christmas 2016

This year my parents came all the way from the east coast to visit us for the kids' holiday break. We had a great time. It was very special having them with us as it had been some years since they had visited us in our home, and we got to spend Christmas and New Years together. They flew to California and saw Sky and then a couple days later the three of them all flew in to stay with us. We enjoyed decorating our tree, shopping for gifts, cooking lots of meals, seeing Shawn's school exhibition night, Christmas eve mass at St. Theresa's Church (yes I am a saint hahaha), going out to dinner and brunch, playing board games, watching movies, walks on the beach, having them meet lots of our friends, seeing all of the tropical flowers in bloom, our New Years Eve neighborhood party, and of course, lots of laughs.

Our family has a tradition of writing letters to one another every Christmas. It started when the kids asked me what I wanted one year and I asked them to write me a letter. It has evolved over the years and now Gary writes letters too. My parents enjoyed getting letters from the kids this year.

What a blessing family is. How lucky am I to have the love of so many people in my life. Sometimes I am astounded at how I ended up with the richness I have. The deepest richness, I have come to see, is in the people.

happy new year!!

Wow wow. What a year! Lots of changes, adventures, challenges and lessons for us. Somehow in this moment we are all doing well. Rolling with life. Grateful for the myriad blessings.

Blessings to all of you, my readers, wherever you are!!

More soon...

garden update

We planted many new trees recently.  Woohoo! These include mango, avocado, orange, grapefruit, fig, mulberry, sapote, starfruit, guava, dragonfruit, papaya and longan.

We are also trying to grow vegetables and herbs. So far we have tropical spinach, long beans, a cucumber, a squash, ginger, and carrots from seeds (still waiting for them to sprout).

Super exciting!!

our vacation part 2

Taking a walk in an open expansive place is what was needed on day two of our vacation.

The kids are at an age where they prefer peers to parents, rock music to peace and quiet, and their computers take up a lot of their time, even though we are stricter than most parents about screen time. Honestly they weren't super excited to take this mini trip.  But we took them anyway, because we are so mean, lol.  We took them away from distractions and screens and cell phones and the sarcasm of other teenagers. We set up camp in a quiet small house on the rainy side. We played catch with them, and picked fruits, and went out for meals and laughed and watched quality movies. We drove around our old hometown and even saw our old house, pictured above. A house Annabel and Sky lived in before Shawn was part of our family. We drove through our old hometown, a cowboy town with hitching posts along the road in some areas. We breathed the fresh air. It was just what we all needed.

I'm glad to remember that time a few weeks ago, and the peace we all felt.

Soon we will be reacquainted with Sky, who is now living 3000 miles from us. We miss her.