Ornament Of The Day #1

Angela and I love Christmas. We are one of the obnoxious ones whose Christmas tree is up by Thanksgiving every year. My wife is very gifted at decorating a Christmas tree. She uses a lot of lights. I have always told her that they could see our tree from the space station. (HAHA...just kidding, baby.)

So, Angela had an idea to blog an Ornament Of The Day every day of December. Well, it's now December 5th...I wasn't so much on top of things to get started on the 1st. But here we go. Better late than never.

We are pretty emotionally attached to every ornament on the tree. Sentimental are we. We don't have expensive ornaments. Just special ones. Lots of construction paper, glue and Kodak paper are represented on our tree. And lots of ones that have been with us forever.

Today's is a no-brainer. It is special for obvious reasons.



Sixteen Christmases with the most beautiful woman I've ever laid my eyes on. That's why I love that ornament.

It Was Joy of Titanic Proportions

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was active but restful at the same time. Does that make any sense? We had lots of people in and out of the house all weekend, and had a great time. I have some pics I'll post later.

I gotta say...the very best part of the weekend was taking my boys to the Titans game on Sunday. It was Levi's first time to go. A friend of mine from church was getting rid of three tickets. And since it's so rare that I am home on a Sunday afternoon, I jumped at the opportunity to go. It was especially awesome because we were playing the Arizona Cardinals. Kurt Warner is one of my all-time favorite athletes, and I wanted to see him play live before he retires. So it was a no-brainer. We had to go.

We had a top-ten day. The Cottrell boys made some doggone memories. Even though Kurt Warner didn't play because of a concussion. Concussion schmucshmushion.

Here we are getting ready to hike over the Shelby Street bridge to the stadium (I think it's the Shelby Street bridge. I do know that it is in fact a bridge.).



We were in awe over how good our seats were. I have never not been in the nose bleeds at a Titans game. Sweet.



Pre-game endzone prayers from the Cardinals. Maybe they should've prayed longer. :-)



Michael W. Smith sang the national anthem. And then broke into Friends right afterwards. Kidding.



It was an amazing game. Major heroics by Mr. Vince Young.



Post-game prayer time center field for both teams.



Happiness after previously mentioned major heroics.



I wish I would have taken pictures of everything we ate. But I think I didn't want such evidence in existence for a healthy mom or a potentially jealous sister to see. Needless to say, I think Levi knew a game was going on. But I'm positive he knows EVERYTHING you can possibly eat at an NFL game.

These kids. I sure do love 'em.

We Had 80's Hair. And It Was 1994.

We just got our scanner up and working.



You're welcome.

Have a great Monday.

The Twelve Days of Christmas CD's

I have had a great time hunting down some of the music that you all suggested for us to give a listen. Thanks for all of the suggestions! I am still wading through it, and will let you know what I find. Right now I can't stop listening to the new Sara Groves CD, Fireflies and Songs. It is so good.

I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was turn on our all-day Christmas music playlist. People, is there anything happier than Christmas music? I love it so much. Now, granted, I'm a little bit picky about Christmas music. The Christmas music I love the most has a ring of nostalgia to it. And sentiment. And tradition. And beauty. And oldness. But few things really tug at my heart like my favorite Christmas music.

So I thought I would share my favorites with you. This is TRAVIS' TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS CD'S. There's nothing record-breakingly original or out of the ordinary. But if you are looking for something new to listen to this Christmas (if, of course, you don't already have this, wink, wink), give one of these a try.


12. The Carpenters - Christmas Portrait
11. Currier and Ives Holiday Collection: Christmas Treasures - London Symphony Orchestra
10. Amy Grant - A Christmas Album
9. Bing Crosby - Merry Christmas
8. First Call - An Evening in December
7. Mannheim Steamroller - Christmas
6. John Denver and the Muppets - A Christmas Together
5. James Taylor - At Christmas
4. Amy Grant - Home For Christmas
3. The Cambridge Singers Christmas Album - The Cambridge Singers and John Rutter
2. Elf - The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
1. A Charlie Brown Christmas - The Vince Guaraldi Trio

This is just 12 of the 30 or 40 Christmas CD's we love to listen to.

