Life in Progress

99.9% of the time, when someone shows you something and then adds the line "Well, it's a work in progress," that's their way of saying "Yes, I know this kinda looks like a hack job right now, but quit judging me for it."  So.  Take today's title as you like.

With the last string of comments received on the blog's appearance, we've made some changes to the design of this particular work in progress to make it slightly less dark and halloween-all-year-long-ish.  That being said, I really don't see what the problem would be with having Halloween every day of the year.  I mean come on, how sweet a gig would that be?  Everybody in costumes all the time, I could wear my cloak to work without getting stared at overmuch, and you could just send your kids around the neighborhood to collect candy when you're trying to get them all riled up in the middle of the afternoon so they'll be ready to drop come bedtime.  That's a winning theory right there.  But I digress.

For those of you who received our Christmas letter/update, most of what follows is just an update to said correspondence, and for those of you who didn't, we probably didn't have your address entered into our contact information in either of our phones.  Facebook messages are a wonderful way of rectifying that particular situation.

The two very large deals around our house over the last month or so consist of one exciting event in fiction and another in reality.  One must have balance between these things in life, it seems.  The first, and fictional bit of excitement (the story is fictional, but the fun (for all our Big Bang Theorist friends out there) is real!) has been the publication of The Lightborn Queen, which is the conclusion to the Ironborn Cycle, the previous two of which were published on Kindle earlier this year.  The whole online publishing experience has been an interesting ride for us over this past year, but it's something we've wanted to do for some time, and this was the right trilogy to do it with.  We're not sure what's going to be going up next so far as self-published works, but we certainly won't be stopping at three, that's for sure.

The most exciting piece of news of late has been the confirmation of Dave's suspicions as to the gender of our coming child.  After much speculation, none of which was backed up by true empirical evidence, modern science has confirmed that our baby is indeed a boy.  Bring on the blue onesies, the complicated potty-training, the parade of car rides to various kinds of sport practices, and eventually, another priesthood holder in the house.  Very excited about at least half of these things.  Which half, you decide for yourself.



This Christmas season, we'll be staying pretty close to home.  Christmas is at Dawn's grandparents' home this year, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone there for the festivities.

In our home at this time of year, we celebrate the birth of Christ, no matter when his birthday factually happened in our history.  We do this to remind ourselves that we should be thinking of him and the blessings of his life and his gospel in our lives all the rest of the year, not just at Christmas.  In that same way, though some of you may only seldom hear from us because of distance and distraction, we want you to know that you also are dear to us at all times, and not just when the days are shortest.  May peace and laughter linger constantly in your homes, long after the Christmas music has finally been turned off and the decorations have been shuffled back into the attic.