The table is set, with russet covering and candles... red and white flowers set in a bedding of fir... the best china and the second best crystal... the lasagna is baking, my father is dealing with the pork roast and the chicken... this is the first year we're not having lamb, which is kind of weird for me. The antipastos only have to be uncovered; everything is ready to go. There's enough food to feed a small African village, and we're only 17 for dinner. There's a few small African villages that won't eat today. Or tomorrow.
Last night, my sister, my brother and I left my aunt's at 11:30 to go to midnight Mass. I really wanted to go to that one in order to hear more uplifting carols. The Christmas Day Mass at my church is always a little too plodding and un-Christmasy for my liking. The midnight Mass was only marginally better. They sang Silent Night, but it sounded as though we were getting ready for Good Friday Mass. I think I'm gonna have to give the cantor, or the choir director, or whoever picks the music at my church, a piece of my mind.
After the mass, we stopped at Country Style Donuts (it was after one in the morning by then) and I picked up a dozen assorted donuts and a box of twenty donut holes. Then we dropped them off at the fire station for the guys who have to work on Christmas Eve. The door was open, though nobody was there. There was only one truck there, and the place looked like it had just been vacated. I hope they found the treats after they came back from the call. I hope the call wasn't a serious one.
My uncle just called to say he's going to be late. My other uncle called to say that even though he's Jehovah's Witness and doesn't celebrate, and even though we invited him last week and he said no, well, he'll be coming and bringing two of the kids. That's all right. We expected it. They've already got places set at the table.
All is as it should be on this December 25, 2002. It's snowing outside, making for not only a White Christmas and a Winter Wonderland, but hazardous driving conditions and a driveway that needs to be shoveled every hour or so. I even got bloody cramps when I shouldn't have, making it just like any other major holiday for my family, as I'll have to escape to my room to wait out the screaming pain in a few hours.
Life is good.
Merry Christmas, all. Have a wonderful day today. Let there be love and laughter and peace.
Above all, let there be peace.
0 comments so far