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7 Quick Takes Friday ... January 2nd


SUPER excited about this logo ... since it was my entry that won!!! YEAH!  
Thanks for visiting over here if you're just checking out the girl with the cool graphic design (that about as awesome as I get)!  Hope you stay awhile!


It's been a rough couple of weeks, so I abandoned the blogging effort in loo of other exciting activities like sleeping, temperature reducing, nose blowing, medicine taking, funeral attending, and then the glorious time of family visiting sandwiched in between lots and lots of driving and Christmas & New Year's Celebrating!  So now that I'm healthy, it's 2015, and Friday, I'm back to link up with Kelly over at This Ain't the Lyceum for 7 Quick Takes.  I make no resolutions to be back on a regular basis, but I have a feeling that practicing my writing skills and showcasing my amazing photography are going to be habits I work on for 2015.  Maybe!


I was able to spend 10 days home in Saint Marys for Christmas with my family.  My little brother even spent most of that time at home with me as well.  I was happy to have the whole family together and even spent a lot of time with my older brother and sister as well.  It was good to be home, to share meals, laughter, and even a painting I made for my parents.

The leaves are maps from where we all live:
Charlotte, NYC, Pittsburgh, & Elk County.
Before we dropped him off at the bus stations, mom, Nate, and I went to one of my favorite restaurants ... The Cracker Barrel.



My home parish was our home for Mass this past week and being there at Christmastime is my favorite.  They have two beautiful Christmas Trees in the Sanctuary that are decorated the weekend before Christmas by the children of the parish.  They are absolutely beautiful!


And the manger is always gorgeous.  When I was a kid, the priest who was stationed there had an eye for art and created a manger scene that took up the entire back wall of the Church and even had flowing water and real fish.  Not sure how many fish were in the stream in the desert when Christ was born, but it was still amazing.  So many intricate details to see!  It's a little smaller now, but still beautiful and the memories of those days are revived each year.



There were so many fun gifts given out when Santa distributed gifts, but one of my favorites made these cute and delicious cookies!





My last full day in Saint Marys looked like this - frankly there was nothing resembling winter the entire time I was home except for some cold nights and one or two rainy evenings.  Then when I woke up, ready to leave on Wednesday, this greeted me.



For New Year's Eve, these lovely ladies and I had a great time out in Arlington!


A New Year filled with great friends is this gal's dream!  One of this year's resolutions / goals / will happens is going to be more friend get togethers.  We'll be doing dinner First Saturdays and the First one is this Saturday at my place, so that's pretty exciting!


Then to celebrate Mary, Mother of God and Consecration to Jesus through Mary day for me, we went to Mass at the National Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC (really close to where I lived in the summer of '06) for Mass, prayer time, and touring.  It's even more beautiful that I remembered!

All of the mosaics are amazing, but this ceiling was
quite striking. 
The Christmas Trees and poinsettias were
absolutely stunning!
Let us consecrate ourselves forever to your
Immaculate Heart
Our Lady of Missions, pray for us.
The grandeur of this Basilica in comparison
to the smallness of myself.

For more Quickity, Quick Takes, check out the gang with Kelly over at This Ain't the Lyceum!
See you next week, or stop by this week for more musings and antics!
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Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 2, 2015 at 8:01 AM

    Lovely! I hope to facilitate more friend-togethers, too. Great resolution.

    ReplyDelete
  2. natalie g.January 4, 2015 at 2:20 PM

    Congrats on the image design. It is great!

    ReplyDelete

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