Christmas is only a few days away. It is raining and cool but not nearly so stormy as earlier this week. We have been working through our usual list of Christmas activities and events:
- Advent Lessons and Carols service with tea after at church
- Shopping in Chinatown
- Christmas party with the Silicon Valley Lines model train club
- Baba and grandkids making fruitcake
- A day at the Dickens Christmas Fair at the Cow Palace
- Christmas caroling with family and friends on the Cable Car in San Francisco with dinner after (we took the Powell-Hyde line to and from Ghiradelli Square). My Mother said she has been doing this for 50 years!
- Wrapping and shipping presents to out of town relations and delivering presents to friends and neighbors
- Finding little stocking stuffers and sneaking them into the stockings hanging from the mantle when no one else is looking
- Decorating the house, putting up lights outside, buying a Christmas tree, putting lights on the tree and decorating it, setting up the model train line around the base of the tree
- Christmas services at church
It is good that I am on vacation today so that I have time to do everything! We just finished decorating the tree. There are themes among the ornaments for each member of the family: fish, trains, Shakespeare, frogs, tea cups and tea pots, Hagrid and Norbert (from Harry Potter), cats, knights and ladies, and many other favorites. It is very bright and glittery.
Last night, I went to the ordination of the Rev. Ruth Casipit Paguio at Holy Child church in San Jose. Holy Child is one of the missions I work with in the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real. It calls itself the “First Filipino-American Church in Silicon Valley”. Ruth was ordained a Deacon by the Right Reverend Sylvestre Romero and the Right Reverend Bartolome Espartero. Most of the service was in English but some was in Filipino. It was very moving and a powerful and inspiring addition to this Christmas season.
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