Merry Christmas!

Does this dress make me look fat?

teehehe :p

My nieces. I swear! The little one drew this and she was all like, 'what do you think? do you like it?'

And what can you say to that?

Well, you can't say: 'I DO NOT have chubby, chipmunk cheeks!'

No, you have say, 'Aw, that's so pretty, and so accurate, too! But why the crown and the halo?'

My nieces are smart girls, but I don't know if they have 'tiara' in their vocabulary yet.

Then the little one, Li'l Iz, explained that it was a representation of St. Rita, ... you know: patroness of the kitchen.

'Oh!' was all I could muster. I couldn't dare ask where she got the representation, 'cause there I was, stick figure and all.

Does red look good on me?

hehehe.

I feel a bit silly.

My nieces have more flesh on their bones than I do, but they did inherit something from me: they are fish in water. Mrs. A_, a woman not to be trifled with, takes them to swim lessons that she herself supervises, just she, Madame, the girls, me, 'cause I happen to be there, and now the neighboring kids. Mrs. A_ commands: '150 meters, freestyle: go!' and the poor neighboring kids are like 'what did she just say?' But Li'l Iz and Elena Marie are like: ZOOM!

... and I could say, 'oh, I hold back to keep pace with them ...' but then again, why I am embarrassed to get my ass handed to me by a 10 year old and an 8 year old?

Why, indeed!

I am rather pleased that I look older than them, and the other neighboring girl who's 12? 13? So, yay! Go me, I'm not mistaken for a preteen.

Oh, my God!

I was walking off to the bus stop, and I saw a bumper sticker in a mommy van pass by: "Verum, Bonum, Pulcherum." And my Latin sucks, but I was sniggering that maybe I knew better what that meant than the mommy or the exclusive prep-school kids going off to school.

"Verum, Bonum, Pulcherum."

What is true; what is good; what is beautiful.

I like that motto. The girls sang at Christmas eve Mass, and the priest was very accepting of all the 'Christmas guests' we had a Mass. It was a full house. What he said at the homily struck me, it was all about historical reconstructions of Jesus not being God and Savior, but a straw-man to forward the zealots aims to overthrow the Roman Empire.

Um, Father, so how are you going to rescue the homily to wish us a Merry Christmas?

And he did, Fr. P, by saying, 'look to the cross.' Because Jesus an Historical Reconstruction, who is that to love, and be loved?

But Jesus, born today, of the Virgin Mary, and then, Jesus on the cross?

He did that because He loves us.

Because He loves me.

Jesus loves me.

And if Jesus can love me, even me, then ...

Then I can love me.

And I can love you.

I love you.

Merry Christmas