TCBY: Frozen Yogurt on a Cold Winter Day

Gigi's Pick:

Cheesecake mixed with Root Beer Float, with sprinkles on top.

Celebrate Kwanzaa! The Nguzo Saba

Celebrate Kwanzaa! December 26 - January 1 

Kwanzaa is an African-American and Pan-African cultural holiday that is centered around seven principles (called Nguzo Saba in Swahili). They are:

• Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves -- stand up.
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
• Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
• Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
• Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Kwanzaa and the Film, The Black Candle

Are you thinking of celebrating Kwanzaa this year, but not sure what it's all about? Check out the film The Black Candle: A Kwanzaa Celebration, directed by MK Asante and narrated by Madame Maya Angelou. Asante's film not only tells the story of the meaning, history and legacy of Kwanzaa, it also tells the provocative story of the African journey from a stripped and tortured people to the descendants who continue to tell their ancestors' stories, struggles, defeats and victories. This film calls for Africans in the diaspora to live the principles of the Nguzo Saba with courage and conviction.

Take a look at The Black Candle:



Visit the Web site for the film to find our more about it and how you can sponsor showings of The Black Candle. 

And if you haven't guessed, we need to practice these principles ALL YEAR LONG. A luta continua!

Don't Worry....I'll Wait for You

Your real friends don't mind when you take a little break and do your own thing for a minute. They'll always be there when you get back.

Pecan Pie? Thank You, but......

I had lunch with a group of really nice people at work today and one of the desserts offered, after we ate our bagged lunches, was miniature pecan pies. 

Since I was a child, I’ve had an aversion to pecan pie or anything similar to it. It all started when I got sick as a dog after eating some of my grandmother’s pecan pie. Don’t get me wrong, my grandmother, who lived in North Carolina, was a great cook and pies were probably her specialty. But on this occasion after eating her pie, my stomach churned for the better part of a day, and although I didn’t throw up, I’m sure I had diarrhea. Thinking back, I believe at one point I loved her pecan pies, which may have been the problem. I think I liked them a little too much and ate too much of it. That just proves the old saying – too much of a good thing can be bad for you. I learned the hard way.

On the other hand, I have very fond memories of my grandmother’s Chess pie and started making my own years ago. Granted, I only make them on special occasions or to sell them.

Chess pie

Who Can I Turn To?

I found a journal entry from Jan. 2, 2000 that made me just want to go back to my younger self and give myself a big HUG! My 2000 self was so sad sometimes and lost. Ladies, do yourself a favor, go back to your younger self (however you see her -- in a dream, your visions, a picture, or an old journal entry) and give her some LOVE and support.

I'd love to share the whole entry here but it's really too personal. But here's a line that perhaps some of you can identify with, if not now, then back in time. You will know the resounding answer to the problem, just after you read the line.

"Sometimes I am so lost and don’t know where or who to turn to."

OK, so now let's hear your response, in unison.......GOD! You need to turn to GOD.