The season.

It's been close to a month since I last posted. A lot has happened since then...

The semester ended.
My parents arrived.
My cousin passed away.
Christmas came.
Christmas went.
Just like that.
And now it's New Year's Eve.

As much as I said in previous posts how much I was going to attempt to make the best of this abnormal Christmas season, and enjoy it as much as I could, I can't decide whether I was successful or not. As much as I love my entire extended family, and as much as I love spending time with them, I prefer to spend time with them when there are no strings attached, no expectations to make everyone happy. This comes from the experience with my 16-year old baby cousin (not the one that passed, that's a different post all together) at Christmas. She was not happy with the gift my sweet, Godly, wonderful, amazing grandmother gave her. The gift was my grandmother's best attempt to get my cousin exactly what she wanted, but a different brand because she couldn't find the one that had been specified. That ruined my day. My cousin has never had a strong relationship with my grandmother, and she was completely ungrateful for what she did receive, just a different brand from exactly what she had asked for. I wanted to slap her upside the head and tell her she was being a brat. I practically did in not so many words.

My goal this season was to not want to be anywhere but where I was (in the States), with no one but the people I was with (my biological extended family), doing nothing but what I did (celebrating Christmas). However, by the complicated chain of events, I wasn't successful. Oh well.

Maybe one day, some Christmas, maybe next Christmas, since I will most likely be in another part of the world with people I don't even know exist right now, I'll just spend Christmas reflecting on the birth of Christ, remembering that that's the whole reason we as Christians celebrate, because God came as an infant an infant to the world in human flesh to be crucified for my sins, me the most vile of all sinners. That will be most important to me.

I am thankful, however, for the opportunity for my family...my mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning together, that was the best part of the whole time.

Music that Makes Me Want to Move My Feet and Swing My Hips Latin Style

This afternoon on my way to class, I decided to plug in my earphones and listen to music on my third trek up the hill of the day. Yes...count them, one. two. three. So I went to play some good ol music that makes me have to concentrate real hard to not start moving my feet and swingin my hips latin style. Carlos Vives music makes me happy. He's this amazing Colombian musician that just has some awesome beats in his stuff. You are greatly missing out if you have never experienced the joy of Carlos Vives music ringing out in your ears.

Yeah, I know, my skin's as white as I'll get out, but somewhere deep down inside me there's some semblance of a Latin-loving heart that just automatically wants to turn wherever I am standing into a Salsa dancing floor every time a latin beat comes on. I wonder if it has to do with where I grew up? I think so.

Salsa...I love you.