Talk About Busy!

I knew the Christmas season would be busy, but I didn't know how many ways I'd be going! It started with Jonathan's surgery last week (he's doing well so far) and a couple of days in Columbus for that.

We got back in time for me to do a wedding on the 23rd (which happens to be my parents' anniversary -- happy anniversary Big Mama!).

On the 24th, Christmas Eve services went really well. Of course, Jonathan was the "star" of the children's program (well, maybe not the star, but he and his 2-year-old friend Logan did do some serious dancing while the bigger kids were singing!). The choir also sang, and I didn't hit too many sour notes loudly. The service was packed out (as I had pretty much expected), and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Tara and I were put on the spot and asked to come forward to accept a gift from the congregation -- a very generous gift indeed!

The 11:00 pm service went really well, too. We sang some songs, I preached (about how the whole Christmas story worked against expectations but for the greater good and how it wouldn't have been Christmas had Jesus not humbled himself as he did), we celebrated Communion, we lit candles as we sang Silent Night (I don't think we got too much wax everywhere; sorry Mindy for the wax we did spill!), and we ended with Joy To The World!

I was home in bed by 12:30.

Christmas morning came pretty early, though at least so far it's not because Jonathan woke us up excited about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. No, it was because Christmas came on a Sunday. I wondered how our attendance would be...

There was actually no reason for worry whatsoever! We had a great turnout, both for Sunday School (mmmm, donuts) and for worship service. There was lots of music, which I think everyone liked -- everything from serious (O Holy Night, on violin, piano, and organ & a great sign language interpretation of Sing Noel) to funny (I'm not sure what the song was that the puppets did, but I sure laughed, especially when the sheep(?) went flying) to traditional (we still had some more Christmas carols to sing). After service, we had lunch with one family and dinner with another... no cooking all day!

Today I had a funeral. Just a small service, out at the graveside. It wasn't far from where Beth was buried, and it felt bitter cold out there. But the service was good. Short, but good.

Now it's time to get the rest of everything done, and maybe sometime in here do some thinking about the sermon serieses that I'll be doing for 2006.