"For unto you a child is born...." Yes, it's 9:16am on Christmas Day and I am posting a message. We've been up since 5:00am and by the time it was getting light around 7:00am the craziness of stocking and gift opening was over. It was a special year; the first time the kids had presents for us that were truly from them. Grace got jelly beans for dad and chocolate mint patties for me. Lee colored and matted two wild animal pictures and then wrote a personal message on the back of each: "I hope my dad shoots a big buck like the one on this picture." He also made me a certificate for one backrub including a hug and kiss. We've all had too much candy, mini peanut butter cups, crunch bells, candy canes, mint kit kats (only found at Target and they're awesome). I've already ordered clearance Christmas wrap from Current Catalog for next year. I do this every year. It's great, I don't have to struggle with the after Christmas crowds and come next November when I start thinking of wrapping gifts everything is in the wrapping tote and ready to go. Grace is relaxing in her new bathrobe and fuzzy socks, Lee is driving his tractors around, Lou is wearing her new horse outfit and playing with Felicity and horses, Ray (Jack, Jack) is terrorizing everyone's new toys. He was playing with his remote control car for a while until he discovered Lee's hammer.
Just for my record, we went to church last night at 6:30pm. It was a nice service, although I stood in the back for most of the time. A front page article in our newspaper yesterday noted the decline in the midnight mass. In our deanery we have 10 parishes and only one has a true midnight mass. They sighted the decline in attendance being the main reason for doing away with the midnight mass. What do you do? Do you keep the kids up late? Do you get up early in the morning?
