Can I get fries with that criminal report?

Today we traveled to the capitol of Kentucky, good 'ole Frankfort, in order to get background checks. We called for directions and were directed to a drive-up window on the side of a government building. A drive-thru? For a background check? We found it surprising to say the least, and were curious indeed. When we arrived, sure enough, we saw the drive-thru. We pulled up, handed in our IDs and our $10 a piece, then waited about 5 minutes and were presented with our very own criminal histories! Sadly though, the State Government does not provide fries and shakes.

Getting my criminal report was a good reminder of the high-school and college days in which I was apparently a speedster, or so my list of traffic citations would suggest. Thankfully, 2 years in Africa has taught me that there's no good reason to hurry, so I'm a much more law-abiding driver these days.

As a part of our visa application to move to France, we had to get full background checks from the FBI. We ordered these in mid-October, and still have nothing. Because we're planning to leave in less than a month and haven't yet turned in our applications (short only the FBI background checks), we decided to get as many others as we can in a more local sense, hoping we'll be able to push our application for a visa through and at least get it started. So we've now obtained a letter from our local city police HQ in Lexington, a state-wide criminal history from the capitol of KY, and we're still waiting on the FBI background report. Sort of sad that the State of KY could do in 5 minutes at a drive-thru window what the FBI needs over 2 months to do. Here's a rundown of how our city, state, and nation rank in providing background checks:

Speed:
1. State of KY (5 mins)
2. City of Lexington (2 days)
3. FBI (almost 2 months and counting...)

Cost:
1. City of Lexington (free)
2. State of KY ($10)
3. FBI ($18)

Quality:
1. FBI (though still unknown, this is the actual form we're required to have, so in that sense it's the best quality)
2. City of Lexington (a formal typed and notarized letter)
3. State of KY (it was just a print-out, not at all official-looking)

Scope:
1. FBI (the whole nation obviously covers more than state or city)
2. State of KY (this one listed my traffic citations, I'm not a fan of it)
3. City of Lexington (we're clean, we're clean!)

Thank you city of Lexington for helping us out when we needed a letter. Thank you State of KY for your speedy, though simple, service. Please please hurry FBI! We need you!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Do you think Christmas was stuck at the end of December so that we would say things like "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" and convince ourselves of it, even though it's bitterly cold outside and miserable with rain/sleet/snow coming down and slush covering the ground? I just can't help but wonder.

It is Christmas time, and weather aside (woke up to a little bit of snow coming down this morning), it is a fabulous time of the year! The last two years were strange for us, as far as Christmas goes. December is one of the hottest months in Tanzania, certainly no snow or log fires. We did have each other to celebrate with, along with a couple of friends. Even though evergreen trees didn't really grow in Tanzania, the custom had traveled from the West there, and in typical African fashion had been adopted and changed. So on Christmas day across Tanzania, single branches of evergreen trees are the hottest selling item. What do people do with them? Hang them on a wall, over a door, set one on a table, stick one in the grill of your car or on the handlebars of your bicycle. It's Christmas, so that's what you do! A few whole (though scrawny) trees are also available for sale in the streets on Christmas day (but not before). One of my favorite Christmas memories was standing by the market one year on Christmas day and watching a woman covered head to toe in a full black burqa (traditional islamic dress) buy one of the few Christmas trees to take home. A Christmas tree! It made me smile :).

This year is an exciting one for us. It will be our first Christmas home with family in quite a while, but it will also be our first Christmas as a family with our son, Sawyer. That means this year we get to mix and create some of the traditions for Christmas that our kid(s) will grow up knowing and remembering. Any good suggestions? We've already decided one: we want to celebrate through the advent calendar as a family with daily and/or weekly devotions in the month leading up to Christmas. It's fun to make it a whole season and to get to the heart of why the holiday exists. We want to make it a special time for our family, as we will often be in different homes and countries than even the year before, and we will really have to cling to one another as a family. Other than that one, we're open to ideas to make Christmas a special one for our family unit. Some from our childhoods: M's family always started the day with a coffee cake, complete with candles and a "happy birthday" to Jesus song. Then presents, a day of relaxing, and a big ham dinner. JJ's family always celebrated with a huge hot breakfast, complete with country ham, biscuits, and much more. We also both remember hot chocolate as a staple of the day, and an assortment of home-baked cookies. What about you? How do you celebrate the day and the season and what do you love about it?

