Random Thoughts 'n' Things

Merry Christmas, and Happy Hannukah. The Nurse's family is Christian, and Christmas is what we do. We had a rather unusual Christmas this year, since The Son sings in the choir at his church in Winchester. We've been out there a lot to worship, and we decided that we needed to be together at Christmas, so we drove out yesterday, had dinner at a fun restaurant, then went to the late evening service. It was beautiful, and I'm so glad we went. We spent the night at the Hampton Inn. I brought along a little pretend tree, a present for each person, and after the service we had Gluwein (heated in the microwave), and cheese and crackers. We watched the end of the Pope's Midnight Mass in Rome, and then a special on historical investigations into the birth of Christ. (The Offspring happened upon the program, and I couldn't convince them that I really was zonked. We finally turned off the tube at 2:30 a.m.) It was great fun.

We came home this morning, and had brunch, watched football, and fixed our "roast beast" and the rest of Christmas dinner. I threw the roast in the oven, and The Daughter did the lion's share of the rest. She's amazing. We opened presents, and enjoyed being together. (Watched a bit of football, and I sewed up a hat for a fellow nurses' newborn.)

It's been a good week for being together. Despite an over-full workweek, I was able to be off on Wednesday. We went to see the matinee of Les Miserables at the National Theatre-- absolutely spectacular-- well staged and performed. Then it took us an hour to get to Kinkead's where we had a wonderful dinner. It was a lovely day with my family, and I will cherish the memory.

And on to Hannukah. When The Daughter was in Sunday School, probably 1st or 2nd grade, she learned about Hannukah during one of our Old Testament studies. So The Daughter wanted to know if we could celebrate it. Well, there's really no theological reason not to, but while honoring the Maccabees, we really needed to put this in context, realizing that we were not going to do presents, and that it was unlikely that we would all be in the same place to light candles for 8 days in a row. The one thing we have continued is having latkes on the first night. Well, this year, the first night is on Christmas. I couldn't deal with Christmas dinner AND latkes, so they're being moved to tomorrow night. I must say that I'm looking forward to it. I don't eat potatoes, but I've discovered that I can make mine with zucchini, and they work out just fine.

So now I face a couple of days at work, and then look with hope and faith toward the New Year.