Bringing in the New Year

Happy New Year! We had a really nice Holy Hour last night in St. Mary's Chapel. The meditations and songs were just perfect, and we had time to sit and pray. Afterwards, we had a social. Some other sisters and I stayed and watched a movie, and then we watched the happenings at Time Square with Dick Clark. I was duly impressed with his speech. It has improved so much...he must have been working really hard in speech therapy ever since his stroke. I don't know what happened with the ball that was supposed to come down though....it didn't happen this year....or at least the TV cameras didn't show it. There was a nice firework display though. It was also nice to get to do the countdown at 11pm. I was able to journal a little bit afterwards and I am sure I was asleep before it struck midnight here.

I am going to spend this afternoon working on the Warm Up America! afghan. To find out more about this Foundation that encourages communities and schools to knit/crochet for a good cause, click here. Fifty-nine 7"x9" rectangles of various colors and patterns were knitted/crocheted by Sisters and were turned into me. (It takes 49 rectangles to make an afghan...I will send in the extra rectangles to the Warm Up America! Foundation.) I still haven't managed to learn how to crochet, but I haven't given up on it. I do enjoy it.

Once the rectangles were all handed in, it was time to assemble them together. A week ago, I was praying that somehow the afghan would be completed, even though I had no idea how to join the rectangles. Sr. Caritas came to my rescue and taught me how, and did some of them. Sr. Natalie and I are finishing up connecting the pieces, and then one of the Sisters will be crocheting a border around the afghan. It's looking really nice! The Warm Up America! Foundation would like the afghan to be given to a local charity so that throughout the country, people will be receiving them. I did some thinking and praying about it, and I'd like to give it to the Manitowoc County Domestic Violence Center for someone there.

Today, Sister Pamela Catherine is leaving to spend a week in Greenwood, MS and tomorrow, I will be leaving to spend a week in Marquette, MI, in the Upper Penninsula. We have mission sites in those places, and we are both looking forward to our stays. Sister Pamela Catherine is traveling by train and I am traveling by car. Both of us are grateful that we aren't flying, with the pat-downs they do these days! The postulants will also be spending a week on mission. They will each be at a different mission site in Wisconsin.

So 2011 is starting out well. I pray that 2011 is full of many blessings for you and your loved ones!