It’s not even 6pm eastern and its already dark out…this sad state of affairs is only livened up a bit by the fact that Christmas is only 6 days away – and the fact that its the weekend! Due to the season, the ratio of stories I’ve actually looked at VS. the ones I’ve “saved for a rainy day” are tilting heavily toward the latter. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this (abbreviated!) version of the Weekend Reading!

With the end of the year ahead, there are many news outlets and websites putting together compilations of the best of this, or the best of that. National Journal has one on the top Google trends from 2014 which was interesting. And the Weather Channel has the top 100 photos of the year – many that are pretty darn cool.

Also, it was pointed out to me by my good friend Jim Baugess that the 16th was Jane Austen’s birthday – in honor of that, another Buzzfeed list…

Tim Challies re-posted a stunning open letter from faithit.com titled ‘To My Porn Watching Dad, From Your Daughter’ – the post shares insights I think every man (and especially those with kids) ought to grasp tightly and never let go.

And with the release of the newest Hobbit movie in theaters, there are more than the usual glut of articles relating to Peter Jackson and J.R.R. Tolkien. I literally have three others I didn’t get to read, but this one by David Mathis is really good. **Teaser** – his best line, “Tolkien created Middle-earth not as an escape from the real world, but as a retreat to see our reality all the clearer and come back more wide awake to our world.”

You know the Olympics is going to be in Rio in 2016, so of course the Olympic committee is busy testing the conditions of the area – including the water where athletes will be competing. Apparently it is, well, rather toxic…

Someone put together what they call ‘5 of the Best Free Bible Study Tools’ available. After checking it out, I agree. I use all of these tools regularly, and they’re wonderfully helpful.

Steve Lawson (a phenom of the pulpit) has been blogging out a series called ‘The Moment of Truth’ over at Ligonier’s site. This week the installment was really good.

‘O, Holy Night’ is one of my favorite Christmas Carols, and this week I learned that the song has a great story behind it! Check it out…

And, of course, leading the news this week is the opening of diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the brazen cyber attack on Sony – today the FBI came out and officially accused the North Korean government of being behind the attack. It might just be me, but in the past if a foreign regime attacked America in any way, then threatened to harm/kill American citizens (who attend theaters or any other public gathering), their country would be staring down the barrel of several fleets of warships and fighter planes by now…

Sony, of course, pulled their movie in what some might call a cowardly response to the threats. Even the President whipsawed the Hollywood wussies for their decision in his annual accountability time before fawning fans in the media.

Perhaps the saddest thing about the movie’s cancellation is the fact that it has stunted another great hollywood career? (like we care)

And Stephen Colbert is moving on from Comedy Central and will be taking over David Letterman’s post over at the Late Show. Wait…Letterman is still on TV?

And that IS IT! Now go bundle up and do some shopping – or logon to Travelocity to begin booking your flights to Havana now!  Happy Weekend!