Category: family

Epiphany

[Note: I wish I were writing a post addressing the murder of Renée Good and the horrible actions of the Trump administration both in the United States and throughout the world but I don’t have enough brainpower to do so between the brain fog and jet lag, so something lighter today. I drafted this and had intended to post it for January 6th – itself a fraught date for those of us in the US – but our travel complications derailed my intent to do so.]

On January 6th, Catholics in the UK celebrate Epiphany, observing the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. This ends the twelve days of Christmas, although the Christmas season continues liturgically through the celebration of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River by John.

Interestingly, in the United States, the observance of Epiphany is moved to Sunday rather than celebrated on January 6.

One of the most meaningful parts of our trip to London has been attending Mass with daughter E, son-in-law L, and granddaughters ABC and JG. I especially have enjoyed the Saturday vigil Masses because L has served as organist with E as songleader.

I’ve always loved listening to E sing. She was very musical from the time she was young and always sang in choirs at church and school. She majored in music in college and studied voice there. Because we live so far away from each other, I don’t get to hear her sing often, so it was a treat to hear her – and sing along – at Masses during our trip.

This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/01/09/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-9th-2026/

explaining the travel Jot

On Tuesday, I jotted that it was a long travel day.

Except with a lot more Os in “long.”

We were heading back from London to Newark and hit a few snags.

First, the simple route from our hotel to Heathrow on the Elizabeth line was shut down and the diversion took way longer than we expected. Still, we arrived at Heathrow in plenty of time. Unfortunately, the wheelchair assistance that had worked so well on our flight out was not very efficient with our departure. T and I were literally the last people onto the plane before they closed the doors. Then, our departure was delayed because there was a rare snow shower and the plane needed de-icing.

Still, we made up time, albeit with some turbulance, and arrived just about on time in Newark. The wheelchair assistance there was very good but we ran into trouble getting the van to take us back to where our car was parked, which meant that we started to head for home in the dark during rush hour. While we had hoped to make the 180 mile (290 kilometers) trip home that night, we were too tired and jetlagged to do it, so we crashed at a hotel along the interstate and finally made it home around noon on Wednesday.

Now, we are all trying to get back to Eastern Time. I’m notoriously bad at adjusting to time changes, so it will probably take a while.

This (longer) jot is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/01/08/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-8th-2026/

SoCS: slowing down

I used to walk fast, partially due to having much shorter legs than spouse B so that even when he would slow down to walk with me, I’d still need to speed up.

Now, I am having a number of issues with my balance and need to slow down so I can concentrate on staying upright and walking relatively straight. Sometimes, I need B’s – or someone else’s – arm to help me stabilize. This is especially likely later in the day as fatigue also becomes a factor.

So, I’m slower these days but grateful to be able to be up and about, at least, on most days.

Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “fast/slow.” For more information on how to join SoCS and/or Just Jot It January, please visit here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/01/02/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2026-daily-prompt-for-jan-3rd/

Welcome, 2026!

After a rough 2025 for many of us, I hope that the new year will bring an increase in peace, security, freedom, and safety for each person.

We began our new year’s celebration yesterday with a midday dinner with son-in-law L’s parents. So much delicious food!

We opted to return to our hotel early in the evening before things got rowdy. We figured we could watch the festivities in Central London on the television if we managed to stay awake. I’m sure at E and L’s new home in East London there will be a lot of banging on pots and pans at midnight, along with personal fireworks. Granddaughters ABC and JG napped in the afternoon so they could be awake for the arrival of 2026.

They followed the Filipino tradition of having a bowl of 12 different, round fruits to welcome the new year.


This marks the first post for Just Jot It January 2026, an initiative organized by Linda Hill of the “Life in progress” blog. You are welcome to join in the fun at any point and can find details on her blog. I’ll write a bit more about it as the month goes on.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

One-Liner Wednesday: dragon?

While the zebra left the creche, a Lego dragon has joined the scene, along with a mushroom at the baby Jesus’s feet and a mysterious magnifying glass.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/12/31/one-liner-wednesday-happy-2026/

Christmas Eve/Day

Spouse B, daughter T, and I are spending the holidays in London with daughter E, her spouse L, and granddaughters, 8-year-old ABC and 5-year-old JG. The photo above is of ABC and JG’s bedroom window decoration at dusk on Christmas Eve. Dusk comes early in London this time of year!

This is an exciting Christmas for our London contingent because they just moved into their first house of their own a couple of months ago.


Christmas Eve day was largely dedicated to finishing up gift preparation and baking cookies. B and E made lasagna for dinner, a nod to the Italian side of our family and the many years we made lasagna for Christmas dinner to accommodate E and T singing in the choir on Christmas morning because the lasagna could be assembled the day before and baked after church. For dessert, we had cookies and pandoro, an Italian sweet bread which is covered in powdered sugar and baked in a mold so that it can be cut in slices and arranged to look like a Christmas tree. This was not part of the Italian Christmas tradition that made it across the ocean to the US but it was so delicious that we will try to order it next year.

