On the Feast of Stephen

All of my Christmas knits wrapped up

A happy and blessed Christmas to all of you!

I have decided that the day after Christmas might just be my favorite day of the entire year.  All the hustle and bustle of the 25th is done with, the kids are all content and busy with their new things, there are leftovers for dinner, and one can just kick back and enjoy the next 10 days of Christmas with none of the pressure of the first.

After three years in a row of going to a rather loud and crowded vigil Mass, this year we opted for a Christmas day Mass at the Chapel of Divine Mercy.  This meant that the children had to practice heroic patience and wait until after Mass to open their presents (they were permitted to look into their stockings and  they opened the knit things I made them).  The Mass was quiet and beautiful.  We got home, had a bite to eat and then the kids finally were able to open presents.

It looks like a huge number of gifts under the tree, but there were eight knit items, a number of pairs of socks and several packages of goodies from my mom.  Bret and I made several of the gifts this year, but that will have to be another blog post.

We went into Gallatin today in order to exchange a couple of items, pick up Bret's sharpened router bits and stop at Goodwill (seems I am always searching for some article of clothing for one child or another), and as we were on the road, it began to snow.  No, it isn't a lot, and it probably won't stick around, but it's rather nice for Christmas.  The wind is howling out there, and the dusk is coming on quickly, and the words, "In the Bleak Midwinter" come to mind.  Sebastian has to go out and milk in a moment, and he has his long underwear on and is taking a hot cup of (decaffeinated) coffee out with him.  Poor lad...

I'll try to get back to this blog soon...but right now I am enjoying the lull.