My upbringing was very old world, old school. I grew up in a two- family house with my Grandparents living downstairs and so our home was the hub of all of the fun on my mothers side with her 6 siblings and their families - aunts, uncles and cousins. We had huge picnics and parties and every year we hosted Christmas Eve and one week later, New Years Eve, in the basement,…cause you know every good Italian family has another kitchen in the basement. There were so many people that we used a ping pong table to seat everyone! And even at that there weren’t enough seats. We have many, many great memories.

Family was everything, traditions were rich and they were expected to be followed. All of us, I’m sure, no matter what heritage we come from have anticipated foods, events, visits, traditions that we participate in that make the Christmas season special….and harried…… Part of the reason why I struggle during this season to not be Martha and I suspect many of you do as well.

I accompanied my daughter to our Grandsons first few pediatrician appointments. Each time, the 20 minute Siri led expedition led us to the front parking lot of the medical building. We parked and wrangled up the numerous things that you travel with when traveling with a newborn. We trekked the long way across the hot parking lot into the main entrance of the building; across the large foyer to the elevators that would take us down to the bottom floor where we would soon enter the pediatricians office. By the third visit we thought we had this figured out. However, to our surprise while we were driving down the main road looking to make the turn into the parking lot - as we had done before - we noticed detour signs preventing us from doing so.

We all enter the year with the ambition to be physically fit, we set our alarm early, we try to get more rest, we begin a diet or we may even join a gym or a weight loss program.

When I think of being physically fit I think of four different components:

A Nutritious Balanced Diet, Proper Rest, Exercise and Vitamins and Supplements.

First A Balanced Diet Is our input, what we ingest. It is important because it provides all the nutrients we need for our body to function well. We pull from a variety of different food groups to feed our body and keep it healthy. We remember the old saying garbage in - garbage out. So we are careful not to make a steady diet of junk food.

For over a year now, I can not get this memory out of my head:

Our family had taken our first cruise back in 2007. It was then that we fell in love with this type of vacation. We enjoyed being transported from one Caribbean Paradise to another without any effort at all. We loved the fine dining and activities and especially the nightly shows. One of the nights, as we exited the theatre after the show, we encountered a storm. The seas were rough. As hundreds of passengers exited, we were all funneled into a corridor that led us to the other side of the ship. Picture 6-8 people across and 50-60 people deep walking through this hall. As the ship swayed back and forth, so did we. Although each of our hundreds of foot steps were heading forward, we were all actually walking a few steps to the left and then a few steps to the right, then to the left and then to the right, all in perfect harmony with the thrashing sea.

How can I keep from singing God’s Praise, when I see His amazing Grace all over my life. It’s far from perfect, but I can see the hand of God as He has brought us full circle back into our NJ home.

Life is hard…the older I am getting, the more I am realizing, that life is just hard. That ‘hard’ looks different for each person. We all have our own burdens and we all carry our own particular pain resulting from suffering. As Christians, this thought of suffering sometimes surprises us. Not only are we surprised by suffering and trials; we wonder where God is in the midst of it all. We believe He saves us, He loves us, He forgives us, He will come again; but where is He when we get the news from the Doctor we were dreading? What about when we lose our job or our marriage is falling apart? Or when we are betrayed by a family member or friend? What about when we lose a loved one? What about then? Where is God then?