First off I want to wish the readers who stop by here an early Happy New Year ... its been a busy one for me as many attempts to keep this blog up have come and gone, yet, here it is. Its the end of the year and surely one of my resolutions will be to write more. I hope I can follow through this time.

The major news sites will look back and review their top stories of the year ... most of those stories were not covered here.

I decided to be a crowd follower and post a year end summary of my top stories (newsworthy items that is) ...

To begin one of the biggest stories on the pro-life front was a new advance in stem cell research. I called this reprogramming method of stem cells a step in the right direction but offered a tempered skeptical outlook on the whole issue. In a small blurb I lamented a hit on freedom of conscience when the United States Supreme Court stated "Religious groups must offer employees birth control".

In eccumenical news I noted that the Pope gets radical and woos the Anglicans. I also noted that a Vatican-Orthodox commision agreed on the primacy of Pope. When patristic evidences fail, certainly a recent news story verifying the primacy of the Rome from the eastern churches will have to suffice. In futher eccumenical news we had a story that tied in with the Regensburg speech that made headlines early in Benedict XVI's pontificate. We had an unprecedented Muslim call for peace with Christians. Many are skeptical but I find myself in the camp of optimists who see the Regensburg speech and its aftermath as a moment ripe with the possibility of being a major turning point in history, especially for religious freedom. The final eccumenical news item I blogged on was the Catholic Church saying it is "the One" -- that is THE Church founded by Jesus Christ. To religious liberals this was a tell tale sign that this Pope has ushered in the turning back of the clock on Catholic doctrine after all the good that was gained by Vatican II. Further evidence that the Church is in a freefall back to the days of Vatican I was the release of the Motu Proprio relaxing the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass. The move invited much liberal hand wringing.

In conversion news, and this is the blog of a convert, we had an Episcopalian Bishop to Become Catholic. In fact this same thing happened a few times this year. The biggest conversion of the year, however, is likely that of former president of the Evangelical Theological Society Francis Beckwith. He Could No Longer Explain Why He Wasn’t Catholic.

Major Catholic stories I ignored

The rise of "new" atheism
Anti-Catholic movies make a big splash ... or not in the case of the Golden Compass.
Tony Blair's conversion to Catholicism .. quite simply because I do not see the parallels the press sees when they say he is the biggest convert since Cardinal Newman.

Personal "Best of" awards

1. Best six bucks spent all year
Winner goes to purchasing 48 longer wood screws than the cheap ones our builder decided to use in hanging the interior doors at our house. Now when a 40 lb child hangs on a door it doesn't submit to gravity quite as easily.

2. Almost best new parenting idea
Winner goes to flushable diapers. Greener than disposables as it reduces landfill space. Almost as inconvenient as cloth because you still end up washing the outsides. Likely more expensive than both methods combined yet I found myself doing it whereas cloth diapering left me longing for the glory days of disposables.

3. Biggest waste of time for Full Circle blog technology
Winner goes to using Jott to create blog entries. Yes, I can call in blog entries. Its not worth the hassle I put into it as I only used it during the test phase. But if I ever liveblog something ....

4. Best use of time for Full Circle blog technology
Winner goes to Google Reader Live Blogroll. IMHO it still stands ahead of the feature created by Google themselves and I never have to maintain my blogroll other than adding new favorites to my Google Reader which I would do anyway.

5. Best gift Santa brought to the kids
Winner goes to Automoblox


The year in our family

Our entire lives leading up until February of last year can be summarized in the Birth story of Peter. Our lives since have been dominated by caring for our little bundle of joy and the tough decision to homeschool and then to NOT homeschool our oldest son. Next year we MAY homeschool. Stay tuned.