I think in the final weeks of 2009, I've officially lost my dad of the year award. I was doomed by two sledding incidents that could have been much worse.

On Saturday afternoon, we were sledding with the kiddos and decided to have a few races down the hill. They were fun, but on the third race, Audrey lost her balance and fell out of the sled, leaving Amsale in the sled by herself. She veered right in front of me and I couldn't stop in time. I ran her over, planting her face right in the snow. It wasn't entirely my fault, but since the voting for dad of the year is done by the kids, I lost a lot of votes right there.

On Sunday, we were out sledding again -- this time to Long Prairie's tower hill. We'd never been there before but admired it from a distance many times. We decided that with fresh powder, it was time to go. Eshetu was the first to go. He took our fastest sled and hopped on it head first. 25 feet later, he ran right into a tree. Lots of crying; lots of blood; lots of guilt. Why couldn't I see that this hill was too steep with too many trees? Why couldn't I see that going head first was a bad idea? Why couldn't I catch up to him before he hit the tree? Thank God he hit that tree -- or he might have hit one of the other trees 100'-200' down the hill and broken his neck. Definitely got some votes for worst dad of the year yesterday.

Anyway, we did have church yesterday. Most people must have thought we were taking the day off, however. It was a pretty slim crowd. Or maybe they read the texts ahead of time and were a little nervous about Mary's words, celebrating that God send the rich away empty. It was the theme of my sermon:



In other news, Amsale is back to her middle of the night screaming. I'm taking her in to the doctor this morning. Hopefully we can figure something out ... or it's going to be a long Christmas us north.

And that's the news from Browerville.

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