Happy New Year and Happy Epiphany Everyone!

2016 arrived with sunshine and swimming in Southern California.  My parents have been here to visit  for the first time since we changed location, and we have been happy to show them the sites and celebrate the new year and Epiphany with them. Pictures to come.

New Year's Eve itself was a bit understated: we binged watched TV: first the Notre Dame game, with the ND alumni club at a tavern, because we don't have cable tv. Then we watched Death Comes to Pemberly with the younger kids and then a few episodes of The Blacklist with the older teens, which we got hooked on by my in-laws.  I am now appalled at how much time we have spent watching the show and am ready to wait until the last episode comes out so I can find out the ending without having to watch 30 some hours of television.  Meanwhile the boys are constantly asking for more. Glad Death Comes to Pemberly, which my daughter who reads Jane Austen loved, is only 3 episodes long!

We also ate our traditional dinner of appetizers - mostly meats and cheeses, with artichoke dip, hummus, eggrolls and tamales to round out the menu - an international feast, thanks to the local grocery's freezer section.  At midnight the two oldest jumped in the chilly pool. I had said I would do it, but backed out at the last minute.  The next day we kept my husband's family's tradition of a white dinner - pork roast, sour kraut, mashed potatoes and knepp.  We also took a bike ride/jog around the island and had a media free evening with games of euchre and Rummikub.

Although we usually wait for the twelfth day of Christmas, today we went with the church calendar and celebrated Epiphany. The Three Kings came in the dark to deliver Saturday pants for everyone, along with some deeply discounted Christmas candy, bike lights, and $20, since they didn't have time or desire to shop for that third gift.  We had a festive dinner of carbonara and grilled chicken, and since the day got away from us before we could make a Rosca des Reyes or Galette des Rois, we went out for ice cream cones at the local ice creamery.  It at least made the kids feel royal to get cones and walk down the street licking them.

The homily of today's Mass was useful for anyone contemplating New Year's resolutions, although I know resolutions are out of style. Two of mine are the usual: 1. Read more to the kids (this has been on the list every year. We go in peaks and valleys on read alouds. I guess 2 or 3 a year are better than nothing)
and 2. Get back into the rosary habit, which has suffered since our move. My spiritual resolution is usually to do morning meditations, but I have yet to develop that habit, so rekindling something we used to do regularly is likely to be more successful.  Also on my Spiritual resolution list is to read/do something notable for the Year of Mercy.  Our church has been designated a pilgrimage site, and we visited the San Diego mission, so now we have visited two pilgrimage sites.

The priest today read a list of 10 things to keep your family's spiritual life healthy, which he must have found on the internet, but it was well received, although sometimes hard to hear because of his Irish brogue. I think I remembered all 10, but I may have missed one or two and I may have combined some.  The list was:

1. Recognize we are all made in the image of God
2. Say I love you and offer praise often (may have been 2 things)
3. Say I'm sorry often
4. Pray together
5. Eat dinner together
6. Hug often - or other physical touch
7. Practice intentional attention - my family says I need to work on this
8. Tell family stories - I think I need to work on this
9. Be good listeners (may be part of #7)
10. Do family mission work - another practice we need to resume since leaving behind our work at Many Meals. I haven't found the time or place yet - but that is going up on my list for my community resolution.

Other habits to cultivate:
1. Academic/Intellectual: Get piano tuned and lessons for youngers
2. Spiritual: Daily gospel reading - or other spiritual reading. Thinking of subscribing to Magnificat.
3. Family: Do a better job of managing media time for everyone.  We all are checking our media too much and the result is time lost for reading, exercising, visiting, other hobbies, etc.  I need to re-establish clear rules for media usage, which is hard for my older teens because everyone is messaging constantly.  We used to use the phone a lot as teenagers, but phone conversations ended; text conversations go on and on.
4. Finally, the traditional health and wellness resolution: Cut sugar and drink more water. New this year: Stretch more! I just discovered that the base has yoga classes, and my friend and I went twice, but then the instructor moved, so now we have to wait for a new one. I know yoga isn't a Catholic practice and some people are opposed to it, but it really, really, really helps me feel better. Several studies have found it is therapeutic for soldiers with post-traumatic stress syndrome, so now the bases try to offer yoga classes when they can.  These classes are definitely "secular" yoga, and but the deep breathing and stretching are restorative.

Next up: sum up the last few books I read in 2015 and figure out what reading priorities are in store for 2016. Getting a slow start, but excited about it.