Holy Communion

This weekend was busy. It started with Cyndi driving to Santa Fe on Friday to see some filming production by a company she's thinking of doing some work with. The plan was for me to pick up the boys from school and then head over to the train station and take the Rail Runner up to Santa Fe. Meanwhile, Cyndi bumped into Robert Redford. The boys and I made it okay, and it was a pleasant trip. We sat on top. It was dark outside. There's wifi on board, so Jack could text or whatever on his IPod. Ry made a book about him fishing and riding the train. I even got some work done. We were hungry, and the boys were anxious to get to Santa Fe. Cyndi met us at the station and had already checked out the wait for dinner at Tomasita's next door. There wasn't any wait. We had our usual bean burritos for the boys, huevos rancheros for Cyndi, chicken enchildas for me, and Cyndi and I split a half-liter (mostly ice) of Margaritas.

We drove over to the plaza, and mostly we just stopped to get some ice cream. The lights were on in the trees in the plaza. It wasn't too cold, and it was quiet.

On Saturday, Ry and I made bacon and waffles. We spent a large amount of the day shopping for gifts for Jackson and Nicholas (our godson, and Jack's cousin) for their First Holy Communion on Sunday, shopping for clothes for Jack, and buying food for the meal after Sunday's mass. I got up the next morning and put a brisket in the oven and hung some lights outside, and the boys and I set up the Christmas village. Cyndi made oriental chicken salad.

Jackson and Nicholas were excited about First Holy Communion, walking in the procession, with their hands clasped in prayer, Jackson smiling with his new glasses on, so handsome, so mature, so solemn. Most of Cyndi's family was there in the pews set aside at the front. The mass was at Risen Savior, where both Jack and Ry went to preschool. The priest was gentle and funny, a wonderful and exuberant speaker. The altar servers rang bells. The small choir was beautiful. One singer sang a beautiful responsorial psalm, but I'm afraid another song sounded offkey to me. The members sang and responded loudly. I thought it was particularly interesting that there were two appeals to buy free-trade products, particularly coffee.

When it was time for the eucharist, the families went up with each child. Jackson took the host and the wine and Rylee was blessed, his arms folded across his chest. Afterwards, the children's articles were blessed. We gave Nicholas and Jackson little missalettes, and each got a cross and an engraved glass ornament.

The brisket turned out great, better than I imagined, and Cyndi and I brought our food over to Elley's. Bennie was there. The day was warmer than the week before, and the boys all took their meals outside in the backyard and played.

There was some talk about the Christmas party this year in Belen with all the extended family, just as it was in all the past years. Lola wanted to contribute to the food budget but didn't want to organize it this year. Cyndi and Elley and Dorie will likely organize it. There's talk of more brisket and maybe a ham, while everyone brings desserts. Pots of everything else. Some good chile from Aunt Erlinda?

I had to call Mom later because I made the brisket as best as I could remember how she used to make it. I found out that I was only marginally close, but still it turned out very tasty. I also told her we were finally able to find our favorite summer sausage in the local supermarket, after years of never being able to find it. Jackson has been asking for it for months. Jackson polished off one in a day, while the other we froze for later. Mom recalled how Ariel loved it, too.

Lola was sitting on Elley's sofa and was talking about her family and growing up in Belen. Cyndi told her that I often try to write down what Lola talks about, so the boys will have some idea of the history of their families. A few weeks ago in a cub scouts den meeting, the boys were talking about their ancestry. Jack was very interested. We talked about how our name was German and how Cyndi's family was Hispanic. And days later, Jackson talked about how he was German and how the Spanish came to Mexico and then to New Mexico. He's still a little uncertain about the Irish and Swedish sides and how they fit into the story.

Lola was talking about the Garcia family, how it's todo el mundo. She said, We don't know where we come from. She talked about how she was the oldest of the family and her mother died when she was young. She and Ursula went to St. Mary's, the same school Cyndi went to. It was about the time of the Great Depression, and they did not know English. The nuns, she said, were very mean to them. The nuns came from the Midwest and thought her family ate beans for breakfast, she laughed. We ate oatmeal, everything, she said. There were two teachers she thanked--one very mean, one very nice--for teaching her grammar when she was in high school. Her father, she remembered, bought a Model T from his veteran's pay. She remembered how she was embarrassed years later when the family still drove the Model T. She talked again about the farm, how plentiful the food was and all the fruit trees they had.

Ry, who is so fearless on his skateboard, dropped a heavy flashlight on his toe, and cried and cried that night. He's taken to a few stuffed animals only recently, a Christmas bear and a snowman. He's been making lots of pictures, paper-and-tape guns, and Santa lists, on which he copies the names of his newest interest, some kind of battling top that's another bakugan craze for little boys.

Jackson downloaded a song onto his IPod called Fireflies, which I had never heard but later found out was one of the biggest downloads on ITunes. He describes it as meditative. (I can't remember his exact word; relaxing, perhaps.) He and Ry get on Club Penguin on the computers at home, together with Nicholas and Lauren on computers at their home, and then talk to each other on speaker phones while they play at the site. They each control their own character in the various rooms, bumping into each other. Fortunately, there's no shooting involved, as with so many of the electronic games they love but which Cyndi and I try to discourage.

There are some pics and videos to come.