Last weekend, I got to take some shots of some friends who got engaged a few months ago. I’m just now getting around to playing with them a bit, thanks to a great Christmas with my family. Here are two I really like.

This week decides my grade in three classes, and whether or not I’m retaking Calculus II next semester. Oh, the gloriousness if I don’t have to.

And once the next four days of nightmarish hell is over, I get to spend the weekend at New Life Ranch with some awesome people from the summer. It’s gonna be great. Then, three weeks until the next semester starts.

Over the break, I have some plans:
- Edit two weddings worth of photos
- Edit some engagement shots, taken over the weekend at the Ranch
- Move to a shiny new WordPress blog
- Read a some books and finish reading Jesus for President

Oh, break, you couldn’t have come soon enough.

So, Lacy sent me the most awesome gift ever for my birthday, all the way from Uganda. The pictures show the kids she’s been working with holding letters she made that spell out "Happy Birthday Kyle!" She also made me a sweet card and got me a key chain that supports and is made by students at a school for disabled kids, which she also works with. YES!

You can see it a little better if it’s bigger.

As long as I can remember, right around now, being a week from my birthday, and Christmas right around the corner, I have had a list. This list would contain the deepest desires of my heart that I would have loved to find in a box, given to me. To be honest, I have a decent mental inventory of that list this year as well, but I’m scrapping it this time.

I’m not telling you this to brag, or make myself seem a little more righteous, or anything like that. But ironically, just saying that probably sounds like I am. I’ll take that gamble, because I want to give you a challenge.

This year, I’m asking anyone who might want to give me a gift (And I’m not dropping any hints. I know you, yes you, probably weren’t planning on it), go to Blood:Water Mission, Living Water International, or Invisible Children and donate what would alternatively have gone towards a gift for me. And if such a gift-giver really wants to give me something tangible, they can give me the receipt/invoice from said transaction.

So, instead of asking for things you probably don’t need to begin with, try convincing those who give you gifts to give to someone who really needs it. I don’t think you’ll enter the new year missing it, and maybe someone who doesn’t have parents, or food, or clean water might just get what they need for Christmas this year.

PS: Inspired by Advent Conspiracy.

Winter has officially begun. This means that I’ll be crashing on my bike more often (which I did this morning – no more toe clips for awhile) and fixing my car’s broken window will be a little more inconvenient. At least I have a car to fix and a bike to crash. The snow is beautiful.