Christmas Gifts
December 28th, 2004 | No Comments »
This year Christmas has brought many gifts. Among other things, a beautiful service of Christmas Lessons and Carols on Sunday the 26th. Doug accepted my idea of moving to just one service that morning, and I MC'd it (as we said at Seabury). It went very well. I don't believe L&C had been done at St. John's in recent memory, so I hope the service was a gift to those who worshipped with us, as well. Doug commented that this would not be the last such service, which was a gift to me.
I was also gifted with a sermon that required very few words for Christmas morning, seeing as how I was then still pretty hoarse from this cold. I suspect the cold would be much better if it hadn't been for the late day on Friday, working Saturday morning, and all, but it is progressing towards well. The sermon that came to me was a "The Kingdom of God is like…" sermon. In this case, "The Kingdom of God is like presents under the tree on Christmas morning." You never can tell by size, shape, wrapping, or sound what you might be getting. Sometimes the very smallest, insignificant looking gift can contain incredible treasure. I did this with three boxes, none of which held what you might expect. I finished by processing from the crèche back to the front with the Christ Child figure.
I was also gifted with a day with my immediate family. Tim, even though his car was under the weather, made his way to Erie in a Mercedes Benz that some good friends loaned him. He had to leave after lunch on Monday, but still we got to spend the latter half of the 26th and the morning of the 27th with the folks. I stayed until Tuesday afternoon, and am now blogging from back home.
In the strictly material sense, my parents proved they could indeed still surprise us kids. They gave Tim and me each a 40 GB iPod, complete with Apple Care Protection Plan and rubber case. Wow. That's 10,000 songs in a 5.5 ounce box that fits in my hand. Yikes. I've already loaded over 800 songs onto it. It is amazing to even me, the techo geek. I mean, I've loaded more CDs into that thing than I've listed to in months. And I don't need to carry the CDs any more. I bought a car power adapter that also transmits the music over an FM band to my car stereo today, and listened to at songs from a dozen CDs on the way home today–all without doing anything physical. Wow.
I managed to surprise Tim, too, with a digital camera. Now all three households have Olympus camera and can share images from our respective lives. That's cool.
Some of the other stuff I got: A paper shredder with basket for all those things you don't want "them" finding and using. I guess it's a good idea, but I feel slightly more paranoid now. A digital bathroom scale. Oh, joy. But I definitely need that. I can use it not only to weigh myself but also the feline. A spoon rest for the stove–much needed. A CD from Jane, which is now digitized and stored safely in the iPod where I can find it easily. Assorted food items from parishioners. (The food boggles the mind, it just keeps coming. Even one three-pound box of assorted choclates.) A really cute and cool aviator bear, complete with leather flying jacket and goggles. But all in all the iPod was the major surprise of the year. Holy cow.
I took it easy yesterday afternoon and this morning, got as much sleep as I could, and came back here this afternoon. I haven't completely put all my clothes away, but I have had dinner and a bath and am relaxing. I think I'll go to bed early again and hope another good sleep knocks the rest of this cold out. (Thank God for NyQuil. And for rum and honey in hot tea.) I'm back to work tomorrow, and work tomorrow and Thursday and Friday morning. I may have a meeting at the Cathedral on Friday morning. Then I'm off, with the exception of Sunday services. I'm subbing for a priest in Edinboro, PA, this Sunday morning, so I am spending the whole weekend with my folks again.
Merry Christmas everyone!
