Nurturing Family Bonds

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All over the blogosphere, bloggers have posted a prayer, or a quiet post in lieu of their regular publishing routines. All are remembering, and uniting with the citizens of Sandy Hook as they mourn the loss of 20 children and 7 adults in a senseless shooting.

In prayer, I join them.

I have been thinking about the kids, and their families a lot over the weekend. I can’t imagine where the town starts picking up the pieces of their shattered neighborhood. Then today I got to see the movie My Girl (and My Girl 2). I cried (again) when Vada was told of Thomas J’s death. And then again when she finally emerged from her room to take a look at the body of her best friend lying in his small coffin.

I felt so much empathy for a character in a movie, what more for real live people?

But more than empathy, I guess the only real way for America to move on from yet another tragedy like this, is for real change to happen. What is it in their culture (and maybe laws) that allows for such shootings to happen? This isn’t the first time it happened, how can they ensure it’s the last time? I know it’s a tall order to say that it will never happen again, but where else will parents and kids find peace of mind? How will they ever again feel safe in their classrooms?

But all that aside… what has this event taught us? Those of us halfway around the world, what have we learned? More than anything else it has taught me to appreciate the every day, to keep loved ones close. More than ever, I want to really be serious about documenting our lives because you just can’t know when something would happen. We pray everyday that all will be safe, and we take precautions, but we can’t really predict when something happens.

As for my family, I think it’s important to have an extra happy Christmas this year. This will be the first Christmas without our Papa – Bonifacio, the Hero. So earlier this month I created a group for the family in Facebook to start the boll rolling in planning for the festivities.

Minute to Win It!

 

 

Over the years we’ve tried playing several different games. Some are for kids only, but others were so that adults had joined in the fun too. This year, maybe we’ll try a Minute to Win It theme.

We also did Bingo! one time complete with small prizes for each round. It might be a good idea to have that again this year, but I’d have to buy a Bingo! set to pull it off. We will also need to be more creative about it to make it half as interesting as say, just playing online at FoxyBingo.

Whatever games we come up with, it will all mean the same though: another fun night with the family. Celebrating another Christmas, celebrating each other.