MONDAY DIARY: CHRISTMAS 2013

Dear Diary,

 

It was a very good Christmas celebration.  Things seemed to flow alon  Well, except for the fire in the sacristy.  But that wasn’t all that bad.  We only lost a trashcan, some towels, and part of a sink is now singed black but what do you expect when you have a vocation that involves fire?  A fire once every 80 years is not so bad.

g fairly well this year.

 

Of course, I am not as young as I used to be and staying up for the Midnight Mass is a little more of a challenge than it used to be.  (Why doesn’t anyone ever call up and ask what time the 4:00 o’clock Mass is?)  The priests and seminarians here went down into the common room to watch a movie together to help pass the time.  It probably wasn’t the best choice of movies.  Definitely not a warm fuzzy Christmas movie.  But believe me it kept us awake if not a little shaken.

 

A very generous parishioner made a champagne breakfast for priests, seminarians, and some of family who came to midnight Mass.  Back when I was in the theater I used to dream about opening a show and staying up with just such a breakfast in order to be awake when the first edition of the paper came out with the review of the show in it.  Well, now that such a thing doesn’t really exist anymore, this is now the best thing going. 

 

It also helped keep me awake even longer since I had to lock up the church after everybody left.  Fortunately the alarms (which I do not know how to control) were set to go off at 3AM so there was the excuse to get stragglers out of the church.

 

Three hours later we were up and getting ready for Christmas Day.  Three hours or no three hours, Sebastian was insistent on his walk all the same.  What a beautiful morning it was.  Still dark because of the clouds, we had the park to ourselves.  It was a little bit of quiet before the day really started taking off.

 

Back at the ranch there were stirrings.  Everyone who stays the night at St. Sebastian at Christmas gets something to open on the morning.  You just have to no matter how silly or small.  Sebastian ripped into his packages with reckless abandon, paper flying and wagging tail destroying the bottom half of the Christmas tree.

 

There were still people in Church around 3:00.  “You can still get out,” I told them, “but you can’t get back in.”  This is important to know.  Don’t forget anything.  I could open up a small department store (or at least a five and ten) with the stuff left over from Christmas including 5 purses.  (How do you forget your purse???) 

 

Finally joining family, we had a nice meal after which I took a nap.  ZZZZZZZZZ  Of course, I was then refreshed and ready to go while everyone else was getting ready to go to bed.  We still had to open presents and then I went home to play with mine while everyone else was tucked in beds with visions of Christmas dancing in their heads.

 

What a glorious celebration.  Thank you God.  Happy Birthday.