Monday, September 12, 2011

Viva La Mexico!

This young lady was quite taken by the music.

Jimmy, AKA Fr. Lyons, AKA Padre Santiago was so pleased that so many could attend the celebration. This is Aroura, a good friend for many years. She came from Texas and has known Jimmy since his parents moved to Texas to live-about 30 yrs!

There were 14 priests concelebrating the mass with Jimmy-they came from all over-some were former students of Jimmy's

I'm not sure who the lady is-the picture in the background is the founder of the Oblates and was canonized.

We're waiting for Mass to begin-Jimmy isn't even dressed yet! from L to R:
my second cousin once removed Cassie, my cousin Kathleen and her husband Steve, and my cousin Mary Ellen.

Here's my cousin Tommy at breakfast. We all met at the hotel's  restaurant for their delicious breakfast buffet. 
And here's a better shot of Cassie. It's the first time we met-she & I were roommates at this great hotel named the Bristol. She took a million pictures and plans to send us copies, so I may have to do another blog about Mexico.....

On September 8th my cousin Jimmy celebrated his 50th anniversary of his ordination, so I flew to Mexico City where he's worked for so many of those years. Mexico City is very different when you're treated like kings and queens, and that is just what happened! We came from all parts-Cassie from Southern CA, Steve and Kathleen from Northern  CA, Tommy from Florida, Mary Ellen from Virginia, and me-I flew out of Sea-Tac since I'm still in WA with Teresa. Jimmy's friends planned a special celebration after the Mass-and about 250 attended! It was quite beautiful-lots of good food, plenty of music and dancing. Jimmy's friend went all out to make this special and I'm so glad I could be a part of it. The next day Jimmy arranged for us to go down to the retreat center and just hang out. Naturally we had another feast made by Sara, a good friend of Jimmy's and his gal Friday. Everything we tasted was so good! I had a great time getting to renew friendships with my cousins and meeting a newer member of the family. Everything went too fast! 

1 comment:

CaliforniaGrammy said...

What a wonderful celebration to be a part of . . . I'm so glad you were able to go down to join in the festivities recognizing Jimmy's fifty years in the priesthood. And Jimmy was blessed by the presence of all those cousins, he must have cherished that love and support from his extended family.