Is a big mess from end to end as we attempt to drag out the lights and tree and ornaments and all that goes with that.

Somehow last year, the excitement of a little one coming made it a lot more fun.  Though, I know once it is done and the mess is cleaned up, I will love it.  Right now though...the mess outweighs the fun.

Enough of my bah humbug attitude.  I know it is because I am missing her so much and knowing that Christmas will be without her kind of breaks my heart. 

Reflections of Christmas past... My all time favorite picture from last Christmas as Sojo brought a card with such delight and love. 

As we put up decorations today, I was reminded so much of that week last year when the house was filled with the presence of this little one.  From the way she would shake the red cranberries (wooden beads) on the tree and take little stuffed snowmen and Santa ornaments from the tree and walk around with them to baking cookies with her and reading books to her to taking her to Mass Christmas Eve.  It was all so much fun.  I can only imagine how much fun her Mama and Baba will have with her this year.  Being one year older will make her more aware of just what Christmas is all about.  Maybe next year, she will be back and we can make cookies again, leaving them for Santa with a glass of milk.  Maybe we can take her to Winterhaven to see the lights.  Won't it be special to have her be the one to put Baby Jesus in the Manger after Mass. 

Until then...we will cherish the memories of last Christmas, wait for pictures of this Christmas from far away and be thankful for all the wonderful times we have with one another in between.  Thank you Jesus for giving us Christmas and the gift of family...and especially, grandchildren.

While we were in Pennsylvania visiting Ron's Mom, we were reminded why we live in Arizona.  Because it is VERY COLD there in the winter and there is this cold, wet, slippery stuff that falls from the sky making life less than fun to get around in. 

It really is quite beautiful from the car or from a window.  It is when you get out in it that the problem begins.  Yet, how can you not see the beauty in this?    or this? 

We got to see family and that is always nice. 

There were lots of visits to the Assisted Living Facility where Ron's Mom now lives.  Moments of clarity and simply living in the moment and enjoying what it is.   Mother and Son in the moment

Husband and wife in a moment from years ago.

This lady has taught me a lot about life, but in recent years the most valuable thing she has taught me, is to live in the moment and that we are who we are.  The rest doesn't matter so much.  So breathe in the moment and enjoy it.  It may be all you have today.  Celebrate today:)

You know how people are in not wanting this or that in their back yard.  I try not to judge, but I hope I would base my decision more on what the true value of the thing in my backyard was than whether I truly wanted it or not...simply because it was in my backyard.  Does that make sense?  I hear so much about people not wanting...that school or that business or that group home or that family, etc.  Well, to put things in perspective...how would you like this in your backyard?

  Sojo started preschool the other day and when her mommy and baba came home from school to greet her, she was not there.  Her "nanny" Momo had taken her for a walk.  T & D decided to go to the neighborhood Thai store just outside the gate for some juice and what did they find but a lot of children, with Sojo up front and center with an elephant.  Now...do you have to worry about that in your backyard?  I think not.  But, just imagine that if you can.  Wouldn't it be fun...if even for just one day, you could walk outside your neighborhood into another fairyland or wonderland and find "Horton" in the flesh.  Well, this might have been "Hortensia" because I am told this was one very pregnant elephant.  Can you imagine how exciting it was for one little girl to have her very first day of preschool and then to see "Hortensia" too.  Does life get any better than that!  What 1st day of school stories this little girl will have.  Can't you just hear her saying, "tell me again about my first day of school". 

Anxiously awaiting the school bus (van) with her Horton Hears A Who shirt (did she know what the day would hold for her already) and look at those shoes and the backpack.

And then the icing on the cake later in the day....Does she look excited?  Her feet aren't even touching the ground.  What a way to end the day.

Look at the red tail light!  Too funny!  And I heard her exclaim as she walked out of sight, Happy Preschool to Sojo and to all a goodnight.  Or am I getting my stories mixed up here....

Okay, it has only been a month since I have seen this little one in the flesh and is it my imagination or has she grown into a little girl in that time?

Peeschool...I mean preschool?  Can it be?  Wasn't she just a wee bit of a thing yesterday?  Yes, she was.  See...that's her Baba giving her a bottle. 

And now...peeschool?  Tell me it can't be?  Next thing you know, she will be going off to college.    Here she is going off to check out "peeschool".  I think she liked it...her and Baba sharing a little tea at the table.  And when she got home, she took a little trip around the table to "peeschool" with her Curious George lunchbox.  Move over Chimacum, you may have to wait for summer now.  Doesn't she look all grown up with the lunch box and look at the happy little face.  Be still my heart.  She is growing up so doggone fast.  I am going to need another trip over there to fill up the empty space in my heart right now.  Slow down Sojo, Popo can't keep up with you.  But, then we all knew that, didn't we!

