The morning saw me at the church office. I was working on some catechesis stuff, mostly. I also prepared the wax warmer to receive a cube scented like frankincense and myrrh.

That, of course, means that there was to be an Epiphany Divine Service tonight. There was. Before the service, we had a potluck supper. This is what I prepared the smoked pork for on Saturday. Today, I finally chopped the pork. It was probably the worst picnic roast I ever bought; very fatty.

A couple of teams were officially announced for the Olympics, so I spent a little time trying to recreate them for NHL 14. The Czech Republic and Switzerland announced their rosters. The Czechs were one of the six I was looking to recreate. The Swiss, because they announced, I did recreate; their roster was probably the easiest to recreate. Tomorrow is the deadline to announced the rosters.

So, it was a pretty normal morning, except that we took both vehicles to church. Bible Study was followed by Gottesdienst. Preaching was on the bloody text of Matthew 2:13-23, when Herod goes on a murderous rampage against the Christ, killing the young boys in Bethlehem. Then, and this why we took both cars, I stayed behind to begin catechizing a young lady.

I spent a little time at home, then. While the kids watched some stuff on Netflix, I looked through eBay listings at Märklin stuff. I wasn't looking for anything in particular—wasn't looking to buy anything—just wanted to look at stuff.

Then, we headed into Aurora on snowy and icy roads to attend an Epiphany Evening Prayer Lessons and Carols service at Hope Lutheran Church. The Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei was in town on a tour to sing for the service. It's their service, essentially, that they lead at various locations on their tour. I used to do the same thing with the Concordia Seminary Chorus.

Now, it's a late night for all of us. A late supper will be followed by bed time, I think.

In preparation for Monday's Divine Service...well, the preceding potluck, I smoked a pork picnic. Chopped pork is going to be delicious, as always!

While it smoked, I did more preparation for the NHL 14 Sochi simulation. The rosters I'm trying to make as close to the real things are the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Czech Republic. So far, I've gone off the projected rosters from NHL.com. Of course, the US has already announced theirs as of the first. I've got almost everything done, except that there are three players I would either need to create (if I can find the way to do that) or replace still. Given how quickly I've gotten through the six rosters I've done so far, I may add Slovakia to the teams I want to replicate.

We got about 6 inches of snow, and flurries and occasional showers are still possible through the night. So, out came the snow thrower this evening to clear the driveway and sidewalk.

All-in-all, it was a pretty productive day.

Another morning in the office. Couldn't get my head around the text for Monday, so I borrowed a sermon, making some changes here and there. I put the handout for Monday together. Then, I planned the hymns for March, except for the Mid-week Lent stuff. Can you believe Ash Wednesday is March 5? So close...

Back home for a bit. Did some more preparation for my NHL 14 Sochi simulation. I'm trying to make a few rosters as accurate as possible, adding my created players to their respective national teams if they "make the cut."

Since it's Friday, it's Bible Study night. Molly was felling ill, so the two older kids and I headed to Kiowa for study at the Plasters. We continued with our reading of the Apocrypha, picking up where we left off with Judith. Chapters 7 through 13 (or was it 12?) were certainly more interesting than the first 6 chapters. Judith is a talkative heroine in this extra-Biblical work of fiction.

Today, I went into the office and prepared a sermon for Sunday. Nothing like closing out the Christmas season with a bloody text. Other than that, it was back home to relax a bit. I played a little Gran Turismo 6 and continued to get frustrated with it. I'm not playing it tomorrow. I played a little NHL 14, too. I'm preparing a simulation of the Sochi Olympics, at least as much as I can do with this game.

I'm going to start a new series on my blog. I hope to update it every day this year. Yes, that's 365 entries. If nothing more, I plan to list what I did that day.

• I stayed up to midnight. I wasn't expecting to, but I made it. Happy New Year!
• We had church at 10am. The Circumcision and Name of Jesus was the event. The sermon is posted on the site, so you can read it.
• I made a roast of pork tenderloin. Accompanying it was Spätzle. Roasted carrots and tomatoes rounded out the meal. It made for a delicious late lunch or early supper.
• The rest of the day was spent lounging. I played some Gran Turismo 6 and NHL 14 (PS3).

I find it interesting and not the least bit questionable that the rallying cry this time of year from the American Evangelicals is to "Keep Christ in Christmas." They are easily offended, and their offense at this time is toward the phrase "Happy Holidays." Some are offended at the term "X-mas." To them, it detracts from the "reason for the season."

So...yeah, I did it again: waited to post a group of sermons. Well, the latest manuscripts and recordings are up. Here's the list:

• Michaelmas
• Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity
• Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity
• Last Sunday of the Church Year

It has been a while, but I've added some photos to the photo album linked at the main domain. It's a couple of albums from earlier this week. Check them out by following this link. Over time, as I find time to go through our vast collection of photos, I may add more albums to the site.