This is me and my darling niece, Ava Grace, getting along famously after our first meeting back in fall.

You can read more about Ava’s adventures (and see more pictures) here at my brother and sister-in-law’s blog, aptly named “The Hale Family.”

(Frankly, I think the name could use some snazzing up. How about “The Depths of Hale” or “Adventures in Babyrearing” – a reference to Graham’s all-time favorite film)

But regardless of what the name is, I am enjoying this new trend in American life – the family blog. I’m seeing these more and more.

With Graham and Leslie, with our pastor at the Village, with my missionary friends Mark and Rachel… the blog is not just for driving people apart with half-cocked opinions and retread political commentary from your favorite A.M. radio loudmouth.

It’s actually bringing people together. My family… Leslie’s family… our families… our congregation. It’s like the family photo album and the Christmas card letter rolled into one and available for updating year-round.

And I’m digging it.

(Although “Ava Grace ALL UP IN YO FACE” wouldn’t be a bad name for a blog. On second thought, yeah, that’s pretty terrible. But not much rhymes with Ava… Ava’s Flava… AVA FLAV! Nope… I give up. These are just getting worse)

P.S. I have noticed a trend. It’s almost always the wife doing most of the blogging. Being unmarried myself, I’m not quite sure why that is. But I have a feeling that there is a reason and that it probably took a long discussion to establish this as the common practice.

Maybe the phrase, “Nobody wants to read about how many wookiees you killed last night playing Star Wars:Battlefront II on your PS2,” came up.

Or perhaps, “Who cares if you played “Freebird” without a mistake on expert level this afternoon, our 2-year-old just memorized Pi!”