Reyes Magos and a Mystical Visitation

Every year we celebrate January 6th (Reyes Magos, or 3 Kings Day) with a traditional Spanish meal. This year we had paella, grapes, manchego cheese (salivates), pseudo-baguettes, and of course, the lovely Roscon de Reyes.

Traditionally, the Roscon is supposed to have candied fruit on top and some fruity flavor inside that comes from brandy. I hate candied fruit and the fruity brandy flavor. But I like pecans (and we live in the South anyway). Also please note (I say with a self-satisfied jiggle of my head and a rakish expression) that the Roscon is made entirely of flour I ground myself with a hand-operated wheat grinder. Que rustico! We have yet to see who gets the coin, and therefore luck for a year, and who gets the rock, and is therefore the bozo who has to buy the Roscon next year.



Also, yesterday when preheated my pizza stone in preparation for making naan (which was also quite yummy and also made with hand-ground flour), the head of an Easter Island statue mystically appeared on the stone.


Please take a moment to vote on the new poll at the top of my blog on what this remarkable image means for me in the coming year!

Old news

Apparently, Steven turned down the honor again this past year. I guess he thought it would be inappropriate for all those other women to be ogling him. Congrats to Johnny Depp for being first runner up...again.

Philately will get you nowhere

A couple of months ago we decided to officially turn our first child into a nerd: we helped her start a stamp collection. She LOVES it.

I bought a little purple photo album from the dollar store, made a cover (shown above), and loaded the album with a bunch of blank white cards. Every time we get a letter with a new stamp on it, Olivia and I cut the stamp off and glue it onto one of the cards. December has been a great time to do it, since people send so many different Christmas stamps. We also recently had a friend move overseas, and they obligingly sent Olivia a postcard with a nice English stamp.

So, if any of you are getting an urge to make a 2-year-old girl very happy for a few cents, please feel free to send us your stamps!

* Olivia also sounds very cute saying "stamp collegshun."

My Dad-in-law

Those who read my husband's blog already know this, but my wonderful father-in-law passed away unexpectedly a few weeks ago.



I don't know what to say about this. He was a great friend to me. He was so much more than that to Steven. He was a wonderful grandpa to my girls. It doesn't feel right to say this in the past tense, so I'll say that we all love him very much, and we will miss him tremendously.

We're so grateful and he and Steven's mom were able to come visit us in October (when this picture was taken). We had no idea of it being the last time we would talk during his life. In the last few weeks, I've been recollecting conversations we had during that visit - where we were and what we talked about. He had such a nice voice. He was so loving and charitable. We are both people watchers and I enjoyed sharing our observations on life. I always felt comfortable and accepted by him, and I really appreciated that, since he gave me his baby boy.

Back when we were dating, I remember Steven describing his relationship with his dad, saying, "He's just always been such a great guy." I second that.

My beliefs on a mopey day

Today all I feel like doing is binge eating.

There are some days when I don't like the person I'm being, and yet I don't have the power to stop it. I think that's the crux of Christianity - our spiritual aspirations are higher than our mortal imperfection will allow us to achieve.

The concept of accepting Jesus isn't a bandaid. The goal is not to stay lowly but feel placated because we've joined the Jesus Club, and he'll make up for it. I'm not into quick fixes or just putting a cover on it and calling it good (nor do I accept the "that's just the way I am" mentality). I don't believe that God just wants us to look good or to feel good. He wants us to BE good. And that's what repentance and spiritual rebirth are about. I believe, and have experienced, the reality of accepting Christ's offering to help us become more than we are - to transcend above our mortality to become more closely the people we want to be. So, I don't have to wallow in self-loathing and be disgusted with myself on days like these, where I really am unsatisfied with who I am and how I am. I can have faith and hope that transcendence is possible - in fact, guaranteed - as long as I work for it and hold up my end of covenants.

Faith, hope, and improvement are a lot more satisfying than binge eating. But also much harder.

First words

My baby is talking.

A few weeks ago she discovered consonants, so her first talk-like sounds were "da-da" and "blah-blah." A few days later we discovered that she was saying these with purpose, and one day we began to hear deliberate "Da-da"s directed at Steven, and "Ma-ma"s directed at me.

Then tonight, as I was getting Carmen ready for bed, she said, "Touch." It took a minute for it to register to me that she had really said it, but then suddenly I realized that she had, and that she meant it. Part of our sleep-time routine is that I turn on her mobile and let her gently touch the animals as they go around (the lion and bear are her favorite). She loves to do this.

Of course, I immediately turned on the mobile and let her touch. And I also planted plenty of kisses on those soft, plump cheeks that suddenly weren't so babyish anymore.

Books!

Every once in a while I have a glimpse memory of a book from my childhood, like: "Oh, yeah, I remember that book...I wonder where I could get a copy?"

So today, while browsing a thrift store, I hit the mother lode! All of these classics from my childhood (plus a few more that were new to me), for a grand total of $3.

Morris and Boris at the Circus
Song and Dance Man
I Can Do It Myself
A Bargain for Frances
Lambert the Sheepish Lion
The Little Engine That Could
Old Hat, New Hat
No Roses for Harry!
Sam, The Firehouse Cat
Little Toot
Pig Will and Pig Won't

It's nice that Olivia was as excited as I was.