December means Christmas parties, trips to see Santa, and the Cowboys being eliminated from the postseason. Let’s take those annual winter inevitabilities in reverse order.

If your quarterback is struggling and your offense stinks, just play the Cowboys. Once again, the Dallas defense made a bad offense look good and a mediocre quarterback look like Joe Montana in last night’s embarrassing home loss to the Vikings. Minnesota rookie J.J. McCarthy, in just his eighth start, threw for the most yards in a game in his career, averaged 10.4 yards per attempt, threw for two TDs, and ran for another. After beating the Eagles and Chiefs in back-to-back games, Dallas has now given up 78 points in two straight losses to demolish whatever hope a few Cowboys fans might have had.

I feel sorry for Dak. I really do. Prescott now becomes only the third quarterback in NFL history to start for the same team for at least ten years and not win at least one divisional playoff game (the other two are Tony Romo and Archie Manning). Dak is finishing his tenth season as the Cowboys QB, his fifth missing the playoffs.

It’s not his fault.

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The grandsons saw Santa Claus over the weekend and, by all accounts, killed it. Not a problem. Elliott didn’t fully embrace the experience the way Samuel did. But he didn’t cry. He endured.

In case you’re wondering, yes, the boys do own several pairs of shoes.

I was relieved to see that Santa is aware of Oklahoma. I’ve never been sure about that.

But it doesn’t matter because the boys are coming to Midland one week from tomorrow for Christmas and Santa and all that entails. It’ll be their first-ever trip to Texas. They might bring their parents.

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Our dynamic GCR youth group finished their progressive Christmas dinner at Stanglin Manor last night. Somewhere between 40-45 teenagers and a few brave adults (that’s only about a third of the people in that picture) crammed into our living room for desserts, hot chocolate, and an awkward gift exchange. It was another inspirational demonstration of the intergenerational nature of our congregation.

If our teenagers at GCR know anything, it’s that the adults in our church love them and support them and want the best for them and enjoy spending time with them. We work really hard to ensure our young people know they are a vital part of our community of faith. And these same teenagers are pouring into our children’s ministry, too. One of the coolest things I’ve seen at GCR was at the kids’ Christmas pageant Wednesday evening when four rows of our youth group showed up to support and cheer on the children!

I thank God for what he’s doing in and through our youth group. These are all fabulous kids who really do love this church and each other. I’ll continue to say that if you want your kids to truly be more like Jesus, if you’re really serious about the spiritual formation of your teenager, you want him or her to spend as much time with Jadyn and J.E. as possible. And with this group.

Peace,
Allan