The Clan

I'm quite excited nowadays because I am starting to make connections with the rest of my clan. Under the family name of Lumen, a group was created in the social network Facebook by one of my cousins. It was amazing because the membership grew exponentially. We started communicating with the other members of the Lumen clan from all over. It opened the chances to possibly trace back our roots. With the help of my father, I was able to trace part of our family tree. In fact a member happened to be our second degree cousin. She mentioned that she came from my dad's original hometown and further mentioned the name of her father and her grand father. It turns out that her grand father was a half-brother of my grand father. It was such a nice feeling to be in touch with a close relative whom I never met.

Hopefully, the other members would also try to trace their respective roots in order to know the origins of the Lumens. I'm so happy that one of the main purpose of this social network became a reality for us, the Lumens. We are hoping to hold a virtual clan reunion for all the members.

Simple Christmas Celebration

The world was so excited with the coming of Christmas Day. Preparations for food and gifts were done just to catch-up with the festivities. After Christmas Day, people are now looking forward towards the end of the year and the start of the new year. For the past three years, I've been celebrating Christmas and the coming of the New Year away from my family because I was working on these holidays. This year is no exception. Dec 24th and the 25th were on a Friday and Saturday respectively. The same will also happen for Dec 31st and Jan 1 of 2011 as these are my regular working days.

I was planning to go through these holidays as simple as possible, and I was able to send some christmas greeting cards to my friends and relatives. With the use of the advancement of technology nowadays, I sent christmas cards using online merchants. I went to these greeting cards website, designed my own card using a not-so-old family picture. I let the site mail the cards to my intended recepients in order to save some mailing times. For the rest of my friends and family, I used my social network account in order to greet them.

Since I was in the hospital where I worked, the passing of the Christmas Eve was a quick one. The hospital management provided a special free holiday meal for the night shift staff. On the day itself, I went to hear mass right after my work. I also spent lunch with my parents on that day. Right after lunch, it was my time to hit the bed in preparation for my work that evening. On that evening at work, I tried to monitor the Christmas party of my family back in the Philippines. We used a messenger site in order to transmit voice and video content over the internet. Unfortunately, the internet connection where the party was held was very slow. Since my internet connection was fast enough, my video images were clearly viewed at the other end but the video that I got from them were flickering and erratic and the quality of the images were not good. Since I was still working at that time, I decided to hang up the video call and just wait for the pictures to be posted and shared online.

The most important thing though, is that I was able to greet the child Jesus on his birthday and spent a holiday meal with my parents.

To those who were not able to receive my greetings, whether by mail or online, I wish you all the best for this Christmas Season and a prosperous and healthy New Year 2011.

A Time To Be Thankful

The long holiday season is here. It starts with Thanksgiving all throughout the Christmas season. This year, just like last year, I will not have a chance to be with my family be it on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Year's Day. The Thanksgiving always fall on a Thursday while this year's Christmas and New Year's days will fall on Saturdays and that all mean that I'll be working on these days. As what I've said last year, I'll be working in the hospital saving lives while the rest of the world is partying and having fun with their loved ones.

Nevertheless, I still have all the chances in the world to be thankful to God for all the blessings that I and my family received this year. I am thankful that my parents were able to celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary last July. I am forever thankful that they still remain in good health. I am likewise thankful to the Lord for giving my only brother a new lease in life. Last May of this year, he received a new kidney from a Good Samaritan. He was suffering from kidney failure for a year until someone offered his kidney to him. I considered my brother a walking miracle, a testament how the Lord blessed him with a new life. I am also thankful that God gave me a warning to take care more of myself specially my health. With my desire to help my brother, I also discovered that I too have a major issue on my health. Lately, I got accidentally involved with a social crisis and because of this I know who my real friends are. I promised myself to be contented with this set of friends as I know that they will be with me through and through. I am also thankful that I found a friend in this foreign land that became very special to me. I know that whatever happen to both of us, we remain for each other forever. Thankful to somebody special although far away from me, is loving and thinking of me from somewhere out there.

There is so much to be thankful for and what I just mentioned are the prominent ones that happened this year. How about you, what are you be thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving to all!