I am thankful 12/26/2010
For Christmas. And midnight mass. And all the Christmas beauty that I missed last year.
For snow. And a blizzard that trapped me in a cabin in the woods with no electricity or internet, making it impossible to post about what I was thankful for, but quite able to be thankful for much.
For family. Even amidst the most stressful sort of non-fight (you know the type where people retreat to their respective sides of the house and mutter curses at each other?) there are delightful moments with good memories to be made. There was very little talk of the holy family on Sunday, which, I suppose, is just as well all things considered.
For Christmas carols. And belting out every verse to God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen with my sister. Some Christmas songs were meant to be sung as bar tuns. Especially when there is no alcohol involved. Then you may really need the added zip.
For cakes. This Christmas involved an apple cake that turned out correctly, a should-have-been pineapple upside down cake that turned into a pineapple/blueberry/coconut bundt (and tasted quite good, even with the inadvertently reduced fat and sugar), a brownie torte, and an epic fruitcake made mostly by my youngest sister from my grandmother’s recipe. Apparently the recipe was never lost but it never occurred to anyone to actually make it since my grandmother’s death a quarter century ago. Apparently fruitcake can taste good, when it is an ancient, Southern, teetotaler recipe.
For a certain brother. I had not realized before how much of Christmas was connected to one brother until this the first year that I was “home” for Christmas when he was not.
For New Year’s resolutions. 2010′s has worked out pretty well for me (even if I am fittingly late with this last post) and I am looking forward to 2011′s, even though I am not yet certain of what is worth resolving.
Beautifully put. God’s blessings to you, in great abundance.
Lovely and inspiring and funny. Thank you!
What a beautiful church!! I miss them. They don’t have too many beautiful ones where I live…not that it should matter…but you know.
Rae, it is good to see your words again. They were missed. There was zero mention of any holy family at our gatherings as well. I get what you said. The food, and family, those are parts of Christmas – the other Christmas as I call it – both are here – the reverent one for those of us who have Advent, and celebrate his birth – and then the other one. But the other one, as you have said, is one to be thankful for too.
Merry Christmas Rae