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Ringing in 2015...

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Christmas turned out to be wonderfully surprising this year. After the midnight mass I ended up having Irish Bailey's and plum cake with nuns in the convent. Clinking our glasses to Sláinte! (the Irish version of 'Cheers' or 'drinking to your health') we sat around the dining table swapping stories. For a person missing her choir friends from the church back home, these friends from the religious fraternity made Christmas night pretty memorable.

New Year's was pretty exciting too, it was great being back with family and friends... meeting the shepherd boys of 2006, those small little boys who now tower over me... hanging out with the choir girls after mass, baking and eating the rum cake, and drinking bacardi while being extremely glad for a wonderful 2014 and hoping that the years to follow will be filled with good memories, exciting times and a lot more adventures... this is what I wish for all you readers too.

Today being the feast of Epiphany or the Three Kings feast (Jan 6th), it usually only means one thing... taking down the tree, the crib, the lights and all Christmas decorations. Here are a few pictures before I woefully pack everything away, to be opened after eleven months... 
The creche at my Nagercoil home... 
The Christmas tree... 
I like this little wooden cow near baby Jesus... bought him in Brienz, Switzerland. The Nativity figurines were purchased in Velankanni,
This doesn't look all that good, but my twin brothers birthday makes the Christmas week even more joyful, and even though they weren't around... I wanted to make something to mark the occasion. Settled on making a wheat base Superman pizza... made the S with sausage.  
When I was part of the parish community here, I used to make different Christmas greetings for the parish priest. This year I made Christmas card chimes, here it is hanging in father's home...  messages from the catechism children are stuck behind the card. These messages are really funny, the kids all like him... so most of them are about how cool father is. 
And this is the crib in father's house... he really did a great job here. You know how mud gets caked onto walls, and they develop a character of their own through rain and sunshine... well, father managed to scrape one such mud structure and he placed it in his creche, and it looked so natural in there, with the shepherds at the base of this mud hill while the holy family resides in that small little cave in the corner from which light shines forth... how profound, true Light who came down from heaven.
A house in the colony... Christmas is always fascinating down here... 
Houses are beautifully lit up...
The whole colony seems to glow, with festive cheer.... 
This is the creche at a friends place... 
The crib in the special school.... 
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Comments

Shreya at Jumbodium said…
Very nice post. Yes I heard about the story of Jesus Christ from his childhood till death. It is really very interesting and touchy as well. Thank u for sharing the article with so many memorable things. Keep posting with lots more.
9:42 AM
Karen Xavier said…
Thanks for dropping by Shreya...
10:14 PM
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