A Very Merry!

I had a nice and relaxing Christmas Eve to rest up for what promises to be a busy but fun weekend with family and friends and those who are both. As is a last minute tradition, I hung ornaments on the tree, dropping one in the process which shattered in to a million pieces. The thing was older than I am, and I was more concerned than my mom was actually mad. Still, I was more careful with the rest. Later, my dad would try to add a garland, and knock another ornament off where it shattered on the floor. Some days it's best to sit still.

I relaxed. I watched a movie. I napped. And in the afternoon, I slapped on yet another Christmas tie and drove the folks to mass. There, the priest's main reading was of the lineage of Jesus--fellow Christians will recognize this as the passage with all the “begat”s. In his sermon, the priest told us of one of his classmates back home in Africa who actually committed the passage from memory, and could name everyone in the line from Abraham right up to the birth of Christ. I'm lucky if I can remember the names of my own grandparents, most of which I don't.

One of the ushers asked me to help with the collection, no doubt because of my festive tie. I'm almost incapable of refusing a request for help, probably something in my own lineage since my dad was the same way. In any case, it was nice to participate and I hadn't done so in a while. After the service, we stopped off for a very nontraditional meal of McDonald's. We've never done the traditional fish thing. My mom's people were Sicilians and didn't have that tradition to begin with. My dad's ancestry hails from Naples, so he did experience the fish thing growing up. I'm not a seafood fan at all, but I probably would have chosen a better option than Mickey D's. The meal left me as lethargic as that food always does the two or three times a year I make the mistake of eating it. I didn't fall asleep again, but I didn't do much of anything other than lie around.

I hope those of you who celebrate have a great Christmas, and I hope all of you have a great weekend. My presents were wrapped days ago, while my mom will probably be up until the wee hours wrapping stuff she bought the day before, another tradition. And, as we did on Thanksgiving, after a meal with just the three of us, we'll probably head to the nursing home to visit my Uncle Jerry. So sometimes, new traditions replace old ones.



EXCELSIOR!