'Tis the Eve

A Blessed Christmas Eve to you all!

Our day is low-key.  My house is (kinda) clean, my presents are (mostly) wrapped.  But we're just hanging out and enjoying each other...and waiting for Grandpa and Grandma to get here so we can open presents.

At this very moment the kids are napping.  Hubby and I read Christmas cards and letters, commenting on pictures.  It's a tradition.

Supper is in the oven:  roast leg and shoulder of grass-fed Icelandic lamb  along with roasted quarters of Uncle David's Dakota Dessert squash.  A local feast to be sure.

Tonight is our church's Christmas Eve service, a wonderful evening of litany and carols.  I'm playing the piano and I've practiced all my favorite hymns.  My two most-favorites?  O Holy Night and The Friendly Beasts

My kiddos are doing a wee bit of a program tonight.  There are five kids aged five and under.  I threatened to bring our electric net fence to the sanctuary to keep the kids at the front of the church.  We've practiced once and it was a bit like trying to herd cats while teaching them to sing.

Our little church will be filled to bursting tonight.  Forget about getting "your pew".  We'll circle the church with candles and sing Silent Night as Palmer plays his guitar.  I look across my small flickering flame at the faces I've know since childhood.  Some faces have become wrinkled, shoulders stooped and hands shake a little.  But their eyes are just as bright, their smiles just as big, their hugs just as tight.

This service, more than any other, is home to me.  And while I celebrate my second Christmas without my dad.  It's my first Christmas back home to the loving arms of my family.  Not my family by blood, but by birth.  I was born into this congregation, this family.

My Christmas prayer for you this year is that you have that same family.

Merry Christmas, each and every one!