New Things to Come

That is just a catchy phrase to make you read.... my bad.
I realized that I haven't written in about a month. I am bad at this blogging stuff, but you all know that already. So let's skip the apologies.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, Christina came home Tuesday. We went to San Diego on Thursday to spend Thanksgiving with Glen's family. Barbara as always was such a great host and boy is she a good cook too! We took Sparky with us, so that's always appreciated that she lets us do that, Sparky is so needy. We spent the day with great company and for that I am thankful to have the Boyd's and Henehan's in my life. For some reason nobody got their cameras out this year, so I have no pics to show the fun had.

Christina left Sunday morning and the house has been quiet since then. It's nice to have her come and visit, but it's also nice to have her go back... am I bad again??

I had a tutorial to show but the last step didn't work out... the glazing. Glaze ran down and there were some pinholes. So, I will have to wait for next firing to do more pieces then. It has to do with texture so I will give you that much today.

In this post I want to thank all of you who have supported my little ceramic creations, been there for me as a friend. I truly appreciate all of you. Wishing you all the best of the Holidays. May love, family, peace and happiness fill your hearts and home forever.

Dia de Muertos

Today in Mexico and other Latino countries is the day for the celebration known as Day of the Dead. In what appears to sound like a day of mourning and crying is actually pretty much the opposite. Dia de Muertos is actually a celebration of the life of our loved ones who have departed. The tradition is to celebrate by visiting their place of rest and bring to them a lot of gifts to make their place look happy, festive and colorful. Flowers is the first of gifts brought, maybe their favorite dish and drink, favorite music, candles. All these things look so pretty because as you know the Mexican culture and folklore is always full of bright colors.

Today I came to realize that while I was growing up we never went to the cemetery to visit anybody, I knew about the celebration but never went to one. We Didn't have anybody that was so close to us that had died and that were resting near us. My Mom's parents and siblings and my Dad's father had died many years ago, some even before I was born in their home state in Southern Mexico. It wasn't until I was 24 that my maternal grandmother passed away in Tijuana. Being the first closest member of my family that passed away. By that time I was living in California already and was very well adjusted and assimilated to living here. It took another 14 years for us to suffer a major loss. On July 2000 my Mom passed away, that was a very hard time for us and for me sometimes it still is. I didn't visit her resting place today because she is in Tijuana, and I don't make the trip there very often but I had my sister get flowers for her.

Today I went to visit my Aunt and my cousin whose resting place is in my neck of the woods, they both died last March less than 24 hours from one another. Mother and son rest together. My cousins and I brought our chairs, chatted and then prayed the rosary. We went to lunch afterwards and caught up with things going on with our kids nowadays. It was my first visit to the cemetery on this day and it was very nice to see a lot of people visiting their loved ones. Someone even brought the mariachi band! (I love mariachi). It was just the perfect day under the hot California Sun.

This is a picture of what my Mom's resting place looks like. My brother Gustavo is so good at maintaining and cleaning all the time. I am always thankful to him, and I am blessed he is my brother.