December 18, 2007

This past weekend, I did something one should never do during the holiday season:

I went shopping on Sunday.

Not only was it crazy busy, but there were clothes strewn around
department store aisles, parking lots were filled with walking targets
and holiday cheer was expressed through unfriendly smiles and
semi-polite excuse mes.

Ive never been a fan of crowded environments and tend to zone off into
a dizzy, zombie-like world when my mind becomes too stimulated. 
While I was definitely not happy in a busy atmosphere, Ive never been
too bothered by the over-materialism of this holiday season mainly
because I love giving gifts. I bake cookies from
scratch, hand write all my Christmas cards and often personally add
additional creative gifts to my family.

Every Thursday I teach a 5th Grade Catechism class for my Church.
Last week, I had the kids draw a beautiful prayer to their parents and
place it in a charming, glass frame I bought for a dollar each.  It was
a simple  yet blessed gift they were instructed to give and recite to
their parents on Christmas day The prayer said:

O Almighty God, you gave us the commandment to honor our father and
mother. In your loving kindness hear my prayer for my parents. Give
them long lives and keep them well in body and spirit. Bless their
labors; keep them always in your care. Bless them generously for their
loving care for me. Grant that, through your grace, I may always be
their support and comfort, and that, after our life together on earth,
we may experience the joy of together praising you forever.

No gift is greater than the gift expressing gratitude.

A gift isn’t valued for its brand, its price or its worth to other
people.a gift is significant when its value symbolizes the love of the
relationship you share with that person.

Through love through listening…through observing…and through
caring, you know what that person wants, needs, loves and cherishes.
Most recently, for my birthday I received a cooler for my laptop, a
personalized cake, a book from my favorite childhood tv show Little
House on the Prairie and donations to my nonprofit.  Only people who
truly knew me knew how much I needed, loved, wanted and appreciated
these small yet significant gifts.

I was grateful and their special gifts, gifts which took an
extraordinary form of listening, symbolized that they were grateful.
In that small moment in time, we both shared a distinct, spiritual
energy of love and gratitude.a feeling we should all have during this
blessed time of year.

God Bless all of you during this religious holiday.

Journal Pictures December 18, 2007

Talking about boys at Tito Jimmy’s house on Friday night.

We played the ‘white elephant’ game. (Basically, you pull out numbers and can ‘steal’ gifts from each other.)
My gift was taken from me!
The little fitness girl in me decided to buy a stability ball and jumprope as my gift. LOL!

I ended up getting non-alcoholic, liquor-flavored,chocolates –

With my girlfriend, Stephanie, at Ichi Maki for lunch on Tuesday – it was her birthday!

Christmas party with my mother’s employees! She rented a limo bus and took us to dinner at ThunderValley.

Alfredo, Techi, Jimmy, Jun, Evelyn and Arlo after dinner. They are such fun and happy people.

I loooovvve my daddioo! I am a full fledged, daddy’s girl..

This is my Uncle Colin (my dad’s brother) He has such a fun accent since he’s from New Zealand