In Loving Memory, Part II

Tio Cesar also passed away in November, leaving behind his wife, 3 sons, 3 daughter-in-laws, 4 grandchildren, and many other family members who mourned this loss. I've known Tio Cesar since 1990. He was one of the early visitors to the Ruiz residence after their move to Florida and I met him shortly after John and I started dating. Before Tia Blanca became ill Tio Cesar would visit Florida quite often, and both of them attended our wedding. The last time I saw him was in 2007 during a business trip to Bethesda.

Tio Cesar used to quiz me on my knowledge of the Spanish language - he was always encouraging me to practice, to become fluent, and it made him happy when I understood what he said to me in Spanish. More than once he got onto John for not taking more time to tutor me. He always welcomed me, as all of John's family always has, but I knew him to be a strict and serious man. When I saw him with Isabel, his first grandchild, it was like night and day. It's true, becoming a grandparent softens you in a way that nothing else can - he was absolutely wrapped around her little finger. The only picture I was able to take of him the last time I visited was one of him and Isabel. She's the only one he would pose with. After my visit I created a layout with that picture, shown here.

Credits:
Clustered Template by Tracy's Scraps
fabric papers, stitched word - "Fun Fabric" by Katie the Scrapbook Lady (some papers recolored)
quote - free gift from Katie the Scrapbook Lady

Thankfully in his younger years, though, he always joined in the pictures. Urania has plenty of pictures of him during his visits to Florida and those are the pictures I used in this memorial layout to honor his passing.

Credits:
kit - Dreamy Island by Ingeborg
Fonts – Clerica, Duvall

Rest in Peace, Tio Cesar. You are loved, and you are missed.

In Loving Memory, Part I

On Thanksgiving Day we lost my Aunt Demarious. I got the news when we were leaving the movie theater that evening. We attended her funeral in Valley, Alabama on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I will miss her, but even more I want to remember her.

Aunt Demarious was a strong but kind woman. Several years ago I created a layout on her for my "Portrait of Ladies" album that showcases the strong, loving, caring women in my family. Here's an excerpt of the journaling from that page, as it says just what I want to say about her:

"Aunt Demarious never pretended to be anyone other than who she is - a good ole down-home southern girl, loyal to her husband, friends and family, who is just as happy hunting and fishing as she is shopping and talking girl-talk. Over the years she remained true to herself, not compromising her beliefs or changing her language to be politically correct. If Aunt Demarious offends you by speaking her mind or telling the truth, well then that's just too bad, in her point of view. She doesn't sugarcoat and she doesn't beat around the bush.

"A strong woman with a booming voice, a fierce bear hug, and a witty comeback at the ready, Demarious Jackson carved a niche in our family that was uniquely her own. Born and raised in the Deep South, she is an Alabamian through and through, and proud of it. She seems fearless, plunging ahead into new business ventures and leisurely pursuits alike with unbridled enthusiasm.

"Aunt Demarious taught me that boys may be boys, but girls can play boys' games and excel at them. She taught me that it is more important to be true to yourself than it is to be popular. She taught me that showing a tough shell to the world doesn't mean you have to be hardened inside. She taught me that sometimes when you're dealing with boys, you just have to be a real tough cookie and never show fear. Over the years I haven't always know where I've stood in the line to Aunt Demarious heart, but during a recent visit, as we bid goodbye, she grabbed me to her famous bear hug and whispered "I love you, kid." It certainly meant the world to me to hear it from the women I've grown to love and respect."

Here's the layout that journaling comes from:

I was working on a hybrid mini-album, a Printable SANTA Word Album by Kay Eflin and Julie Mead. I decided to fill it with photos from the last Christmas celebration that we had with Aunt Demarious on the farm. It wasn't ever easy to get pictures of Aunt D, but I did get a few that day.

I love you, Aunt Demarious. Rest in Peace.

Christmas Carols for One and All

A long time between posts, I know. That's because after the events in the month of November, I wanted to make my first post back a memorial post. Since it's taking longer than I expected to pull that together, we'll try a lighter post for now.

I love Christmas music. Beginning the day after Thanksgiving through the day after Christmas, it's the only kind of music I want to listen to. We have a local radio station that accomodates my Christmas music extravaganza, they only play Christmas music during that time. Normally they are an easy-listening station. Also I have a great collection of Christmas songs on my iPod. And John's XM radio has a few exclusively holiday stations this time of year. So I am totally covered.

This year my friend Amy invited me to go see the American Idol Stars in Concert for the Holidays with her; the tour kicked off in our town and she is a season passholder at that venue. 4 previous Idols (Michael Sarver from Season 8, Alexis Grace from Season 8, David Hernandez from Season 7, and Gina Glocksen from Season 6) performed together and solo in a 2 hour concert with a brief intermission at our historic Polk Theatre downtown as a part of their 2009-2010 Performing Art Series. It was a fun show - the performers started a round version of The 12 Days of Christmas and then ended up laughing so hard that they missed a few lines, but we were all laughing too so it was all good. David Hernandez was so funny with all of his theatrics on stage. Next year I've already told John that we need to go see the Tran-Siberian Orchestra Christmas performance in concert - I have their CD but I'd love to see the show live.

This post wouldn't be complete without some more specifics on what I'm listening to. My favorite Christmas carols are the religious carols and I prefer more traditional versions of them. Here are a few of my favorites, straight from my iTunes playlist, and my favorite version of each:

• Angels We Have Heard on High by the San Francisco Choir
• Baby Jesus is Born by Garth Brooks
• Carol of the Bells by Emmy Rossum
• The Chipmunk Song by Alvin and the Chipmunks
• Do You Hear What I Hear by Third Day from the WoW Christmas Disc 1
• Emmanuel by Michael W Smith
• The First Noel by Bing Crosby
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Garth Brooks
• Go Tell It On The Mountain by Garth Brooks
• Hark the Herald Angels Sing by the San Francisco Choir
• A Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Caedmon's Call from the WoW Christmas Disc 2
• Joy to the World by Bing Crosby
• O Come All Ye Faithful by Jeremy Camp
• O Little Town of Bethlehem by Bing Crosby
• Oh Holy Night by Kelly Clarkson
• Silent Night by Sixpence None the Richer from the City On A Hill Christmas CD
• A Strange Way to Save the World by 4HIM from the WoW Christmas Disc 1
• Up on the Housetop
• We Three Kings by John Michael Talbot
• What Child is This by MercyMe from the WoW Christmas Disc 2

My goal, eventually, is to have at least one version of every Christmas song that I like on my iPod. Last night I was searching for the song "Angels From the Realm of Glory" in iTunes, which was among the missing from my collection, and I was disturbed to find many artists had recorded the song "Angels We Have Heard on High" but named it "Angels From the Realm of Glory" instead. I finally settled on a version of the song by Stephen Curtis Chapman, it was my favorite out of the few songs that were actually titled correctly.

My helpful tip of the day: I just learned from a friend that Amazon is giving away a Christmas song MP3 download every day from Dec 1 - Dec 25. Click the link to check it out.

Now it's your turn - go forth and spread the Christmas cheer!