Glory in the Highest

Last night we went to see Shane and Shane, Phil Wickham, and Bethany Dillon in concert for their joint Christmas tour. We were a little bummed when we showed up late and missed about half of Phil Wickham's (way too short) set, but pleased that he later joined the rest of the crew, playing bass for some Christmas jams. We were surprised on a couple of accounts at the show: #1 - Shane Barnard and Bethany Dillon are married. Which seemed especially weird because when we first heard Bethany Dillon she was 17, and Shane B has always been our senior (she is 21 now, so it's ok after all). Didn't see that one coming, and the curveball meant that the first opening act we feared to miss a bit of was Phil, not Bethany. We love her music as well, but that was a let-down to those of us who are a bit over-obsessed with Phil Wickham's sweet tunes. Surprise #2 was the discovery that Phil was born in 1984. That means he's younger than us. You know that point where you start to realize that you're aging? We first noticed it when we graduated from college and all of our favorite sports stars were the same age or younger (though they seemed much more physically mature), now we've realized that a favorite musician we sit around listening to is our junior.

If you haven't listened to these artists, you should.
-Phil Wickham has a free album available for download on his website: singalong. (*note: download is currently unavailable until jan 1, 2010)
-Shane and Shane have a fan website, where you can hear some of their songs and get guitar chords and lyrics (they are a lot of fun to play on the guitar).
-Bethany Dillon's website can link you to her stuff, check it out. She's a great songwriter.
Also, if you like Christmas music, go buy Shane and Shane's Christmas Album, "Glory in the Highest", released last year. It's unique and good.

The other fun part of last night was my discovery of a new drum toy now on my wish list: The Remo Mondo Snare. It's basically like Remo took their standard djembe, cut it off just below the head, and then attached a snare bottom to it. This is a wonderful discovery for me, as I often swap the snare on my kit with my Remo Djembe to get a more percussive wordly feel. With the Remo Mondo Snare I hope to one day have the best of both worlds and less of equipment to cart around! And a snare mixed with the Mondo head just has a great and distinct sound to it.

My How You've Changed!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a hibernating bear, wake up after a long winter and have no idea what happened while you were asleep? Or like Han Solo, frozen in carbonite? There’s a great scene in the movie “Castaway” that depicts it... Hanks’ character returns from years on the island and has no idea what’s taken place since he left (though the scene really speaks more to the changes in him than the changes around him).

We had a chance to get about as close as we’ll ever come to a hibernating bear, castaway, or frozen hero. When we returned to the USA after two years in East Africa, a lot had changed. We weren’t completely cut off from our old American lives. We still received news in Africa (in fact, we think there was more election coverage there than there was here... our african friends cared more about the race than we did: said one neighbor, “it is the election of the president of the world”), we still saw some new products come in through the ports, we had friends in the States who wrote to keep us abreast of the relevant goings-on. But there’s a lot we missed, and a lot we never experienced. Take Twitter for instance. That whole thing happened while we were gone. We’re still behind on that one.

We’re often asked what we notice is different. I’ve realized in recent weeks one thing that’s drastically different now than over two years ago when we left: TV on the internet. I’ve just about decided that there’s not reason to own a TV in the US anymore, or at least not a cable subscription or dish. You can watch TV shows on websites like hulu.com or the actual network websites (nbc.com, cbs.com, etc). ESPN streams a ton of live sporting events at espn360.com, and other websites exist with similar offerings. None of this existed that I can remember 3 years ago! And while it all seems a pretty sweet deal for international transplants like ourselves (who still love our NCAA sports, NFL, and select other shows), sadly most of these websites work only within US borders.