"I May Be Weird...But I'm Yours."

Today was spent on the beach and on different parts of the veranda. That's it folks, it was perfect. 76 and sunny. Dad went for another walk this afternoon and say a piece of tar on the beach that he was going to try to skip like a stone. Not a piece of tar after all- a baby sea turtle!! He found four others and put them in the water when he came across them. Since tonight is the full moon, there will likely be more tomorrow so when I'm up with the sun, we're gonna try again. A little good Christmas karma can't hurt:)

I'm really hurtin here without any photos to illustrate anything. Just returned from Christmas Eve Mass and a really really good dinner at Damiano's.

I will say something now that I wonder if I've ever said before...it's been at least a decade if I have. Church was great. The same priest presided over the same packed chapel in the middle of San Jose's square as last year. Brother and I still standing a solid 12 and 5 inches above most of the rest of the patrons. We managed to seat ourselves in the middle of either a family or two families that were very good friends and they were a blast. Each family had a 4 year old girl and they were BEST friends. Danced through the service, kissed and hugged and made crazy faces at each other for the full hour.

Other than making faces at 4 year olds, 80% of the service was, understandably (as a principle not literally), en Espagnol. The priest did however take a very slow and well thought out foray into English to summarize his sermon. I am not religious, but liked it anyway.

"Merry Christmas to all of you and we welcome you on such a wonderful evening. Why do we have extra lights in our house on such a day? To celebrate the first gift, God's gift to us which became the light of the world. I hope you let this light into your hearts and love each other every day the way you do tonight."

Something to that effect- it was better because he was smiling so widely the whole time he was saying it. Thrilled to be able to give everyone the good news. During the sharing of the peace, we were hugging and shaking hands all over the place and I think we were saying Le Paz (sp?) meaning Peace or Peace Be With You as we did for so many years at St Luke's Lutheran. We also sang the onomontapeia portions of favorite Christmas songs. "Ba RUM Bum Bum Bum"

We met Dad outside the church and walked to the restaurant. Other than some particularly good guac and salsa, Brother's sea bass and my chicken in Mole Poblano, the highlight was definitely the Mariachi band, or rather, the addition to the mariachi band.

There was an American guy who has brought his own horn to the restaurant. He wanted to join the band for a number. They were very nice and let him. This guy is standing up with an untuned horn in khaki shorts, a teal polo, thick socks with Teva sandals and playing with the band. Then he sat down.

Then he decided to stand up at his table and play along every time they did a song. I can't make this shit up. When they stopped by our table I think they played Guantanamera. He stood just a foot and a half behind them playing. My brother shot me a look that was just enough to put me over the edge and I had to pretend I was coughing to mask how hard I was laughing. My dad then started doing "his dance" in his seat which involves shaking his pointer fingers and then doing the move from Saturday night fever. My dad is a 6'4 Jewish man with no natural rhythm beyond tapping on his steering wheel. My brother gave him the look too and my Dad then provided me with tonight's title.

"I may be weird...but I'm yours." Yes, he is ours. And any single person seated at our table could say that and have it make perfect sense. I am so content that it's funny and I start giggling again.

More on "surprise lesbians" according to Mom, Jessi's quest to pilot an Ultra-Light and Dad's iPod selections (your Dad doesn't listen to Gwen Stefani? OR Take That?!) later in the week. Bed is calling me and I'm sleeping with the door open again.
Merry Christmas from the Cook and Family!