Behold, Tidings of Great Joy. And a Lot of Food.
C
hristmas morning broke bright and clear, a pleasant change from the drizzle and gloom of the previous five days. But it broke without us. We slept in. The days of too many monkeys jumping on the bed, and oh so early, are long gone now. Generally We have to jump on their beds to get them up for brunch.
Two of us to Church this year. June rarely misses a chance to show some appreciation these days, but she was already tuckered out from set-up work by the time the 9am Mass came around. JJ came along to get footage for the Christmas Video. We decided to make an effort to get it out of doors some this year. There's only so many ways you can chop potatoes for the camera before you lose your edge.
Tracey chose to withhold thanks until after seeing what Santa brought her.
Sarah is home, only her home is not with us. She's in Florida with Derrick, their fourth face-to-face since the wedding in June. Kids: so self-absorbed.
The intent was also to change up the aperitif game plan for what Cyndi Lauper calls "the Opening." I thought I'd do Sidecars this year. But we got distracted, and I completely forgot about lubricating the process. We wound up opening presents sober, which actually was a change of pace. Decided to do the Sidecars later in the afternoon, after brunch, but forgot all about that too.
Written circa 1328 by Heinrich Seuse, German mystic and Dominican monk, who had a vision in which he danced with angels while they sang the song's lyrics to him. Among the oldest and most famous of the "macaronic" songs, whose verses combine Latin and a vernacular language such as English or German. The melody first appeared in a manuscript in Leipzig University Library about 1400. The inspiration for the 1853 English paraphrase by John Mason Neale, "Good Christian Men, Rejoice," it has been popular with Catholics and Protestants alike down through the centuries.
