Been up to my eyeballs in paper grading and the last of our moving experience (my least favorite part: hanging stuff). We're loving the new place and really making the most of the new space, planning to host an open house before the spring semester starts later this month. If you're in town, consider yourself invited.
Saw The Nativity Story the other night with Megan and the girls and thoroughly enjoyed it (though it got a little modern/Hallmark-ish at the end, especially with the cheeseball "Silent Night" soundtrack arrangement and the Nativity "pose" at the end). The appearance of Gabriel to Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds was underwhelming (manifesting a convincing angel is no easy task), but I loved how they portrayed Joseph and fleshed out his character and circumstance - a nice visual to the "resolved to divorce her quietly" struggle in Matthew.
In terms of book reading, I'm halfway through The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, as well as The Shangri-La Diet by Seth Roberts. I'm planning to read Derek Kidner's short commentary on the Wisdom literature (Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes) so I can finalize the syllabus for the Bible class I teach at Wildwood, which starts Monday. I'm really looking forward to studying this with my students, and plan on doing most of our work in class together so as to teach the "how" as well as the "what" of studying Bible discourse.
Not too many extra plans for 2007, other than:
lose 20-25 pounds (and a few belt sizes)
spend (read: "waste") less time on the Internet
pray more (always)
write more (and not just on the blog)
read 65-70 books
exercise more (yeah, yeah)
Sometime in 2007, I need to (finally, and for a third time) pass Hebrew (yep, I failed it again, though with a C this time). Oh, and I'd like - no I NEED - to find a job by May (that's not a resolution but a requirement) for when we leave support in six months. By the way, thanks to the couple of you who responded to our appeal last month - that meant - and means - a lot to us. Personal thank you note on the way.
Now that we're in a house in a neighborhood, I'd like to re-learn how to relate to people who live on my same street, rubbing intellectual and emotional elbows with folks who come from a different perspective than mine, and learning from them as I learn to love them in the process. That would be hugely encouraging to me.
There's more (as always), but it would be too much. We'll see how this much goes and take it from there.