best of 2006, part 1: the books

best of 2006, part 2: the music

best of 2006, part 3: the movies and tv

and now, the best family moments…

my favorite moment with my daughter in 2006
my first impuse was to write ‘high tea at harrods in london’. but i think that was more memorable in concept than reality. but i think the real highlight was our meal at wagamama’s just north of the london eye, alongside the thames. here’s a photo:

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my favorite moment with my son in 2006
i was thinking, when i typed this category, that i would choose a moment with max from our 2006 trip to peru. but i think it was pretty hard to beat this moment on stage at the charlotte nywc, when 3000 youth workers sang happy birthday to him. max still hasn’t stopped talking about it. he looks at this picture and always says, “i was really happy at that moment.”

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my favorite moment with my wife in 2006
walking through times square at about 1:30am on new year’s day (one year ago yesterday!). we went to new york for our 20th anniversary, and stayed at a great hotel 1/4 block from the center of times square. but we didn’t do the ‘stand out in the cold behind a barricade with no bathrooms’ thing for new years eve. we hung with friends instead. but there was something magical about walking through the middle of times square at 1:30 in the morning when it was mostly empty, but completely full of trash and post-party entrails (all gone the next morning, btw). we just had fun. we picked up wads of confetti and threw them again; we danced around; we kissed. i don’t know — it was just a great moment, and a great memory.

my favorite family moment in 2006
on our vacation to glacier national park over spring break, we created our own ‘stations of the cross’, then had a wonderful and beautiful time of silent family worship as we each progressed through the stations, drawn by each other. it was cool to worship, and both lead and be led by each other. here’s max’s drawing of christ on the cross.

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tomorrow… the best of 2006: the blogs