You have such a full life Mr. Martinez...enjoy looking at it through your blog.

Happy New Year to you and Lilia...hope the new year brings you much joy.

Happy New year! You last month has been a full one! Many prayers and blessings for you this coming month and year!!

Happy New Year, Octavio can I have your autograph??? Never known someone so cool! Have a geat year full of yet more adventure in God's will.

yep...food DOES consume a lot of time...but then by your blog it seems like so does your mom, your daughter, premieres, and your company.

Oh and your tie is crooked. :)

I love food but sometimes I do think we spend ridiculous amounts of time with it.

Cool that you are getting back with your mom.

I've enjoyed getting to know you through your blog and recently in person. Hope you, your family, and Sojourn have a great 2006.

Cooking is an art. Eating is an art appreciation course. Art appreciation is creator appreciation and, by extention, God appreciation. When others enjoy what I cook or, still better, when we explore community by cooking together, the time spent on food is not only redeemed, but glorified. Feel guilty for enjoying food no longer.

Happy New Year; may 2006 bring each one of us much good cooking and good eating!

-Mel

mixed_moss,

how wonderful!
thanks for the lesson.
there is something about making and eating food with family members and friends isn't there?

obahsomah,

actaully, my life is a nighmare...i make it look easy.
seriously, i am enjoying this chapter or my life.
kids are grown, lilia and i have many dear friends we've met because of this blog, we have a good time hosting folks at our home, and starting this month a new chapter is about to be written.
stay tuned.

stinkowoman,

hey lori, thanks for being such a good friend.
btw, do you have a ceviche cream?

james,

yea yea yea...honestly, lilia and i are having fun meeting folks and sharing our lives.
sometimes i wonder how I got here and when the guy who suppose to be living my life will show up.

2006 will bring some changes that have been in the works since may '05.
can't share much more, but please pray that lilia and i will be courageous, wise and generous.

can't wait to meet wioth you face to face.

ilumina...uma,

in a few days you'll be back in sunny LA.
it'll be good to see you and hear your voice again.

BTW....my tie was not crooked. it's a 'look'.

allenarn,

enjoyed meeting you as well.
how cool is blogging.
actaully i need to thank alex for encouraging me to blog.
i never would have met you and many others.

stay in touch.

On food, at the start of each semester I engage in a silly practice of trying to plan out how I'm going to spend each day in a "typical" week (its silly cause a typical week is atypical) ... the first thing I did was put in three hours a day for "meals". On the one hand, this seems weird (esp. when I consider the amount of time between meals I spend thinking about the next one) and possibly sinful. On the other hand, meals are an opportunity to spend time with family, friends, and acquaintences we'd like be friendly towards. In addition, its one of the easiest ways there is to be more like Jesus. Thanks for modelling that, as usual, for us.

Happy New Year!

O,

Funny how we first connected over that meal at Cafe Santorini just a few months back. Looking forward to sharing some more meals along the way in the future.

Keith

Meet face to face, your not still competitive about this nose thing?

Octavio,

That "jigadijig" comment above was actually, me, not Laurie.

Bill

billclark,

you confirmed a time management tip i use...marriage counseling, meetings, hanging out with friends...lilia and i try to schedule those tiimes with a meal. we figure everyone has to eat, why not accomplish two things at once? the funny thing is, what started as a time savings technique turned out to be the best use of our time, our home and our resources.

have you ever noticed how often Jesus ate with folks?

james,

you know if we're going to meet, we better pick a room large enough for us and our noses.

O,

Yes, Jesus certainly understood the power of sharing meals. Reminds me of something I read once (let me look it u... boy "google book search is awesome!"... Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, in Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion wrote (p.135):

"When Mormon missionaries make cold calls, when they knock on the doors of strangers, this leads to a conversion once out of a thousand calls - and never immediately, only after a long series of contast as a friendship is established. Hoever, when missionaries make their first contact with a person in the home of a Moman friend (Bill's note... typically, I would assume over a meal) this results in a conversion 50 percent of the time.... this pattern is not peculiar to Momons; it is how all successful movements spread"

What can I add to that?