This has been, on a personal level, an odd Advent/December/pre-Christmas season for me and Wendy. Thanksgiving week had us monitoring the recovery of both Wendy and her mom yet we had a delightful day. We would be preparing for our trip to North Carolina and indeed, we were on the road by December 5th. As already chronicled on these here pages, we had a great six days both traveling and more importantly spending time with our grandchildren. This was and will remain the highlight of our "holiday" season. Since we have returned it's been almost non-stop work for me and lots of preparation for Wendy. We actually had a wonderful Christmas family visit with Baton Rouge family this past Sunday and then on Monday we actually broke out the Christmas decorations. On Tuesday the tree was up. Yes, this is late even for us, two Advent loving Catholics! December 15th, in retrospect, seems like a great day to actually deck the halls, especially for folks like us that celebrate Christmas well past January 1st, you know, like the Church celebrates Christmas. By the way, as we settled in from our trip and eventually got to putting up the tree, we did so in what feels like early May weather. Today we are back to cool/cold but the weather folks tell us Christmas Eve and Day will be some unseasonably warm. Shucks!
I mentioned all of this feels odd and I wonder if it has anything to do with our new "normal". It's taking a lot of mental effort for both of us to get used to Wendy's medical issues and her unemployment. Yet she is really fighting through all of this and doing everything possible to make this a great Christmas! It's also odd because my early December vacation resulted in me putting in a very long, tough week at the bank and I missed some special events including the annual Christmas feast/party for the men at Rayburn Prison. Looking back I believe this is the 1st time I have personally missed the event but am happy that I will be offering the prayer service there on December 23rd! I also missed our annual deanery party for clergy and tonight, as I came home to help Wendy finish the house before our next family event, I've missed our annual KC Christmas party.
As mentioned, we are having a gathering of Wendy's family tomorrow here at the house and then we will get together with my family on Christmas Day. In the meantime, I still have much ministry and much work to focus on. By the way, in all this weirdness, I sit here tonight reflecting on this post and I still don't have a homily finished and I'm preaching at 4 pm tomorrow. I do have a Baptism tomorrow and am very much looking forward to that!
So on this 18th day of December, the day we learned of the canonization plans for soon Saint Mother Teresa, the day we plan and prepare, I look forward to some nice days ahead. And yes, I try very hard, as I know many of you do to, to stay focused on Advent, the coming of Christ, not just as the babe of Christmas but in my life now and to come, and prepare for a beautiful Christmas season!
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