Today is a beginning . . . not only of this blog, and my ramblings here, but here in Envigado (a small town within the great metropolitan area of the city of Medellín, Colombia) we have started the Christmas Season with music, dance & Christmas lights everywhere!  And in the liturgy we have begun the Season of Advent.  Several members of my extended family here in Colombia have worked all year on the lights . . . and I have seen the decorations in the workshop, but now we can see them illuminated, hanging in the parks and the streets of our little town.