When E and T were young, every Christmas, my parents would give them Fonatanini creche figures. E’s figures were being stored in our basement but, now that she and L have their own home, we took the opportunity to bring them out to them. Here they are on the mantel, with a zebra addition courtesy of ABC and JG!


My parents, known here as Nana and Paco, have both passed away. They both got to know ABC, their first great-grandchild when she lived in the US for her first couple of years before moving permanently to London. Paco got to meet JG just once, when they were able to make the trip over from London a few weeks before he died. I love, though, that the creche figures they gave to E are part of their first Christmas in their new home. It feels as though they are blessing the house and their dear family.

I’m writing this early Christmas morning. Our plans include 8:30 Christmas mass, followed by gift exchange and an afternoon dinner at L’s parents with 20-some family gathering.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate and wishes for peace and joy to all!

travel assistance

My family is travelling for the holidays. Due to our current health status, daughter T and I both qualified to have wheelchair assistance at the airports, which was a huge help, especially because we flew out of one big airport, Newark, and into another, Heathrow. Bonus: we got through security and customs through expidited lines. Second bonus: spouse B got to come along with us so we could move through the whole process together.

I’m very grateful for the help. This experience makes the prospect of future travel much less daunting.

(Photo is from a prior holiday trip to London. We are scheduled to go on a holiday lights bus tour later in the month, so more London lights photos may be forthcoming.)

fears for US immigrants

Vote for Democracy #43

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

There are so many horrors happening every day in the United States under the Trump regime that it’s difficult to write posts because I feel like I’m not able to do justice to the topic when there are so many illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, and/or unconscionable actions and statements perpetrated in an ongoing basis.

Today, though, I decided to lift up the threats to immigrants and refugees beginning with a local story. Roger Wang, the owner of a local Chinese restaurant who fled political persecution in China, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as he arrived for his green card hearing. For those who may not be familiar, a green card is a document that means an immigrant can live and work permanently in the US. Roger had been in the legal process for twelve years and had fulfilled all the requirements that ICE set out to earn his green card, but he was arrested anyway. There is a fundraiser for legal costs and to try to offset the losses to his business. As I write this, I haven’t heard any updates about where Roger is and when or whether he might be able to be released.

Stories like Roger’s are being repeated around the country. Immigrants are being detained by ICE, even when they do have legal status. The Trump administration has shamefully rescinded the legal status of many refugees, including those who served alongside the US in Afghanistan, and who face danger if they return to their home countries. Government agents, sometimes without identifying insignia and with their faces covered, have snatched people from their workplaces, cars, or even the streets and detained them. Sometimes, people with citizenship are detained, too. Appallingly, agents have injured people they are taking into custody They also have taken parents away, leaving their young children behind; sometimes, they take the children into custody, too, and have deported them with their parent, even if the children are United States citizens. Trump tried to take away birthright citizenship from children if both of their parents are undocumented, but this order is on hold while the courts hear arguments about it, although the 14th Amendment, Section 1 is very clear that being born in the United States confers citizenship.

It’s become more difficult to travel into the United States, even for people who are citizens or have permanent status. This month, Wilmer Chavarria, the school superintendent in Winooski, Vermont and a naturalized citizen originally from Central America, was questioned for five hours at the Houston airport as he returned from visiting family in Nicaragua. This risk causes a chilling effect on international travel for both US citizens and for tourists from other countries, especially those who aren’t White, as people of color are disproportionately subjected to being hassled by government border agents. Some countries are warning against travel to the US and tourism is down significantly. This is especially true for Canadians, due to Trump’s threats to their sovereignty and damage to their economy. This is particularly sad because Canada has been such a good neighbor for so long; my spouse B has Canadian ancestry with one of his great-grandfathers immigrating to the US in the late-19th century.

The majority of Americans are upset about the cruelty and disregard for US and international law that the Trump administration is exhibiting. They have sent people to detention camps and dangerous foreign countries and prisons without hearings or formal charges. They have disrespected judges and skirted/defied court orders when cases are brought. Many people, including lawyers, local/state government officials, faith leaders, charitable organizations, schools, and local community members are doing all they can to speak up for the rights of our immigrant neighbors, but it’s difficult when unidentified federal officials snatch people without notice and take them to undisclosed locations, sometimes even deporting them to their country of origin or an unrelated country before their families or lawyers can speak to them.

It’s part of the authoritarian nightmare we are living.

We will keep speaking out and doing what we can, despite the grim reality.

I don’t know how long it will take but we have to get our democracy back on track and always, always, always respect human rights.

One-Liner Wednesday: Eric Carle socks!

Eric Carle, beloved author/artist of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and many other books, lived in western Massachusetts where I grew up and I’m very happy that Bombas chose to honor his legacy with a line of socks for both children and adults.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/07/30/one-liner-wednesday-i-heart-tomatoes/