It’s New Years Eve and I will be bringing in the New Year at work. Tonight, like the last couple of nights, it is quiet at the refinery tonight. I hope to enter the New Year sitting at my desk and not outside fighting some problem.

Lisa and the children are doing well. Three of the four are at home. Christian is at work, but he should be finishing up soon. I want him home and off the roads before midnight.

I have picked up a new book. It’s a book that I have wanted to purchase and read for a number of years but have not gotten around to it. It is The Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles of Color by Dr. Gary B. Mills . I am not disappointed. Mills was a fine historian and this is a great and valuable work. My friend Ron Metoyer, a descendent of the gens de couleur libre (free people of colour) of Cane River, graciously loaned me the book. It is wonderful and now I MUST go and buy my own copy.

This is the second book I’ve read on Louisiana’s gen de couleur libre. The first book I read on this subject is Creoles of Color in the Bayou Country by Dr. Carl Brasseaux, Keith Fontenot and Claude Oubre. It is dealing with the free people of colour in the Acadian Parishes of Louisiana and not with the Cane River people who are to the NW of this area.

This too is a book I highly recommend. I own and have read a good deal of Dr. Brasseaux’s books on the Acadian/Cajuns. I like everything he’s done.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Tonight I'm at work. I have been off since I worked of Christmas Eve. Monday Mk and his son and me and my little boys went to Longville to visit my folks. Dad and Terry were home and we spent a good afternoon with them.

Mk's son got a new BB gun for Christmas and he wanted to shoot it. He got to do that. The three boys played nicely together. While they were playing I got my SKS out and we shot a number of rounds with it.

After shooting the SKS, Terry got his .22 cal. pistol (Ruger) out and we shot clip after clip from it. I did most of the shooting. Mk is not comfortable shooting, but we're working on him in that regard. My dad also gave me his newest .38 cal. revolver to try out, and I shoot a number of rounds from it as well.

(I found it interesting to hear that MK's family, who are very conservative upstate New Yorkers, are pro-gun control. I guess even many Northern conservatives differ with Southerners and Westerners on that issue.)

We had a good time in Longville. As soon as MK and I have the same days off again we are planning to take the boys up there for another camping trip.

Tuesday morning I went to visit my Pawpaw, but he was not home. I did visit with Corbett (my step uncle) for about and hour. I hated to leave without talking to Pawpaw but I had promised my little boys and Mk's son that I would take them to the park.

I spent the afternoon at the park with the three boys. They had a great time. I pushed them around on the merry-go-round for a good while and then played other games with them. After a bit they started playing around in ways that did not require my assistance, so I sat down with a book and read for a while. We spent about three hours at the park. It was a nice outing.

Today I was able to go by and visit with Pawpaw and Mrs. Esther (my step-grandmother). I love visiting with them so much. It's always fun.

That's the rundown of my days off. Now I have other things to do.

Dominus Vobiscum,
Kenith

We’ve made it through a cold, but very nice, Christmas weekend. We spent most of the 25th here at home. We had Lisa’s family gathering a week ago Christmas eve, and my family got together the next day, so we weren’t obligated to visit anyone on Christmas day.

It was nice to just spend the day at home with Lisa and the children. I did get out once. Lisa’s sister Rhonda was without heat. Her heater wasn’t working so I went there, climbed in the attic and lit the pilot light for her. All was working nicely when I left, but she and her family had spent the coldest night of the year, so far, with no central heat. I told her she should have called sooner, on Christmas Eve.

This morning we went to Trinity Luthern Church to worship. It was a nice service. Tomorrow morning, Lisa and I are supposed to meet with the pastor. I’ve been looking forward to this meeting. I have a number of questions that I would like to ask him about the differences between Reformed and Lutheran views on certain matters. This will be our second time to meet with the pastor; the first time was mostly a "get to know you" session.

The pastor at Trinity is Rev. Duke. He is in his 60's and is a very personable gentleman. Lisa seems to like him a lot.

I told my friend, Bill Smith (pastor of Covenant PCA in Sulphur), that we have been attending the LCMS church and that I would like to visit an Episcopal Church as well. Bill said he knew the Vicar of the local Episcopal church and thought he was theologically conservative. I would like to visit and worship with them. I have worshipped at many Christian Churches but not an Episcopal church. We may visit there soon.

I am not sure what we are going to do as to a church.. I don’t think we are going to return to Bethel (our home church).I have a number of friends at the PCA Church here in Sulphur, but it looks like Bill Smith will soon be leaving and moving to Louisville, Kentucky, to pastor another PCA church up there. I like Bill and hate to see him go, but it would put him very close to Southern Baptist Seminary. He will be able to return to school and get his doctorate. This will be good, because he has great gifts that further education will only help.

I know our friends at Bethel would like us to go back there, and now that we have moved to Sulphur our friends at Covenant would like us to start going there. I’m in no hurry to make any decision about that. I think the move to Sulphur gives us a chance to visit other denominations, which I have wanted to do for years. As long as we lived so close to Bethel, I did not think it would be right to visit around, but now that we have moved, and there are other traditional Protestant Churches between us and the Reformed Churches of Bethel and Covenant, I think this is a good opportunity to check out these churches.

After Church today Lisa went to meet a friend and the little boys and I went to the park to fly an aeroplane they got for Christmas. It worked great, until I crashed it several times. I will have to get them another plane.

Once the plane ceased to function, they went and played on the swings and things at the other end of the park. We had a good time.

