Wow, lots to talk about

Been a lot of water under the bridge in the last month or so. Will try and share a few stories with you all.

We tried a new thing for Christmas this year, a buy nothing CHristmas. The idea was we would make some stuff for people, but not buy anything from a store. It worked out pretty well, though we did spend a bit anyways.

We made Tamale's for some of our neighbors. This is a Mexican Christmas tradition, and we were missing getting all of those wonderful tamale's from friends back home, we thought we'd try to make our own, and share them. So I made some shredded beef, and some black bean and corn tamales. We had trouble getting the corn leaves so I wrapped them in banana leaves. Well, they turned out great, tasted the way they were supposed to and only took about four times as long to make as I expected and we wound up giving two or three to our friends. :(

But it really helped us to focus on Christmas as a way of sharing our hearts, and lifes and natural rhythm with our friends.

On Christmas day we joined some friend and hosted a lunch at the Cave for those who didn't have someplace else to go. There were about fifty people there. Fifty people that didn't have family to share the holiday with. Again, felt like the right way to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

The radical man who crossed social barriers, ate with whomever he liked, confronted the traditions of the day, and located himself in the margins. It was a beautiful Christmas, and I am very very proud of the team at the Cave that continues to grow in love and care for those society has forgot.

rev