Merry Christmas!

Yes, I'm 2 days late, but it's still the Christmas Season on the Catholic liturgical calendar, so I think I'm good. This could be quite a long post, so please forgive any typos.

Our family had a very nice Christmas. I'd been struggling all through advent to get in the Christmas spirit, but on Christmas eve, in the midst of 10 inches of snow, the Christmas spirit hit me. I think it was when I started doing some cooking for the Christmas meal, or maybe it was just the preparation my wife and I were doing around the house, or maybe it was the snow. As it was, by the time I headed for the church at 3 pm, I was in full Christmas mode. I played piano at the 4 pm mass at my church...we have two 4 pm masses, one in the main church and one downstairs. The downstairs filled up at 3:45 pm...the main church was packed by 3:30 pm. If only we could get that kind of attendance every week. It seems like, at least for one night, everyone remembers the reason for the season.

I've always loved playing piano at church on Christmas, so that really helped get the joy going. Christmas mass or service is always a highlight for me. I get chills when the Angel appears to the Shepard's every year. It's so amazing that God chose to take the form of man, and Christmas reminds us of that. After mass, I went to mass again at 6 pm. My 10 year old, David, was playing his trombone as part of the prelude to mass. He did great. I was so nervous for him, but he nailed it. I don't know how my parents sat through all my piano recitals throughout my childhood and never threw up...seriously, my stomach was not settled at all until he was done.

My parents and brother visited us for Christmas. After mass, we came home and had some chili. I tried a new chili recipe, and it turned out really well. I'll try to share the recipe at some point this week, since I'm off work and have time to blog. After supper, the kids went to bed, and despite their worries, they were able to go to sleep, which was good, because Santa can't visit if they don't sleep.

Christmas morning, the kids were up at 6:00 am, but waited until 7:00 like we asked them to do, and then they did a great job taking their time with presents. We finished at about 8:30. People were so thoughtful this Christmas.

The highlight of Christmas day for me was cooking...yes cooking. I learned that it is a ton of work to get a big dinner on the table, and luckily I had my mom here to help me. My wife was not feeling all that well, so my mom pitched in and helped. I made the Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe that Alton Brown put out there like 10 years ago. It was a delicious turkey, one of the best I've ever eaten. With the exception of the potatoes, everything turned out pretty well, and everyone ate too much.

After that, we had a quiet afternoon, and then watched some movies as a family. We watched "Despicable Me" on Bluray and then "Sorcerer's Apprentice" on Bluray. I'll post a review of Bluray this week sometime as well.

On Sunday morning, my family left. I am so thankful that they were able to visit this Christmas. We've had very few Christmas's together in the last 10 years, so it was nice to have a bigger family celebration.

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas as well and are looking forward to a Blessed New Year!