Good stuff

Here are a few baby pics from the last month, Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Here he is eating his first bites of baby cereal right before his 4 month birthday, on Thanksgiving Day (Nov 22):
He opened right up, like he'd always known what spoons were for.

Here he is with his Great-Grandpa Rog right after Thanksgiving:
Flirting with our neighbor girl, Sophia. She's 3 weeks younger than him. "C'mere, mama! Daddy's gonna give you a kish."
Santa Baby opening a present on Christmas with Jackie's family in Florida. He loves to rip the paper--not to open the present, of course, but to eat the wrapping.
Baby got the "haul," as we say in my family. And doesn't he know it!
Santa Baby taking a walk in the park, looking for gators from the safety of his new stroller. You wouldn't know it, but he's smiling under all that junk we smother him in. It was like 80F that day... the little guy was a bit sweaty under that cap. And no, no gators. Just a couple lizards.
One of the benefits to Christmas in Florida is swimming. Here he is, in the pool for the first time! Yeah, we're a little protective of his porcelain skin. Maybe I should follow suit.
Christmas was nice, though I'm still getting used to wearing shorts and flip-flops in Dec.

Re: my PhD applications, they're all submitted. It's out of my hands now! (as if I ever had much control to begin with). We'll see what happens sometime by early to mid March.

I thought about taking a poll to see where people think I should go to school, presuming offers from all 4, but then I realized you people would vote selfishly based on how close we were to you (or how far). And that's NOT very helpful. So, I'll just list the schools/locations and let you pine away for us.

Here they are, in order of my preference:
1. Notre Dame (in South Bend, IN)
2. Duke (in Durham, NC)
3. Emory (in Atlanta, GA)
4. U of Chicago (you know where)

The program at ND is quite competitive--and though I think I'm a strong candidate, there are a number of competitive applications vying for the same two or three available spots. So it's anybody's guess at this point.

While Chicago is probably the most prestigious of the remaining three for theology (and very competitive), I feel that Duke or Emory might (?) be a better fit for me over-all. They're all excellent schools for what I want to do--all are exciting prospects--so an offer from any of the four will most certainly be a step in the right direction, and an excellent start to a quality academic career as a historical theologian.

These applications are arguably the most risky thing I've ever done in my whole life... I feel like I've really put myself "out there" by applying to such highly-ranked institutions. Since I have no back-up plans for "lesser schools" to assure entrance into a program somewhere, I feel as if I've put all my eggs into one basket, the Basket of Elite Institutions. For some crazy reason, I would rather spend a year off and reapply again if I don't get an offer from any of the four, waiting until the second round for the "safe" applications. But I would still bust my butt to get into the same four.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and support. Here's to a very Blessed Christmas (still nine days of Christmas left!) and a Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading!