Christmas Adventures

Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope your Christmas has been blessed. As a reminder, the Christmas season has just started and will go until January 8th - the feast of the baptism of our Lord. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both Joyous. The choir was beautiful, the weather was glorious, and family tension was at a minimum. Christmas was in the high 70's and absolutely beautiful - with puffy white clouds and a beautiful sky. Our family has expanded over the years. My folks had four kids. Two of us are married and have four kids between the two of us (three are mine). We don't have much room under the tree. We all bring our gifts to Mom & Dad's for opening. It is quite a sight to see. We open gifts on Christmas Eve after mass. As a parent, I much prefer this to doing Christmas morning (which we tried one year while living in Georgia). We did have an adventure on Christmas day. We used to have turkey, as a kind of repeat of Thanksgiving, but my dad is not the biggest turkey fan. So about 10 years ago Pops started making prime rib. Well this year we decided to try and roast it on the outdoor grill - especially given the gorgeous weather. We skewered the meat (and almost me), fired up the rotisserie, and thought we were set for a real treat. Well, we didn't really know what we were doing, but went inside anyways to be with the family and prep some other parts of the meal. About 10 minutes later, Maggie tells us there is fire coming from the grill. Actually, I think she mentioned the word “volcano.” This gorgeous piece of meat had drip it’s delicious grease over hot burners and had created a grease fire. After Dad got over his disbelief it was rather funny. It was just like in the movies where they burn the turkey and have to go out for Chinese. Well, that happened to us – except we went out for Mexican. It makes for a good family story though. I suspect we will remember this Christmas 20 years from now.

O Holy Night

There are a lot of Christmas Carols that I love. The vast majority are faith filled - I am not one of those who celebrates Winter - it just seems so trivial when you think about what we are really celebrating. Besides, we never have a white Christmas in Southern California, and (IMHO) that is as it should be. Christmas isn't just a holiday it is a Holy Day. Every year it is another chance to welcome Him. My favorite carol is "O Holy Night." I usually can't sing through the whole thing without getting choked up. Here are the lines that really hit me: Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His Gospel is peace. Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother And in His Name all oppression shall cease. Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born! When I hear "fall on your knees" sung so powerfully, I really do want to fall on my knees. And the high note is so sweet it feels like pierces to my core Just wanted to share.