Ancient Truth | Modern Sound

Frank: Alright, so this is the Hart family talking about the last year.  This is Angel, Von, Frank and Kim.  AngelVonFranKim.  So, what happened last year?

Von: We went to our Grandma and Grandpa’s house — so we could open presents, and I got a whole bunch of presents.

Frank: So, you’re talking about last Christmas when we went to Illinois? What’s the one gift you remember?

Von: I — um — some heart bracelets.

Angel: … and, also, in Kansas, we went to Worlds of Fun and I busted my lip because I did a front flip and I hit my lip on my knee …

Frank: That doesn’t sound like worlds of fun …

Angel:  … I was in the bouncy house, and it was swollen and it had a cut in it …

Frank:  You looked like you were really sad for like three days with your lip sticking out.

Kim:  And Von also at the same time had a black-eye, she hit it on the shelf by her bed, so we had two children with messed up faces at the same time, it looked like we were beating our children in the face …

Frank:  Von has a bruise now, too.

Kim:  Have we been beating our children?

Von:  The reason why, how I got my black eye, was that I was in my bed and my cat named Number Nine was also in my bed, and I thought he jumped down, because I have a high bed and I also have a shelf right beside my bed, so I jumped when Number Nine jumped down (my cat’s name is Number Nine) … and I didn’t even notice … I was like, “Oh, well” … and when I woke up in the morning my Mom was wondering … she thought it was a shadow, but she was also like … she was thinking, “what is that?” … “Is that a shadow? It must not be a black-eye!” … and then we went in my parents room and she said, “VON!  You have a black-eye!”

Frank:  If I were to buy you guys a new sports car, what color would you want it to be?

Angel:  Orange.

Von:  Light blue.

Angel:  No, black!

Kim:  Black.

Frank:  I’d go for black.

Frank:  If I were to buy you a new coat, what color would you want it to be?

Angel:  Probably black.

Von:  Light blue!

Kim:  Black.

Frank:  All right then.  What’s your favorite thing to drink right now?

Angel:  My favorite thing is probably Dr. Pepper.  And, her the same thing.

Von: Yep.

Kim:  Monster.

Frank:  Blue Monster?

Kim:  What’s your favorite thing to drink?

Frank:  Um — probably Breckenridge 471 I.P.A.

Angel:  I have another one … how about our favorite ice cream?

Frank:  Ok, what’s your favorite ice cream?

Angel:  Coffee.

Frank:  Coffee ice cream is your favorite?

Von:  Yeah, we just had that today.  It’s my favorite, too.

Kim:  Marble Slab Amaretto with Nestle’s Crunch!

Angel: Go, Dad …

Frank:  um — I don’t have a favorite ice cream.

Von:  What’s your favorite candy? Dad?  Let me guess — chocolate.

Frank:  Probably those squishy milk chocolate balls.

Von:  What’s yours Angel?

Angel:  My favorite is probably what Dad is.

Von:  Mine is all the hard candy. 

Frank:  That’s your favorite chocolate?

Kim:  No, she said candy.

Frank:  Hard candy?  Like what?  What hard candy?

Von:  I don’t know what it’s called … but, like, the one … I don’t know ….

Frank:  Describe it.  What shape? What color is it?  What does it taste like?

Von:  It’s green … and

Kim:  Spearmint.  What you had tonight?

Von:  That’s my favorite.

Angel:  Go Mom.

Kim:  I like the round balls that Dad was talking about.  Normally I would probably get Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

Frank:  Those are good, too.  Favorite restaurant?

Angel:  Oh, I got one!  Does Chik-Fil-A count?

Von:  Well actually … what’s the name of that place?

Kim:  Khan’s?

Kim:  Second to that is Olive Garden?

Von:  No, I was going to say that other Indian place … Shiva’s!

Kim:  I would still say Shiva’s.

Frank:  Shiva’s is good.

Angel:  And now, favorite Christmas present!

Frank:  From this year?  Ok. Favorite gift that you hope you get!

Angel:  iPod Touch!

Frank:  Ok.  He hopes he gets an iPod Touch.

Angel:  I know I’m not getting one.

Frank:  (to Von) You already have one you don’t need anything.

Von:  I don’t really care what I get. I already have a…

Frank:  Favorite gift that you’ve gotten in the last year, Von?

Von:  iPod Touch!

Kim:  I would like to get … I can’t remember the name … the reading thing …

Frank:  Oh, an Amazon Kindle!

Von:  What’s a Kindle?

Frank:  It’s what she wants.  It’s not that girl in your class.

Kim:  (to Frank)  What do you hope that you get?

Frank:  What do I hope that I get? Uh … I don’t know.

Frank:  What was your favorite meal over the last year?  Like you set down and you ate it, and for whatever reason that was the best meal of the last year.

Angel:  Probably donuts!  I’d have to go with donuts.

Von:  Anything my Mom makes.

Angel:  Except for carrots.

Kim:  Ahhhhh

Angel:  Me too!

Kim:  You’re so sweet.

Angel:  And Daddy!  (Laughs) Of course Daddy!

Kim:  Pizza House Pizza!

Frank:  That was good.

Angel:  Wait I have another one … I would have to say, in Illinois, there’s this Pizza place and it was reaaally good.

Kim:  Aren’t you talking about …

Frank:  … the one in Missouri?

Angel:  Nope!  … Yeah.

Kim:  I was glad to see Heather Davis this Summer when we went to Kansas City. My college room mate …

Von:  Yeah, she’s nice!

Angel:  Dad, what was your favorite meal?

Frank:  It was probably when we went to Shiva.

Von:  Didn’t we go to Shiva twice?

Frank:  I just remember thinking, “Yep.  This is what it’s supposed to be all about, right here.”

