Blessed 2012 everyone...

Whew! the last few weeks were a whirlwind of activity... there was a lot of drama, two birthdays, a wedding anniversary, new year eve festivities, an engagement and two untimely deaths. Drama always occurs when the whole family is home, it was great to be back in the midst of it all... nothing new there. My brother's celebrated their birthday and I made my first ever authentic cheesecake which tasted like lassi and biscuits according to Antonio. New Year's eve was extremely fun, it was great singing with my church choir again... we sang 'When A Child is Born' and practicing for it was wonderfully uplifting. I miss choir practice, I miss getting that high feeling whenever we used to practice for Sunday mass. And the other big event was my sister's engagement to one of my best buddies, had a whale of a time there meeting cousins and hanging out with them. In between all this, I loved walking around my little town and soaking in the magic of Christmas. The beauty of this season is overwhelming, at least in my hometown it is... my place glows with a rustic kinda beauty, there are no giant Christmas trees or massive ornamental decorations. Most folks just blow up balloons and string them onto trees or they trail crepe paper through the trees and in the glow of the serial lights they look pretty. Bright stars adorn almost every house, as you stroll along you'll come across nativity scenes that are constructed with a kind of sweet smelling wild heather like stalks, and the churches (there are so many out there) are tastefully decorated to the hilt, you hear folks caroling every now and then... it's a simple kinda beauty that makes the town glow and this reflects onto the people. Have put up a few pictures on Facebook, you can see them here if you want to. 

Death is never easy to understand, a lot of questions and doubts will arise... with time we learn to accept, and we hope and pray that they are happy in God's eternal kingdom. God bless Antonio's grandmother and my sister's close friend who have gone home to their Creator.

Well, here's wishing all of you a Blessed 2012... peace, joy and love be yours always. He promises a lamp unto our feet, not a crystal ball into the future. We do not need to know what will happen tomorrow. We only need to know He leads us and we will find grace to help us when we need it.