A lot has happened over the last nine days.  I played Santa Claus last week for the Kouts Hometown Christmas.  That was fun.  It's amazing to see the kids eyes light up when they look at you.  Underneath, I'm still the same person, but the kids see someone else.  Truly amazing and a lot of fun.  And I got to ride into town on a $200,000 John Deere tractor.  I'll have to post a photo of that.

What alse has happened?  Well, the Bears have lost twice in the last week.  They are absolutely out of the running, which is probably a good thing.  Let's put this season behind us now and move forward.  Start thinking about next year.  Also, we have had our first major snowfall of the season.  It snowed about four inches in the middle of last week and much of the snow is still on the ground.  And, this morning we awoke to an ice storm and we cancelled church service.  It was a good call even though we hemmed and hawed about it.  Lastly, it was a long work week here in the Ball household.  I had a couple of late nights and Monica had a couple of early mornings and long days.  The early darkness plays a part of that too, I'm sure. 

The one thing that happened this past week that bothered me the most was the shooting at the mall in Omaha.  I am still trying to put some sense to a sensless act, and that is the difficult part.  Ya know, if some nineteen year old kid wants to kill himself with an AK47 shot to the head, go ahead.  I don't condone it, and by all means, I admire those that would try to counsel someone who feels that way.  But if he felt the need to do so, no matter what anyone else said, then do it.  But why take out innocent people with you?  This is the part that I ponder over.  Obviously this kid had some mental health issues.  And maybe we should look at holding his family accountable for his actions, if it is found that they chose to ignore his problem.  But if this was a spur of the moment thing, which I highly doubt that there weren't any signs that went ignored, then we can't question why it happened.  Maybe its God's way of reminding us to treasure each other every moment that we can.  I don't know.  Then, what really got me irritated, was the following day.  Mayor Daley (of the state of Chicago), who has a had a ban on guns in his city, comments on this.  Now, before I tell you his comments, I should first say that I read an article last Tuesday about how the Supreme Court is going to hear a case on the ban on guns in Washington D.C. and could rule on a 2nd Amendment issue for the first time in decades.  This could have implications on the Chicago ban on guns, or it may not.  Anyway, Daley says that the shooting in Omaha just proves that we need to keep guns banned and that guns cause tragedy.  WHAT!? First of all, this kid stole the gun from a relative that did not have it locked up.  How do guns get into the hands of criminals?  By people not locking them up!  Secondly, as the saying goes, if we take guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, then only criminals will have guns.  If someone in that mall was armed, as I suspect some of them were, (hey, we're talking about Nebraska here) and they had an opportunity to take this kid out, lives may have been saved.  But, I do believe that this kid had in his mind that there were people there who were armed, and he planned his attack knowing that.  Also, he was using a high powered rifle, which, against a handgun, is intimidating, to say the least.  Lastly, the shooting probably took less than one or two minutes.  Not a lot of time formulate a plan to combat a defense against a young man with a rifle.  Anyway, neither me nor anyone else, will ever convince Mayor Daley to change his mind about guns.  But I wish that he would stop making stupid comments.  If that kid was set on taking a few innocent people out before he took himself out, he would have found a way.   OK, that;s all for that.  For now.

Tomorrow, Monica and I set out to complete some Christmas shopping.  We both took the day off, as we always do, to avoid fighting the crowds.  Wish us luck. 

Not being a morning person, I chose to sleep in this morning.  After scoping out the ads yesterday, I saw no reason to get up at the crack of dawn.  Monica, however, got up around 6 am and headed out to see what was left of the big doorbuster sales.  Tyler and Becky went with her.  Upon returning home around 10:30, Becky was ready for more after a quick re-fuel, but Tyler was spent.  Instead of more shopping though, we all headed to Walkerton to pick out our Christmas trees.  (yes, trees....plural)  It was actually quite nice, even though I protest any kind of Christmas decorating before December 12th.  But it had snowed last night east of here and there was still a couple of inches on the ground at the tree farm.  We found two bueatiful trees and the kids had a nice snowball fight.  The first of the year.  So we have our trees; one of which is already in the living room....not yet decorated.  Autumn is officially passed and we are in the Christmas spirit - apparently, but I refuse to jump in with both feet.  I like to hold out a little so that I don't get completely sick of all of the fa-la-la by December 20th.  But with Thanksgiving coming a bit earlier this year, I'm not so sure that I'll be able to keep it all at bay.  We'll see.

I guess, Herry Thanksmas is in order.