Christmas at our house begins on Christmas Eve morning. The adults, as usual, were up long before the children, working on the last bits of making the house presentable for the festivities. I wandered around grabbing photos of the vast array of gifts spanning the length of the living room, the Advent candles, and the lovely and gracious Laurent, who obliged me when I asked for a pic to test my exposure. She’s so beautiful!
Paul left with a couple of kids around 10am to go pick up Ana and cousin Noël, and when they returned it was time for opening stockings. Fun fact, we couldn’t find the stockings this year, so I used zip-lock bags to distribute a ludicrous amount of Mexican and chocolate candy. 😅There were a few other little munchie treats, and each bag contained a few packets of hot cocoa.
When everyone was sufficiently sugared up, it was time to go pick up lunch. With everything going on we made the decision to keep it simple instead of cooking a big feast. We splurged this time though – got the good stuff instead of Little Caesar’s. Pizza Patrón makes really delicious Latin-inspired varieties!
After lunch, a reading of the Christmas story from Luke by Paul, and though he threatened a 45 minute sermon, it only ended up being a two-minute homily. And then the opening of gifts. Blessings abounded! Jacob finally got the second volume of the Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe, and a laptop computer for doing his writing anywhere he likes instead of being tied to his desktop. I had chosen a nice new laptop-backpack as a gift for Paul. However, the day I did all my Christmas ordering, Wells Fargo decided I was behaving suspiciously and cancelled all my purchases, so I had to start over, and in the midst of all the confusion I ended up ordering his backpack twice. So Jacob ended up with a bonus gift to go with his new laptop! I called it his birthday gift, since that was coming two days later anyway.
I was especially delighted by two photography books from Laurent, and a stunning Turkish hand-engraved water pitcher from my sweetie. I had been using a re-purposed plastic milk jug to keep water beside the bed for refilling my c-pap water reservoir, but this will be a much more elegant solution!
When everyone was plumb tuckered from all the fun, we wound things down, drove Ana and Noël home, and then it was time for some of the family to get ready for mass. Paul took everyone but me, Jacob, Jordan and Ellie with him to the 6pm at the cathedral. We rested up, and then Laurent came over and joined us to go to St. Mary’s Basilica for the midnight mass. It’s been years since we’ve been to a candle light Christmas Eve, and now that the kids are old enough to handle it, and Laurent would be singing anyway, I wanted to give it a try. We had to leave at 10pm to get her there in time for a little rehearsing before the 11pm choral prelude began, and it was a darn good thing we got there that early – people were already lined up outside the front door of the church when we arrived! Being in my wheelchair, I got to sneak in the side door where the ramp is located, so we snagged a prime location, but it filled up quickly, and by the time the music began, there were no seats available. If anyone came just for the midnight mass, they had to sit downstairs and watch the live stream! Jordan and Ellie, bored with the wait, left us to guard their chairs while they bopped around in and out, enjoying the lights in the diocesan plaza outside.
Oh, but when the music began, it was so, so beautiful. I couldn’t have hoped for a more perfect beginning to the Christmas season!
If you would like to view and listen to the whole thing, here is the link to the livestream. The procession before the Proclamation begins around the 53 minute mark – if you like bagpipes, check it out! 🙂
