happy birthday Sr. Ilustrado

Dearest Chuck,

Happy happy birthday and many many more milestones to celebrate.

Fortunately or unfortunately, i don't really know, i am undertaking activities which are overloading my time and drawing me away from communicating as often as i used to. One of the labours of love i have unforgivably delayed is sharing with the family the photos of your visit to Barcelona.

Short and swift but tenderly intense, we all enjoyed every minute of your stay as you must have noticed. I can't allow your birthday to pass without sending to you and to all the evidence of it. The photos speak for themselves. None of us were willing to miss out on any part of your 48 hours here.

JMC joins me in wishing you the best of the best, today and always. Lots of love to you and Edith.

From Xavi's "Alphabiography"

Hi Everyone.

We've been struggling during this latest trip of Marco. I miss him. The kids miss him. This one has been harder than all other trips - by far.

But, as always, life has its way of working things out and God sends you a reminder of just how fortunate you are.

I don't usually read all of Xavi's work as Language Arts is his strongest subject and he never needs my help (in fact, it is usually me asking him how to spell things). But today, I was working in my office when something popped out of my printer. I was so touched, I asked him to email it to me so I could send it to you.

Sharing with you a piece that Xavi wrote for his "Alphabiography"......

Xavi Delgado Nov. 16, 2011

7KR

L Is For Luck

Gifts. We all love receiving them. Normally people think of gifts as things like an Xbox or a Nerf Gun or maybe that robot that does your homework for you. But it can also be things like good health, or your family, and maybe your superhuman abilities at art or sports. So we all have our favorite gifts. Whether it’s a talent or the gift that you wanted so badly that you got on one knee begged for it, there will always be one that we treasure forever. Many people asked me, “hey Xavi, what’s the greatest gift you ever received?” or “Xavi, if you had to tell me your favorite gift, what would it be?” Well, for the past 5 years, I’ve answered with one amazing word… Luck.

I’m going to admit, this wouldn’t be my choice of a chapter if Ms. Roberts didn’t make me write on the “Greatest Gift I Ever Received”, but now that I think about it, I have amazing luck. I have good health, a good family, and a good education. In fact, most of us have good luck everyday. Like maybe that time you thought you lost your treasured pen but found it in your blazer, or the time you decided to see if your i phone was “fall proof” and threw it out of a 3 story window (which fortunately only sustained 1 month of memory loss).

Life lesson: Luck is the greatest gift ever.