Driving home this Wednesday I ran into a massive amount of traffic on Grand Avenue. Grand is normally busy, but this was the worst. I really wanted to get home; we had plans to take the kids out to have their Santa photos taken, have a nice dinner and relax before getting ready for my Mom's surgery this weekend.

I a bit tense, and was becoming a bit mad wondering what was going on, but figured it would get better after I passed First Street. It didn't. It was worse.

It took ten minutes to drive two blocks...then I started seeing people walking. Individuals and families...little one's carried and pushed in strollers. People on bikes and people getting off the bus. Everyone was bundled up for what we in California call "cold". There were people selling flowers on the street. The traffic? Cars were slowing waiting to turn into the Lady of Guadalupe Church. Church. Great...I am pissed at traffic, and people are going to church. Am I going to hell?

December 12 is Día de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (the Virgin Mary) for Mexicans and they celebrate more than anything else. The Virgin appeared to Juan Diego on December 9, 1531. Juan Diego (we named our Son after him and the painter Diego Rivera) was a native Mexican. His vision helped to spread Catholicism throughout Mexico and the Americas. He was beatified as a Saint by Pope John Paul; he is the first Saint born in the Americas. My Grandparents always had a Virgin Mary in their house...if I saw my Nana praying to her I knew she was asking for some special help. We found the carving that Krystal is holding on one of our trips to Mexico; Diane and I saw her and had to buy her at any price. Carved and painted by hand, she has a special place in our living room.