A Christmas Blessing

Don't forget that Christmas is just starting - twelve days, beginning now! And on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...tickets to the next Calgary Comic Expo. :)

This is my current favourite video. It's from a youth retreat in the States, and it made me think of something I've never really thought of before in my 31 years of going to church on Christmas and singing this carol.

 

When we do stop to remember that 'Jesus is the reason for the season', we generally think of a cute little baby in a manger, with a Renaissance-esque halo and shiny angels. At this time of year, I tend to forget that He came for a grittier, weightier, and eternal purpose, and this video vividly reminded me that: "Nails, spear shall pierce Him through / the cross be born for me, for you", and that was the whole point of His coming in the first place - to break the 'deep magic from the dawn of time' that demands a penalty for sin. That innocent baby in the manger came to earth, out of love, to suffer and die; to bridge the gap that Adam and Eve's sin wrought between humans and our creator. The vastness and enormity and sheer cosmic scope are very hard to wrap my tiny human brain around. C. S. Lewis, in the Chronicles of Narnia, describes this sacrifice on a level that I find a bit easier to begin to understand.

 

 If you haven't read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, I highly recommend going and reading it RIGHT NOW. :)

 

 

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
(Romans 15:13)

 

"...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
(Ephesians 3:17-21)

 

May your Christmas be full of joy and love, and may your new year be blessed with good things! And if you are seeking, may you find. 

The Hobbit

Perfect Hobbit is Perfect
Source

Have you seen the Hobbit yet? We went on Friday, to a noon matinee in IMAX 3D. To be honest, I'm not sure what I loved most...the nine minute preview of Star Trek Into Darkness, or the Hobbit? I felt like I'd had my $20 worth after Into Darkness, and the Hobbit was just the icing on the cake.

I'm not usually a fan of 3D (the glasses over my glasses annoy me, and I don't find the 3D that exciting), but I'd heard something about some new technique they were using that was supposed to make it 'too real', which made me curious. And it was amazing! I lost count of how many times I jumped and ducked, and I definitely screamed twice. It was like riding a roller coaster - a roller coaster of beautiful New Zealand scenery and adorable Martin Freeman. I can't imagine anyone else playing that role - Freeman IS Bilbo - have you seen the photo of him with his Lego minifig?!

(I should point out that I'm not a Tolkien purist by any stretch of the imagination, so I'm not comparing the movie to the book at all.)

At the beginning, when Bilbo meets Gandalf, is invaded by dwarfs, and eventually decides that maybe he does want to go on an adventure after all - well, I could just live in that chunk of the movie and be content to just stay there forever. It's warm and vibrant and funny and just...perfect. And I totally empathize with Bilbo loving his peaceful life and orderly home. The scene where the group of adventurers encounters the trolls was very funny - not quite Monty Python funny, but definitely funny by Peter Jackson standards.

After that it departed a bit from the lighter side and got darker, like the Lord of the Rings movies, although the Goblin King provided a bit of comedic relief. There was maybe a wee bit too much of Thorin doing the smolder, but it was only minorly annoying. :) I won't say where it cut off, but it was a good ending, with not too much of a cliffhanger, which was nice.

We don't get to see much of Smaug this early, or the Necromancer, which was disappointing, because I'm really excited about seeing Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch together in something other than Sherlock. So I guess I'll just have to watch Sherlock again while I wait for next December!

Anyway, the short of it is that the Hobbit in IMAX 3D is definitely worth the price of admission, and you should go see it, like, right now! Go on!

The End Is Near

No, I'm not talking about the Mayan Apocalypse, I'm talking about this semester. :) I have my German final tomorrow morning (at 8 am...groan!) and then Canadian history on Monday, and linguistics on Tuesday. Then I'm free!

Hopefully Tuesday night I'll be back to my regularly scheduled massively long blog posts. I have several ideas I'm mulling over, but most of them are controversial, and I'm not sure if I want to go in any of those directions, but we shall see! :)

I am going to see the Hobbit on Friday...we already have our tickets for the noon matinee in Imax 3D. Yay!

I leave you with my favourite Kipling quote:

 

 

Tomorrow...Deutsch!

Tomorrow morning is my German presentation. Insert ALL THE PANIC here. Thankfully, since it's such a small class, I don't have to worry about stage fright, just failing. :) Yay! I also have a German paper due, which I JUST printed. And as if that weren't enough, I have a paper on Richard II due (which is maybe half done at this point), along with an exam in that class.

The bright spot in my Tatooine of a day is that my very last class is Canadian history, and the prof has promised doughnuts. Then I get to go Christmas shopping because tomorrow is the domestic parcel mailing deadline. I just need to make it from 9 am to 2 pm, and then this semester too shall have passed. (I do have three finals over the next two weeks, but they're nicely spread out!)

#herestoonlytakingfourclassesnextsemester