Last night we held a Moot at an undisclosed location in close proximity to my back patio. The festivities began around 7:15 or so, as grill burners were fired up, juicy steaks were seasoned and seared, stir fry was stirred up and fried, our favorite non-alcoholic beverages were iced down, and Bird and Blo arrived after successfully securing their cheap H.E.B. stogies.

In the (nearly unthinkable) absence of Rod and the (tragically regular) absence of Phil, we invited several honoraries. These included Andrew, a second-generation Thinkling and my first-born, along with past fan favorites Stroke and Quaid. Both Andrew and Stroke brought their lovely better halves, who hung out inside the house with the female members of my household. My fifteen year old son Blake also Mooted for a short while, enjoying his first Thinklings steak and talking sports with the guys. I sent him back inside right before Bird and Blo began spewing smoke from their fire sticks. My dog Cooper also enjoyed his first Moot as an honorary. He didn't add a lot to the conversation but he did succeed in begging about 3 pounds of meat scraps off our table and weaseling more than his deserved share of scratches behind the ears, belly rubs, and other forms of doggie self-actualization.

While this Moot was a little shorter than past Moots, lasting until only the wee hours of the night and not until, as is tradition, the rising of the sun, it seemed a bit more conversation-packed than some recent Moots. Some of this was due to the serendipitous inclusion of the aforementioned Quaid, who aptly played the role of provocateur. We had some hammer and tongs moments, wrestling over perennial Moot topics such as Christian liberty, while engaging in new arguments over tax policy, the divisive role of politics in our culture, the legislation of morality and the morality of legislation (just because it is legal, is it right?). We discussed the Tenth commandment at length, why O'Douls is so much better than Sharps, why the Texans are so much worse than their record, and why the doctrine of the Trinity is not just an essential but the root of all essentials. We discussed how I am currently unemployed in Greenland while Blo marveled at the sponginess of our dessert and we marveled at how Blo has never before seen or tasted angel food cake (yes, we had cake. Another Moot first).

Over time the honoraries had to leave, with Andrew departing first, Stroke second, and finally Quaid, leaving just the Rod-less, Phil-devoid triad of Bird, Blo and me. So it seemed like a great time to began flogging Blo for his feet-planted-firmly-in-mid-air stance on Calvinism, where he is solidly and decisively either a 0 point or a 4 point "moderate Calvinist", except when he isn't. He tried to turn things back on me for my erudite enthusiasm for God's sovereignty and eschewing of labels invented after the 16th century, but his jabs were easily parried. About 2:00am, when we normally would hit the Moot wall, we engaged in about a half hour of stand-up Moot, while gathering our trash, plates, forks and other crockery. We noted that in February we will observe our tenth blogversary, and I engaged in my normally empty pledge to begin posting more and my even more fruitless annual urging of Blo to begin . . . well, to begin posting anything. Blo becomes more transparent during these times, and he nearly faded away completely, becoming harder to see, in fact quite wraith-like, until I dropped the subject and Bird began talking about Squatch. Boom. Blo was back, fully opaque and manifesting corporeal again. We talked about Bigfoot for the remaining twenty minutes or so of Moot 2012. Blo is, by the way, a Believer, with Bird more solidly in the "Knower" camp. The Patterson video is not a hoax, by the way. Science says so.

Around 2:30am Bird and Blo made their exit. As they drove off I, as I do every year, thanked God for such awesome friends and brothers, and for the fellowship and conversation I can have with these guys that is like no other.

Great Moot guys - definitely this was a Moot to remember. Phil and Jared, we missed you.