Christmas...yet again!

Every year it seems that the distance between Christmases gets shorter and shorter. I recall last year's Christmas the best because it was an odd one......no family...just me and Marius...in Florida. We spent the week prior to Christmas packing our life (yet again)...and spent Christmas eve and Christmas night sleeping on a inflatable mattress in our living room...surrounded by a few boxes...with a big UHaul in front of our house...waiting for the long drive back home to Canada. No Christmas tree...no lights...no wreaths or other decorations....no presents under the tree...just us...and the the thought of what Christmas is really like without all the craziness around it. And it really was peaceful...and full of joy! This year...a bit different...although still living away from home...we are somewhat closer than Florida (I think everything is closer than Florida!!!) so we're able to be home for the holidays...with the people we love...our family (at least half of it!!). I keep thinking how when you're growing up, you mostly want to run away from your parents...spend the holidays with friends...away from any parental supervision...yet when you grow up and move away from them...you cannot wait for the time to come back home...where you feel SAFE...at ease.
I am trully blessed to have amazing parents who would do anything for us (and do everything for us)...and I am blessed to have an amazing husband who loves me more than anything...more than himself...and I know I don't deserve it...but I am also blessed with awesome friends...the few I have, are definetly all I need and want!
So to all of you out there...hope you have an amazing Holiday Season...a Merry Christmas and very Blessed and Happy New Year!!!!

Pre-Christmas memories...

For all of you raised in Romania, i believe you all remember our awesome celebration called: Mos Niculae!! (I know Marius is saying.....that's bogus, nobody celebrated that!!). But we did...and some of my fondest memories revolve around that celebration. I was blessed with the best parents ever.....never once did they miss a opportunity to shower us with gifts...it wasn't hard in Romania because they always had the means...but both my dad and mom always made sure their kids knew how much they were loved and thought of each and every single day. My brother and I would diligently clean out boots the night of the 5th of Dec. We made sure we put the biggest pair of boots we had in the huge window at the kitchen balcony. I even remember to this day the opening mechanism of those old Romanian windows....We would then go to sleep and for some reason never once doubted that we haven't been good enough to get our parents from "Mos Niculae". The best part was when the 6th fell on a school day (back during the communist that wasn't hard because 6 out of 7 times it would fall on a school day...hahahahaha!!!). But going to school and discovering what everyone got in their boots was AMAZING. And I remember how everyone...no matter what grade we were in...EVERYONE kept the "parents" out of the equation. I'm sure not all kids in my class and Claudiu's class were as naive as me and him...but NOBODY...NOBODY ever mentioned that...hey guys, you do now your parents put all those goodies in your boots, right?! Christmas had a more real appeal that way.....
So for old times sakes....drop a little something into someone's boots on the 5th of December, so when they get up on the 6th...they will smile and have a better Monday!!!!

Disturb us, Lord « EVEDYAHU

I first heard this in the summer...now that i found the original version by Sir Francis Drake, I wanted to share it with all of you. I hope you had blessed thanksgiving and had millions of thinks to be grateful for...I know I did!!! Have a blessed friday and an awesome weekend!!! I know mine is going to be crazy busy (I guess marring a musician does that!!!)

Disturb us, Lord « EVEDYAHU: "Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ."