Gathered

The Christmas holiday is behind us. We gathered with our loved ones, gathered in our faith, gathered in our joy.

Gathering in our faith, Benett and Ellie made an appearance as Mary and Joseph. We had a shepherd in the production as well... Gavin and the other alter server actually performed their duties as shepherds all through mass. They did such a nice job.

There are so few small children who attend our parish, yet these six children were able to keep this tradition that I recall as a child, alive. That part of their symbolism was very moving for me.

We gathered with love.
The little people were so excited to be on the cusp of a gift-opening extravaganza that everyone looked at the camera simultaneously. Nobody teased or blinked or frowned. Nobody minded having pictures taken. I wish I'd snapped even more. It may have been the miracle of Christmas in live form.

We gathered in our Christmas jammies... it's a Christmas eve tradition that my kids get new jammies to sleep in the night before Christmas. They love it, and the control freak in me can rest knowing that Christmas morning pictures will have one less thing for me to worry about.

Not all of us were able to gather for as long as I'd have liked... Poor Gavin was sick. After opening gifts, he was off to find a quite place to rest on Christmas Eve. But don't worry, his jammies were 10-year-old approved.

Yes, the Christmas season is behind us.Well behind us in fact, but I feel that though I'm only now getting caught up with the calendar. I'm always sad to see the season end, but in past years I had work that was demanding my time and attention, forcing me to begrudgingly move on to other things that needed to be done. I didn't have time to dwell.

This year I feel incredibly lucky to indulge in the season a bit longer, without the same kinds of demands on my time as previous years. I'm taking full advantage of it.

So we're still gathering. Gathering ourselves with this sustained Christmas spirit into this new year, gathering our courage, gathering our laughter and humor, gathering our patience and gathering with each other.