Merry Christmas

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This is from a few years back. I don’t have any current picture of the both of us.

I was looking for an old post I wrote. It’s the one where the beloved husband (who is a Quaker) went to midnight mass with me. I love midnight mass — the pageantry and ceremony. Maybe you had to grow up with it to appreciate it. His perspective was more like a Roman chariot race from Ben Hur. Perhaps it was the incense or the procession of priests and altar boys in frocks or the choir belting out hymns. Anyhow, I found this old one. I don’t remember it but it reflects me. Enjoy.

When you get older your perspective changes.

Holidays are not about the presents. You can buy your own in a color you really like.

It’s not about crowds of people because you can’t connect with anyone in a crowd.

It’s not about insane activities. You’ve seen and done all that. A 50th version of the Nutcracker Suite holds no interest. (Although a 50th viewing of White Christmas at home with a loved one does. Or Love Actually!)

We’re past the parties. We haven’t been invited to a real Christmas party in years.

So what are the holidays about?

Reflection. Gratefulness. Hope.

So much happens each year – some good, some bad. The bad always takes center stage but the good is there in spades.

The good comes in small packages that often go unnoticed — a new crop of cardinal babies or baby rabbits munching on my new spring plants. (How can you get mad at that?)

Silly squirrels and chipmunks racing around the pond. (Me with a net ready to fish them out if they slip but they never do.)

Frog eggs in the pond that turn in to tadpoles.

A chore that goes away because someone else did it.

A stranger buys you a drink at Starbucks for no reason. They don’t even know if you’re naughty or nice. They just do it.

Cat purrs when you’re sad.

Just when you think that the bleak winter will never leave, Mother Nature pushes out leaves and makes everything green again (and just in a nick of time!).

Ripe tomatoes picked from your own garden (enough said).

Intimate dinners with a few people so everyone gets to talk and catch up. (More importantly I can hear everyone!) That’s when you feel the connection.

Family that you know will be there if you need them. With bells on. (And maybe some strudel.)

Best of all, having a good year with you! We’re healthy. All synapses snapping (mostly). Intimate pizza lunches at the mall (I always was a cheap date). Wrestling for control of the TV remote (you fall asleep!).

It’s the normal routines that bring peace and tranquility.

Merry Christmas to the beloved husband.

51 thoughts on “Merry Christmas”

  6. I can imagine a Quaker reaction to a Roman Catholic mass! Personally, as a Presbyterian, the mass is a bit over the top, yet attractively beautiful. Music composed through the centuries for the church is divinely inspired, I think, and I enjoy listening to it…on CD! The Latin mass has more interest to me than the more modern “relevant” attempts to keep the people engaged in the church. That said, I don’t have a vote on that matter!

    MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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  7. Such a beautiful post! Thank you. And a lovely photo.

    I’ve enjoyed some impressive midnight masses and some gorgeous Nutcrackers. I also love a good presentation of A Christmas Carol. But like you, I appreciate a quieter Christmas now. (And family that arrives safely–no blizzards or flight cancellations.

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    • Sure hope your family didn’t have either this holiday. In our family there is an agreement that we don’t travel between Thanksgiving and Christmas because of all the nonsense. They usually come summer to fall which is also a great time.

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  8. That’s a beautiful post Kate. I am sorry I never met anyone special to have what you have stated in this post. That makes me sad sometimes. My mom said I was tainted by what my father did to her and that is why … it is true. I only went to midnight mass once, with my grandmother. It was in St. Helen’s Church in Toronto, a beautiful Catholic church where my grandmother attended for years. She’d walk up the street and there it was, a whole city block. My parents married there, I was christened there. It was full of the rituals that one might expect but I was still overwhelmed. Merry Christmas to you, the beloved husband and the kitties.

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  10. Merry Christmas to you Kate and to your husband. A quiet day is my kind of Christmas now, with White Christmas on the TV and turkey roasting in the oven. I used to like midnight mass too, and getting dressed up for it with a hat, but haven’t been in years. The last time I went they had folk music instead of the traditional Christmas hymns? So we watch it on TV, after it’s A Wonderful Life. It’s always streamed live from the Basilica in Washington DC on Christmas Eve so it’s become a tradition. Much more cozy than going out in a blizzard.

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  18. That is a beautiful post. Although, I am looking forward to taking my great-nieces to Thye Nutcracker next year. I was going to this year, but one is 4 and I thought she would appreciate it more next year. Merry Christmas to you, your husband and all the kitties. XO

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  20. We did the bulk of our celebrating yesterday with my sister’s family . . . and came through unscathed.

    Aah . . . All is calm. All is bright. All is chilly!

    Today will be a quiet day, with some delicious treats (but after reading your post, I’m craving PIZZA!)

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  21. This is possibly the quietest Christmas we’ve had, except for 2020. No Christmas Eve party, no travel to family. Between trips to animal ER and human ER, we just did not have the energy, especially with spouse’s dominant hand being injured and child having a soccer tournament this week. Luckily a mom friend had us over for dinner last night with her family, so all I had to do was spend 4 hours making cookies for dessert (fair trade for not hosting). Today is utterly empty except for dropping off cookies to another mom friend who has had an even rougher month than we have. It’s the husband’s kind of Christmas, but I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.

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  22. Joyeux Noël, and how lovely to see a picture of you! I feel the same about Christmas parties. At the last one I went to, you’ll be unsurprised to hear that I spent the whole time sitting down with the host’s cat on my lap. 🤣🤣🤣 That’s my kind of party – and probably yours too, I bet. Have a lovely day!

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