What are your favorites Christmas CD's?

Random Pics Day

Time for more random pics from my phone. This time, I promise no shrubs larger than a skull.

Apparently even my dog has a sugar addiction.



Speaking of sugar addictions, I did a Holy Ghost dance when I saw this in my Kroger here in Franklin. This is a North Carolina delicacy that has reached its goodness all the way to Middle Tennessee. You may call it a new distribution deal. I call it the favor of God on TN.



Comfort food. Love language. Call it whatever you want. It's one of my favorite meals on the earth. I tweeted this pic just out of sheer happiness.



I would like to say that I had these out playing with my kids.

(pause.)



Originals. Collected from 1977-1984. Not pictured: my original Millenium Falcon and other vintage pieces. And me sitting on the couch in a Darth Vader costume.

Busy Weekend Ahead

Hey, friends. Hope you are having a good week. It's been a good one here. Busy. Busy with work to do, things to accomplish, kids to raise, and DID I MENTION THAT HOMEWORK HAS TAKEN OVER THE EARTH?

I will be busy up at LifeWay corporate offices leading worship for their Women's Ministry Leadership Forum Thursday afternoon-Friday morning. Looking forward to seeing some friends while I'm there. Who knows? Frydaddy might even make an appearance.

THEN. This weekend is another weekend of our Jesus Saves Live Tour, which makes me so happy. These are fun weekends for me. I get to get on a bus and pretend I'm not ancient, and pretend that it's ok to eat a box of Hot Tamales in my bunk until I fall asleep and it will have no affect on my teeth, and pretend that it's totally cool for someone with my metabolism to eat pizza at 10:30 at night. Oh yeah. And it's pretty cool to get to passionately worship Jesus with friends from different churches. That's pretty cool too. ;-)

Actually, I can't wait! Here's where we will be this weekend:

Friday night, November 13: Jackson, TN - Englewood Baptist Church
Saturday night, November 14: Cartersville, GA (Atlanta area) - First Baptist Church Cartersville
Sunday night, November 15: Knoxville, TN - First Baptist Concord

Hope you can make it if you are close.

I have to go now. I am trying to keep my body on a schedule like the early days of daylight savings time. Asleep early...awake early. It's so hard for me to do. But I am TRYING. Anybody else grooving with the early bed time since 2 weekends ago?

Gavin

I need to share some sad news with you. Do you remember when I posted about my friend Adam's baby boy, who was battling Mitochondrial disease? Well, their sweet three-and-a-half boy Gavin went to be with Jesus this past Sunday. Please be praying for Adam and Karen and their little girl Madison. You can find out more about Gavin, as well as plans for their service this Sunday to celebrate Gavin's life and ultimate healing at Gavin's website.

God bless you, Owens family.

Living Proof Live Springfield, IL

Living Proof Live - Springfield IL from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.

Transformation

We made a video for our friend Daniel, who turned 30 this weekend. We practiced this little diddy once, and then quickly jumped in front a camera to film it and then upload it to Daniel's friend for his party. Levi began to have a melt down during our practice time. He was ill as a hornet that he had to do the video. He began to storm up the stairs to his room. And I can't really remember what happened next, except that something made him come back and join us. But he made it clear that he was not happy about it. Nor was he going to participate.

So, that is where you find this video beginning. Watch the transformation my sweet Levi makes in just a few seconds. We're talking 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye. Notice how he tries to get my attention to let me know that he was IN. And then enjoy his burping on the beat at the end. What birthday song is complete without syncopated burping?

You Are So Old from Travis Cottrell on Vimeo.

Tell Me Something Good

What beautiful music are you listening to that I need to be listening to? Do you have any of these kinds of music to recommend? - instrumental stuff - movie soundtracks - acoustic/folky stuff (with singing or without) - artsy bluegrass - beautiful lesser-known classical stuff - tell me whatcha got.