Santiago Holy Year

January 1, 2010 begins the Xacobean Holy Year. At 4pm CET the Holy Doors were opened at the Cathedral in . This occurs once every 10 years.


10 years ago I was working on Y2K events. I'd never heard of The Camino. I could name the apostles, but hadn't a clue that one would take me under his wing and "adventure me".


Today, via the Internet, streaming Galacian TV, I watched the Holy Doors being opened. I watched cardinals and biships and priests line up on the steps that I sat on many times during the three days I was in Santiago. I recalled the wind blowing the clouds across the torquoise sky. I knew the courtyard they were parading across, like the back of my hand. My heart's second home.


But even more than that, I watched the pagentry with Joop. I had a chat window open and the TV station running and we watched it all together.


This was amazing to me. To have been, to be, the way we were, looking back, looking forward. My greatest gift starting this new year is thinking that my albergue dream could really be a reality.

Heavy Heart

I'm missing Kelly and Robert tonight. Robert because I always do. Kelly because he was probably the next person that knew me best.

Getting the letter from Kelly's mom was sweet, but it brought up the memories and loss again. Knowing more about how he died didn't help. Maybe in a few days it will. Right now I just imagine his discomfort and possibly fear. She's pragmatic about it - noting he didn't have some disease that slowly took his life. But still. He took good care of me in bad times. He was the est work partner ever.

I miss these men. They were the best.

What A Beautiful Day

We had a great Christmas. Wendy got me some Cuisanart cookware . It is fabulous! I used it for breakfast. While my hollandiase bombed, the rest of breakfast was good. The rest of the day has just been relaxing and hanging out. I thawed turkey pot pie filling and yesterday had made the pie crust. Dinner took about 15 minutes to prep and that was that.



One thing I've been wanting to do is organize my favorite recipes. They are in dozens of cookbooks and sometimes I forget where what is.


I have, however, had enough cholestrol today with homemade eggnog and eggs benedict to give a cardiac specialist a heart attack.

Break from it all

3 days into the short week and I'm already hovering at 40 hours. It's been busy. Today though I got caught up. Tonight I did not work. I danced with the kidlet and cranked out a collage.

Tomorrow and brief and guiltfree day. I'll start my Christmas cooking and gear up for a family weekend. I do have a dinner with friends on the weekend.

Next week will get be the launch of our new conferencing services -so the few that are working will need to be attended to and then it is catch up and prep for 2010.

Guaranteed to be an interesting year. Already.

Kind of Tired

I have worked 30 of the last 36 hours. Four for sleeping and two, I allowed my daughter to lure me out and about for a bit. I'm grateful that I have a job. I'm grateful that my role in that job is signifigant enough to sometimes "need" that much devotion.

I'll do some more and then wrap up for the day. I have a Christmas party at my house tomorrow night. Since I've been so busy, I haven't been able to see my friends, and I miss them. I look forward to the respite.

Next week will still be nuts.

The weekend then will open up to pure bliss and the perfect combination of simplicity and extravagance. I love Jesus' birthday!

Snowstorms and Christmas Trees

Simple joy.