Angel:  Now favorite thing that you love to build.  Von, has to …

Von: My favorite thing that I like to make, that me and my Daddy made this, like … was it yesterday … On Thanksgiving we made this “WALL-E” thing that actually moves!

Frank:  Yeah, that was fun.

Angel:  And also, the Erector Set … not with a hammer but with tools … I built a truck … a dump truck.  It took me a long time to build.

Frank:  Did you have any help?

Angel:  Yep, half of it.  Most of it.  A lot of it.  And then me and Mom did the rest of it, then I did the rest of it.

Frank:  I think I enjoyed building that house with you the most.  The Lego House?

Angel:  Oh, yeah.

Von:  About presents … If you can listen really closely you can hear Number Nine’s purring.  I got, for my birthday last year, a cat. 

Angel:  Now we’re going to talk about our favorite thing to wear.

Kim:  Clothes.  Clothes are my favorite thing to wear.

Angel:  That didn’t count.

Frank:  What the favorite movie that you’ve seen in the last year?

Angel:  Probably …

Von:  Ooo, I got one, that I actually watched about five times in like three days, because it was a rental … what’s it called … about the vampire …

Angel:  Twilight?

Von:  Yes.  Twilight.

Angel:  And my favorite movie has to be … uh … I would have to say … The Dragon Movie …

Von:  How to Train Your Dragon!

Frank:  I’m tempted to go with Avatar … but, I’m going to go with The Book of Eli.

Angel:  Now Mom …

Kim:  What did you say?  Avatar?  Book of Eli?  I liked how to Train Your Dragon.  I’ll add the one … the dream sequence?

Frank:  Oh, yes.  Inception!  That’s a good one.

Von:  Did I watch that?

Angel:  And now … our last thing …

Von:  … second to last, because …

Frank:  Just keep talking.

Angel:  Our favorite place.

Frank:  Place?  Where we went?

Angel:  That we went this year.

Frank:  Well, where are some places we went?  List em off … Illinois, Kansas City, where else …

Angel:  Chuck E Cheese … Pizza places

Frank:  We went to San Antonio and walked around the River Walk.

Angel:  … seen movies with our family …

Von:  Mine is probably when we went to Illinois and … what is that place called?  Missouri?  Sea World.  When we went to Sea World.

Kim:  That’s not in Illinois.  That’s in San Antonio.   I know something else that you thought was very wonderful …

Von:  What?

Kim:  It involved seeing your cousin …

Von:  Oh!  When we went canoeing and I got to see my cousin Jason!  I hadn’t seen him for a long time!

Angel:  And, can we pray for him? 

Angel:  And my favorite place to go is probably …

Von:  What I’m gonna do this year for presents, is I’m gonna make …

Frank:  We’ll see how that goes.  Um, so, what do you think, looking out over the last year, all the way back to last Christmas, what are some of the biggest, most important things that have happened?

Angel:  I got to see my Grandma and Grandpa.  And my cousins.  That was pretty important.

Von:  The biggest thing to me is that thing I had been praying for, for a long time, was my cousin Jason … who I hadn’t seen in like five years … he finally came back …

         … and I got my ears pierced!

Kim:  I enjoyed going to Illinois and seeing my niece, Jenny get married … well, actually I didn’t see her get married … I got to go to her wedding reception.  And I got to see my high school friend Shelly while I was there …

Frank:  One of the biggest things for me this year was opening up our church’s new auditorium.

 

Frank: … and some friends at the church gave me a new Taylor Guitar! That was pretty sweet.

Angel:  Now, we are going to do what we really want to pray for …

Kim:  What are some things that you enjoyed doing with your brother this year?

Frank:  Well, the National Worship Leader Conference, I got to hang out with Jeff and Gabe and his church friends … I also went to a song writing conference and a video shoot in St Louis and Mom and Dad, Jeff and Julie came up and hung out with Rob and me.  That was fun.

Von:  One thing that I did with Angel was … we had a whole day that we played … and we were really good and didn’t fight even once.  And that’s a pretty good thing for me and Angel.

Frank:  Favorite games … top two favorite games?

Angel:  My two favorite games would have to be Pictionary and also … Sorry.

Von:  My two favorite games would be Pictionary … Picturika! I mean …

Angel:  Picturika!  That’s what I meant to say, too.

Von:  And, probably, pretty much the same thing that Angel said.

Frank:  What about Mod Nation, or Skate?

Angel:  Oh!  Video games!  Wait!  I got two favorite games and that would probably be Toy Story, and The Force Unleased!

Kim:  I liked playing Pente this Summer.

Frank:  I enjoyed when we played Pictionary through the kids at Von’s Birthday Party.

Frank:  What do you want to say to people as the end of our Christmas letter?  To all of our family and friends, what do you want to say to them?

Angel:  I would probably say, you’ve been a great friend for my life and you make me laugh, it’s just been a pleasure to have you …

Frank:  Who are you thinking of when you say that?

Angel:  Andrew, Pierce, Sasha … Travis.  And I would also say, my family hugs me, kisses me, and really takes care of me, they watch movies with me, they play games with me, and I’m just really glad that I have a family like that.

Frank:  Von?

Von:  I have to say — That my family is, to me at least — is the best family that you could every have. So, I think that everyone should try, at least for one day, not to get in a big argument with their brother or their sister — trust me, I know.

Angel:  And, so …

Von:  I hope you have a Happy Christmas!  And a Happy New Year!

Angel:  Now Mom?  Dad?

Frank:  I’ll say Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

Kim:  May the coming year be a blessed year, and may you see new miracles throughout the year, and may your life also be full of giving and sharing!

Frank:  Amen!

Angel:  That’s the end of our talking.  Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!

 (So, that was a word for word transcript of our conversation.  The next night Angel and Von wanted to record another one.  We said we would wait until next year.  Keep in touch.)