - big and beautiful.

God comes to us this way on Christmas - in the midst of our real lives. Our circumstances are different: joyous, sorrowful, hopeful, fearful, but within it all, there is God - in our lives, among us, born into our reality.

There is the new start, the hope for the world, the word made flesh.

Because God invests God's self fully in our lives, we are changed. We have the promise that we are more than our brief time on this world, redemption when all seems broken, and the joy that comes from a creator who delights in our lives and the world around us.

Merry Christmas

1st Snow

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We're at the beginningof a 3-4 day cold snap, and have gotten the first snow of the Winter. We love it. This is the house tonight, as the snow starts to accumulate.

School tomorrow? We'll see.

(that's all I have - short and sweet)
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The Christmas Spud

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A couple years ago I penned this after a secret Santa gave me a......potato?

I turned it into a Christmas Tale:

The Christmas Spud

In the land of potatoes, the spuds were in bed
Waiting for Santa to come in his sled
And bring lots of presents and toys for the tots
The taters loved Christmas, yes, they loved it lots

But that Christmas eve, in the dark of the night
A fog settled in, obscuring the site
Of the little spud town, and the little spuds said
“How will Santa find us, when he flies overhead?”

Then a brave young potato, with a spark in his eyes
Said “I can get Santa down here from the skies
We’ll lure him with smell, for it’s no surprise,
Everyone knows he likes hot steaming fries!”

The potatoes all cheered the spud with the good heart
And carried him over to the Cuisinart
And in no time at all, the hot fries were done
And Santa did find them, and gave gifts to each one

And as St. Nick flew away, with his reindeer and sled
He turned to the spuds, and he quietly said
“Have a wonderful holiday, I send you warm wishes,
And oh, by the way, your fries were delicious”
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