Feliz Navidad!

After nights and nights of fireworks and loud music coming from 2 kilometers away in Barichara, last night it was surprisingly quiet. Perhaps everyone else was doing what we were doing - having a feast and then putting the presents under our Poinsettia tree, festooned with white lights, only to open them by flashlight... such fun!

Geared toward the two smallest children in our community, O and S, the adults only exchanged a few small token items and we watched in delight as the girls yelped with joy at their surprises. It was an orderly distribution and not, as you can see from the picture, a mass accumulation of toys and a demonstration of wealth. It was a pleasure to see such appreciation for what might be considered "minimal" expenditure in the U.S. And it was a reminder that the giving of gifts is not about how much was spent, but how one spent what one had.

(Due to the limitations of the modem we use to post these messages, we are not able to put up more pictures just now. Look for more after the holidays when fewer people are on line and using up the bandwidth we need to get the pictures loaded.)

Jey-hu and I agreed it was one of the more delightful holiday events either of us had been to... our gifts to each other were just being here - a place where we are growing ourselves as well as things around us. We wish all our readers a rebirthing of love and light for this next year!!