tea or sparkling wine

I was getting ready for bed in the bathroom this evening and there were a bunch of slips of paper in the waste bin so I pulled a couple of them out and read them. They were from a couple of summers ago, when j and c said that they thought we had a lot of grieving that we needed to do that we just never had done. So they put a box upstairs and when ever we thought of something or someone we missed or we were sad about or needed to grieve we put it in the box. One day we took out all of them and read them.

I pulled them out in handfulls and sat down and read all of them. They lay in a pile on my lap, all of these things and people and places. I thought of keeping them all but then it crossed my mind that maybe they should be in the waste bin.

-

Mum and I were talking the other day about how people can be screwed up by their pasts and how the devil can use things from the past to tell us lies about ourselves. She brought up, however, that if we have been bought by God and we have been told the truth about ourselves through the gospel then ulimately we have to choose who to listen to. There are, of course, things that we will always struggle with. But we have to decide if we are going to listen to the lies or listen to the truth.

--

It's Christmas Eve. This evening I was on a walk with one of my friends and Franko. Franko and I walked her home and then we ran back to the house. A few houses before ours lives a family who we are good friends with- I babysit their children all the time, mum is in a book club with the mother, Fiona, and Dad goes to Michael's whiskey tastings. When the immigration trouble came up Fiona (unknown to us) went and waited in line over half an hour to speak to our TD (like a senator) personally about our case.

I ran into them all trying to make it into the car to go to the Christmas Eve family mass. Sean was dressed up like a shepard, he busied himself trying to pet Franko. Niamh ran up to me (this is the first time I have seen them since being back) and shouted happily "I'm five now!" and as I commented on the pretty white angel dresses she and Jennifer were wearing, Jennifer (the youngest) yelled, "we're the same!" She was referring, of course, to the fact that she and Niamh were wearing the same costume, which in her mind means she is as big as Niamh. The whole encounter was quite typical, and as I hugged Fiona and continued to my door she told me I must call in soon for a cup of tea or sparking wine.

-

Well. I must go to sleep.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, goodnight.