Dimond Holiday Festival

What fun! Why wouldn't you want to live in Oakland....in one day you can celebrate (or at least anticipate) Solistice, Channukah, Christmas, Advent, Epiphany and Kwanza with a pancake breakfast that I shared with homeless folks, hearing Mandarin, Cantonese, English and Spanish and seeking diverse families from different socio-economic groupings. That's Oakland. That's the Dimond! All of us together. All of us living here. All of us eager and anxious to see Oakland - and the Dimond - grow in healthy, diversity, vibrancy, and just revitalization.
We heard about many of the religious celebrations that characterize the growing darkness of winter, all of which are about community:: hope in living together, in dreaming together, in working together to transform our hopes or God's commands from dreams into reality.

Here's some of my best of photos of today's celebration.

I'm grateful to Ruth Villasenor and Shari Godinez who made it all possible. You can express your gratitude by shopping and buying TONS of stuff at Paws & Claws or throughout our local Oakland stores! Thanks also to Robin Goodfellow...my daughters are still playing with the crafts they made earlier at the festival!