Family and Friends - THAT is what the holiday season is all about.

Christmas is coming and of all the feasts throughout the year the celebration of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day seem to be the most popular of all. There are more traditions and customs associated with Christmas in all Christian countries than with any other feast. I love Christmas time, it’s family time, it’s home time.

A few years ago my family and I decided to stop exchanging gifts and focus on the real gift of time, time spent with each other. The first year, it felt a little odd, but as the years rolled by, it became the norm for us and now I love it and would not have it any other way.

Having spent many years in America and enjoying Thanksgiving, it soon became one of my favorite holidays. Why? Because it was so similar to my experience of Christmas but without the pressure of gift buying. Yes, both Thanksgiving and Christmas have become commercial commodities that the stores use to guilt trip us. But what if we could fight off the advertising awareness, the pressure to spend more than the next person on a present and find the time to really, truly enjoy the moment, the season, the holiday with our loved ones, wouldn’t we be more loved and loving? Isn’t that what these dates are truly about?

With increasing awareness of suicide, poor mental health and depression in Ireland today we should be focussing on what is important in life. Family and friends are two of the most important parts of life and for me, Christmas is a time to really bring that to the fore. Whatever business you are in, we should be encouraging all our customers to share this message of love and warmth, family and friends and reaching out to those who we know don’t have the luxury of either.

The Vatican and me, Head to Head

So the latest this week was the ‘ruling’ from the Vatican who ‘ordered’ Catholics to keep ashes in a sacred place rather than at home.  Umm sorry now, I consider myself catholic and I don’t see anything MORE sacred than my own home where love and family are the biggest contributors??!

They also reckon the ‘remains of the faithful’ should be left in consecrated ground such as a cemetery plot which is interesting because we have to pay for said plot.
Church authorities also say that ashes must not be scattered in the air, on land or at sea, but yet these are all of ‘god’s’ creation are they not???

I’m sorry but I am not having it, yes of course I am biased as this affects my business of cremation memorials but I think it is a load of BS, and JUST when I was starting to dig our current Pope.

People are turning to more natural and green alternatives - natural burials, scattering ashes in the sea or on land are all deemed more natural currently.

My business is memorial jewellery, putting cremated ashes into jewellery so people can keep them close to them for as long as they live. I am catholic so what does this make me? Unfatihful? A Judas?

For me, this ‘ruling’ has nothing to do with religion at all and more with the church making money and exercising their control over ‘the faithful’. Well those ‘faithful’ are about to become the faithful departed if they don’t sort their beans out!

They cannot just make rules up as they go along. One minute cremation is out, then for convenience sake, it's in but don’t separate the ashes! Then it must be on sacred ground. Enough already! Sacred is whatever is SACRED TO YOU, the loved ones left behind. End of story.

Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Grey in Ireland!

Back in 1987, Matthew Broderick (Sarah Jessica Parkers hubby), and his then girlfriend, Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing Star), both co-stars in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, were vacationing in Ireland. Broderick mistakenly drove the incorrect way and crashed into an oncoming vehicle. Both the driver and passenger, who were mother and daughter, of the car died from their injuries.

Matthew sustained a broken leg, fractured ribs, a concussion, and a collapsed lung and Jennifer suffered minor injuries. Matthew was charged with causing death by dangerous driving, but was later convicted of a lower charge of careless and reckless driving. (would love the details of that!)

A few days later Dirty Dancing premiered in theatres and it is said that Jennifer never could enjoy all the fame that came with its success as a result of this accident in Ireland! She said that she never recovered from the accident and she turned her back on Hollywood aged only 27. She says “my head was never the same, my ambition was never the same.” How tragic!