Week of celebrations...

Week of celebrations –
We seem to do things by the week’s worth around here – huge massive spurts of fun and celebrating – well this week’s worth was rather quiet by comparison.
In celebration of “’being on holiday”, we went to city full of temples, nearby, to be true tourists… & to get out of the house… lessons learned – pack a lunch!! Oh, we survived but it was a near miss (well, our teenager was starving!!)!! We did manage to get out of the house!! I’ll post photos later – really fascinating!

Hubby and I celebrated 24 years of marriage! We laughed (independently!) when my mother called to wish us a happy anniversary – we laughed because we had just the night before said “Happy Anniversary – I didn’t plan anything, did you??” Then in the morning, I ceremoniously presented him with a pound of treasured Starbuck’s coffee – actually acquired as a Christmas present but now we get a few extra days of celebrating!!

Scanned pictures drawn by the girls to wish Grandma a Happy Birthday! Nice to have the electronics to do that!! Immediate gratification!

We’ve done the last minute shopping for treasured Christmas presents. Trying to make up for what the kids “may be missing from home”. Things just don’t replace loved ones… that hit hard with me yesterday. A walk on the beach, helped clear the cobwebs & blues! We were also figuring out what to give the “staff” – settled on a form of a fruit/grocery/sweets basket – I think they were happy! The kids were happy to be the distributing elves in grand fashion today!

Today I was being pleased with the Christmas (eve) Turkey Dinner purchased from the fancy-schmancy hotel restaurant… only to discover they used pistachios in the stuffing (of which Joey is deathly allergic to!) So hubby promptly comes up with plan B – “roast beast”. We are all happy with our Christmas Eve Dinner – it was lovely after all! (we gave the drivers Christmas off, thus not a Christmas Dinner!) Biggest laugh came at clean-up when we (namely me & the girls) decided to go in stealth mode to toss the turkey carcass over the beach wall for the street dogs (We feel very self conscious about our leftovers and garbage – how wasteful are we? ) I missed !!! plunk – it landed ON TOP of the wall – impaled on the glass studded wall… HA!! Joey and Jamie were thrilled to go push it off – after a very hearty laugh at mom.
Saturday I had a funny Ah Ha moment – at one moment I could hear my Christmas Carols playing in the living room, the prayers being called at the mosque the next block over AND the music from the Hindu temple in the fishing village (it was REALLY loud) for some special pooja. And just last week, we celebrated Chanukah with friends. It always amazes me at the different faiths around us… and the faithful people, too. So here we are in our own little week of celebrations and so is the world around us! We are looking forward to Christmas tomorrow – to welcome the birth of our Savior – Jesus… the one who has taught us to love our neighbors!!
Well, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night….