I am finally 300 pages into Calvin. I am reading slowly, but I continue on. Calvin is worth taking one’s time to read. I am enjoying him very much. I’ve also been reading some small things on the Lutheran Church and Lutheran views.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Joyeux Noël,

Yesterday and today are holidays for most folks at the refinery, so we shift workers are the only ones working. We had a nice quiet day yesterday, with no extra people around, so we cooked up a big pot of turkey and sausage gumbo.

Today we’re having smoked “drunken” turkey for dinner. We also have lots of snacks. M. Trahan (pronounced trah-hahn [you only start to pronounce the ‘n’ then stop]) cooked yesterdays gumbo and C. Cudd smoked today’s turkey (with a can of beer in it) at home, and brought it out here.

Things are going fine around the house. Lisa and the kids are doing well. Morgan and Christian have been working in the evenings, and so I’ve hardly seen them since I’ve been on days.

It’s cold for South Louisiana. We have actually seen a few snowflakes this morning. The high for today is 36 deg. But our normal high is 62 degrees and our normal low is 42. So it is way cold for Cajun Country.

When I leave the refinery, tonight I want have to comeback until Wednesday night. So I will spend Christmas day with Lisa and the children. We have no plans. We are just planning to spend the day at home. The little boys can play with their new toys and we can watch a DVD or two.

We have plenty of fire wood, that I picked up from my mom and dad’s place in Longville. So I also plan to keep a nice fire in the fire place going. I love to sit in front of the fire with good book and a glass of wine, brandy, Scotch or bourbon, depending on my mood/taste at the time.

Lisa and the kid’s have decided that they want a roast tomorrow instead of the more traditional Christmas dinner. She’s seasoned the roast and I will stuff it tonight when I get home.

Let me get back to my work duties.

Dominus Vobiscum,
Kenith

I am so blessed by God. I am blessed beyond measure.

Yesterday Lisa, Morgan, Christian and I went to eat at Olive Garden. It was so nice to sit there with my wife and our older two children and visit. I like to spend time with my family. There are few things in life better than that.

Today I worked around the house. I had to put about half my books back on the shelf and I but up a couple of shelves in Morgan’s room for her books. Then I went and found my niece Shannon and her husband. Their truck had broken down and they needed a tow home. After we got to their trailer, I visited with them for a while. Brian, Shannon’s husband, recently returned from Iraq and has left the army and become a civilian. Brian starts a new job in the morning.
I don’t know if Shannon has been to church since her Dad (my brother Gerry) died last year. I spoke with her about that and encouraged her to go to worship services.

Tonight, Lisa ordered pizza and I went to get it. After eating, I let a fire in the fireplace and we sat in front of the fire wile Morgan read more of C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew from the Chronicles of Narnia series. Then we did home work and our eight year old started reading a new biography of Christopher Colombus to me.

After Lisa and the little boys went to bed I sat by the fireplace with Calvin’s Institutes and a jigger of bourbon whiskey. I read Calvin and sipped on the bourbon in a cosy chair in front of a fire. Nice!!!!

Deo gratias,
Kenith

Home life continues in a quiet normal pace. Morgan and Christian are working a good bit, which is good for their checking accounts and mine.

I recently purchased Luther the movie, after viewing the one Izzy loaned me. I’ve been waiting for this movie to come out on DVD for more than a year and I was not disappointed when I finally got to see it (see a review). This should be obvious, because I went to Walmart and bought it for myself.

I was supposed to work last night and tonight, but I have vacation time left and took these two nights off. TK, is working days, and he came over after his shift yesterday. I told him that I had some Killians in the refrigerator with his name on it, and that was enough to entice him to pass by after work.

We sat in the living room and talked for about an hour and a half , and drank a few Irish Reds while chatting. We had a good visit and decided that we needed to get our group together and all watch Luther at Gary and Liz’s house, because they have a big screen TV. Gary (by phone) also agreed with this plan. He was persuaded when we offered to bring the liquid refreshments.

After TK headed out, Mike called and asked if it was a good night for us to get together and pray. Mike arrived about 9:30 with a bottle of red wine (a Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 from Liberty School). It was a good, somewhat spicy wine. We drank a couple of glasses of wine, and snacked on Pepper Jack cheese and Triscuits. Then we went to pray. It was beautiful night. The sky was clear and the air was cold. We walked around the neighbourhood and prayed for about and hour.

I have work to do around the house.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Morgan and Christian are working a lot these days. Christian seems to be doing well with his job and so is Morgan at the bookstore. Both of them working does mean that Lisa and I no longer have a built in babysitter. We can no longer say "I need you to watch your brothers" if something comes up. Oh well.

I’m still on days and have worked all this weekend. Today and yesterday were good, quiet days at work. Tomorrow should be busy because its Monday. Everybody will be looking to get to work and they need a permit issued by me to work in the unit, so I will spend all morning handing out work permits, coordinating work, etc... Though tomorrow will be a busy day, its also our last day. We work off tomorrow afternoon and all of the shift, except for me, will not be back to work until Friday evening. I have to come in on days Friday for Rescue Team training.

Yesterday after work, Lisa the little boys and I went to Woody’s house. He had invited a number of friends over. There was nothing for the children to do, so the little boys and I walked down to the small carnival that the City of Sulphur had going called "Christmas Under the Oaks." The boys got to ride a number of rides, including a mechanical bull (Lisa had joined us by the time they rode the bull).

In the past few days Ive read (reread) a number of the short works of the Church Fathers, including Clement’s epistle to the Corinthians. I love Clement’s epistle. I’ve read it a number of times, and it is just a great work. I’m still reading John Calvin’s Institutes. I can't say enough good stuff about what I have read so far in Calvin.

Morgan is two thirds of the way through the CS Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew. She’s reading this aloud for the family on evening when we are all home.

Coram Deo,
Kenith