Feliz Navidad!

Glad tidings and joy to you, dear reader wherever you are! It's Christmas morn and the nephews are still asleep with 10 minutes to go until their "designated hour of unwrapping" so I thought I'd use this time to send a seasonal salutation to all in the blogosphere.

In the past week, I've felt Grinchier than usual. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I didn't go to church at all this advent. This is the first year EVER where I've not at minimum gone to a Christmas Eve service. I haven't sung "Joy to the World" with a throng, nor any other carol. That chips away at me some, I think. The other bit of Grinchiness is what it is every year - and probably has been since I was a teenager, and certainly since I reached adulthood: some rue at the focus on consumerism this holiday brings. But that's just the world we live in, so I guess I'd best deal with it. Luckily, in our household, we're not that wrapped up in that aspect: we get eachother and others gifts, but we don't go hog wild and we refuse to do so if/when we have children.

But this chilly, Christmas morn, following a night of restless sleep at my sister-in-law's house, with Honey in the kitchen preparing Dutch Babies, I am content. It's Christmas and the dogs are happy. The kitchen will soon smell of baking eggs and powdered sugar. And since I haven't had a chance to lift my voice with the hosts in a sanctuary this season, I will make a list of my favorite Christmas carols, both ecclesiastical and secular (in no particular order):

1. Angels We Have Heard on High
2. Merry Christmas from the Family
3. Joy to the World
4. O, Holy Night
5. All I Want for Christmas is You
6. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
7. Mary's Boy Child
8. O, Come All Ye Faithful - especially with a bunch of brass in the sanctuary: WOW!
9. O, Little Town of Bethlehem
10. It's Cold Outside

MERRY CHRISTMAS! May you all enjoy a blessed day in whatever tradition (religious or otherwise) uplifts you!