Filling Out Cards

Nana and Ba-Ba have to go home tomorrow, but they will be back in a few short weeks.  We all got to spend a little time together tonight.  In fact, Nana was helping Madison fill out Valentine's Day cards to all her classmates.  If you look closely, you can see the two different types that she has selected:  "The Avengers" (for boys) and "Brave" (for girls).

Madison liked the Iron Man cards just as much as the Princess Merida cards.  It's probably because she's been so into the "Superhero Squad" as of late.  Each morning on the way to school, she'll have Daddy tell her a story - a made-up story.  It usually features Iron Man, and Madison herself as Iron Girl.    The other characters vary, depending on what mood she's in, but there seems to always be a bad guy after the same crystal the good guys are after.

Dinner tonight was this homemade meatloaf that Mommy cooked up.  It defies explanation, but here goes:  it is the greatest meatloaf in the history of mankind.  Warring nations would find peace if this were served at some sort of peace negotiating treaty.  This meatloaf needs to have it's own stamp at the post office.  And there should be some sort of shrine to it, a monument of marble that passers by can pay silent tribute to.  It's that good.

We didn't do much after that - I mean, after that meat loaf, it's all downhill from there, right?  But we did all get a good night's rest tonight.  Mommy and Daddy popped in one more circus-themed movie after Madison went to bed:  "Water for Elephants."  After hearing so much about it, our opinion was:  "meh."  I mean, we liked it okay.  But on the whole, it just wasn't our thing, I suppose.

Meanwhile, the last hours of the Year of the Dragon are wrapping up.  Supposedly, this is the good year - the one that everyone in China wants to be born in.  The Year of the Snake starts this weekend, and that's the one nobody wants to be born in.  Apparently, it's a bad year.  Looking back at the previous two Years of the Snake:  9/11 and Tiananmen Square.  Hopefully, this will be one of those good Years of the Snake, but the economy is looking morbid, and there seems to be an uprising in violence all around.  Speaking of "unlucky," of course it is 2013.  The number 13 is supposed to be an unlucky one for some reason.  Maybe it's because of that guy with the hockey mask.  Or am I getting my slasher movies mixed up?  We don't watch those either.

ANYWAY, first and foremost, the number 13.  Some may call it unlucky, but in the Bible, guess how many times Joshua and his army walked around the walls of Jericho?  That's right:  13 times.  So, if you want to get all metaphorical, which is an astoundingly big word for me, the number 13 represents the end of a long battle against hopefully odds, where suddenly walls come down and victory presents itself.  So, in that respect, 13 is a good number, right?

Now, as far as snakes go, they have a bad rap.  Deservedly so, I suppose, after that whole tree incident in the book of Genesis.  Yet, Jesus did tell his disciples to be as "wise as serpents" at one point.  So, if God Himself is wanting you to be like a snake in some way, perhaps snakes aren't all bad.  I've personally never had a phobia concerning snakes anyway, although I'm not going to go adopt one to have in the house.

The point - as long and drawn out as it may seem - is that 2013 and "The Year of the Snake" don't have to be a bad thing.  We'll look back a year from now and see how things pan out, but it's important to remember that stuff happens every year, and it rains on the just and the unjust.  Somehow through it all, we try to keep a positive attitude, and fill ourselves with faith that in the end it will all be okay.