Dear loved ones,

            Pleasant Greetings, Happy Christmas and more Blessed New Year from CA, USA! I am happy to inform that I successfully completed my 9-days Novena Masses to prepare for the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilling my life-long tradition! Yeah, JESUS I LOVE YOU!!!

            Aside from the spiritual aspects of preparing for Advent and the season, kept busy with shopping for gifts, sending out greeting cards, keeping up with health appointments, meeting up with friends, and the series of holiday parties.

            The first of a series of pot luck dinners was with our BCBP Sacramento outreach group held at the home of our leader Art and Rose Romanos at Elk Grove, fetched by neighbors Robert and Odette P. Our regular coffee and doughnuts are held every Sunday after the morning Masses, sponsored by various parish ministries, in addition to the regular Wednesday after Mass ‘coffee Joe’. These times allow parishioners to know and bond with one another, develop closeness with those who share common values; I have met many more friends through these gatherings.

Then we had our ‘green’ Christmas party held at the residence of Teddy and Glenda Regala at Gold River, near our place. Our group look forward to the ‘White elephant’ gift exchange, ‘bring me’ games, sumptuous potluck buffet, photo-ops, news updating, and many fun activities which lasted from 4pm to midnight. I had been attending this themed party for the past 10 years. We missed Jojo who usually hosted the party but had moved to Pinas, but we managed to keep it going with Daniel Z. and everyone cooperating; Jojo was virtually present vis skype/internet the entire party.

Other highlights of the month:

·      Stull enjoying watching Dr. Shawn Murphy and his clever skills on the The Good Doctor. With the season finale, I am looking forward to the next season’s episodes in January 2018; The life drama is very interesting!

·      Keeping up with Doctors’ appointments.  I am so happy to meet my new primary physician, Dr. Rodney Acuna (from Davao, Pinas). I asked family friend Dr. Edna Tanegra to refer me to a good doctor specializing on my case. She assured me that I will be comfortable with him since he has bubbly /energetic personality and we speak the same language. True enough, during our 1^st meeting, I truly felt at home and trusted him completely. We interspersed our conversations with ‘panalo’, ‘wagi’ ka Ate’ and ‘high fives’ and fist bumps. I was so impressed by his energy and good humor friendliness.  Dr. Edna was 100% correct. And GOD is truly GREAT! In one of our Wednesday morning coffee session, I was seated beside a lady with 3 kids she was dropping off at St. Mel’s school. She introduced herself as Maria Acuna, turned out as the doctor-wife of my Dr. Acuna. She studied at Velez in Cebu and love our place Panglao, Bohol. What a great small world it is, and GOD is truly great, working on HIS creations as in a puzzle, arranging them in proper places /fit, Truly amazing and wonderful !!!

·      Happy to be back to my contemplative life, more prayers and gym exercises, commitments to Church activities – Adoration chapel schedules, after-Mass coffee Joe’s on Sundays and Wednesdays, BCBP meetings, meeting new GOD-sent friends, Opus Dei Recollections, Meditations, and Confessions/ Benediction;

·      Movies watched: Jumanji, Star Wars (The Last Jedi);

·      Enjoying using my new MacBook Air, amazed its fast it  processing and giving information, compared to my slow ASUS which I enjoyed for 4 years. I am glad that Sean insisted on this upgrade – wonderful!!!

Much love and Best Regards!!!

SUSAN BG