These are two things that I avoid talking about like the plague.  You can't win, no matter how diplomatic you try to be.  And, winning isn't the answer anyway.  I am finally going to try to explain my religious and political views.  It is safe now...our President has been decided.  Hopefully, no stones will be thrown and no friendships or family relationships ruined.  I really want to write this so Sojo will someday know where her Popo stood on these subjects back in the year of change, 2008.

Since the election is so new, let me share my political views first.  My family were registered Democrats and would NEVER have thought about voting for someone who was not.  I grew up in a time when you couldn't vote until you were 21.  By the time I turned 21 in 1967, there was much discussion about lowering it.  The Vietnam War (conflict) was heating up and how can you ask someone to risk their life for their country if they cannot even vote.  I think it was around 1970 that it changed to 18.  I remember voting for the first time with my Democratic mind.  It didn't take me long to realize that being registered didn't mean I had to vote that way.  I even registered Conservative once because I didn't want to be labeled.  Then, I discovered I couldn't vote in the Primary.  Back to the Democrat.  However, I never enter that booth voting "straight" Democrat.  I vote for the person I think will do the best job.  I am NOT Democrat, Republican, Independent, Conservative, or Liberal.  I am American.  Yet, all of those are a part of me and a part of what makes up my deciding vote. 

The reason I didn't talk much about politics during the campaign was because it was such a hard decision to make.  For some the decision seemed so easy, so straight forward.  They seemed to know exactly who they were voting for and why.  I knew I was leaning one way, but there was one issue that wouldn't let go of my heart.  Abortion.  I do not believe in abortion.  Many think that is because I am Roman Catholic (Christian).  That has nothing to do with it.  I would NOT believe in abortion if I was Buddhist or Jewish or Hindu or any other form of Christian.  I believe in the sanctity of life, plain and simple.  Yet, I believe in it from the womb to the tomb and NO ONE running for president looked at it that way.  Womb to the tomb means everything from the moment life begins (which by the way, I believe is at the moment of conception -- not above my pay grade...I am a mother)  to war, to capital punishment, to euthanasia, to allowing immigrants to die unnecessarily in the desert, to child abuse and elder abuse, to anyway in which human life is not respected and celebrated.  I think if you stand up for the "right to life", you have to stand up to it at all levels.  If you don't, then don't tell me that I am not Christian if I voted for Obama.  Don't tell me I cannot receive the Holy Eucharist on Sunday because I voted for Obama.  I think you have to look at the whole ball of wax when you vote for a candidate.  I do not think we will ever have a candidate who will match all of our values, hopes and dreams for our families and for our country as a whole.  But, I do think that Barack Obama has given us hope.  Check out his website http://change.gov/ and send him an email with your hopes and dreams.  

God Bless America.  Our little Sojo at her naturalization in Hawaii on her way to the USA for the first time as a brand new citizen.  May 2008 be the beginning of the change in which our country can make changes right here and around the world.  I think the motto of our country should be HOPE!

Just some pics and thoughts on my trip:

Dale treated Tara and I to a morning of mother and daughter time to get a pedicure before I left.  This was a street vendor on one of the Thailand streets near where the E family lives.  Had it not been so close to my departure, I might just have tried some.  It sure smelled good and most of it looked good too.

Modes of transportation.  Lots of bicycles...check out the woman with the umbrella and the little one in front of her.  In the complex where the E family lives there is a sign that says, "no admittance if you do not have a helmet on".  I guess there is some US influence there.  Lots of motor bikes too as well as small motor cycles and of course taxis. Tara enjoying her foot massage and pedicure.  Aaah....

The finished product.  Four very happy feet.

This is Sojo in her favorite mode of transportation.  A borrowed vehicle from a friend.

Lots of hot pink taxis because the "King" likes pink.  Me too...

Even Ronald McDonald is respectful.  As he folds his hands and if he could, I know he would bow and say "saw-wa-dee-kaw" to each and every person who entered Carre Four (the local BIG SUPER market with everything).  Sojo says "saw-wa-dee-kaw" so sweetly to everyone.  This is a "tuk-tuk"...the locals taxi.  Very noisy, not very safe, I am sure, but it was fun.  Or, would have been if Tara and I had not been in Mama and Popo mode with Sojo in between.  It scared the livin' bejeebers out of me with her along. 

Can't wait to go back and taste a bit more of Thailand and snuggle up with that Sojo again.