Christmas Day

This Christmas, we woke up to a very grumpy elf that Santa had mistakenly left behind. We gave him some breakfast and a bath and he joined us for Christmas dinner at Michael and Dorothy's.

St Paul's Christmas Pageant

Jack was a shepherd in St. Paul's Christmas Pageant 2008. With two of the three rehearsals cancelled due to snowy conditions, the pageant still went off flawlessly.

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord has made known unto us. "(Luke 2:8-15)

Ginger Bread House

Once the Christmas decorations are up, it's time to build our annual gingerbread house. We bought a pre-fab house consisting of the four sides and roof, but all the decorating was done by Jack and me.

This year, we managed to stick to all edible items, unlike previous years where we needed to call upon carpenter's glue to hold our walls together. We discovered the secret to the icing is to microwave for ten seconds every now and then to keep it moist and sticky.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

As a child, the official start of the Christmas season was the night we all gathered around our black and white tv for the annual airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I have watched it faithfully every year since, and Jack and Chrissy enjoy it as much today as I did at their age.

Now the the longest-running holiday special on TV, CBS originally created the animation in response to a request by Coca-Cola for a Christmas special to air their commercials. When CBS saw the finished product they were less than pleased with the jazzy soundtrack as well as the highly religious theme. But in keeping with their commitment to their sponsor, they aired the special as scheduled on December 9, 1965. A Charlie Brown Christmas drew in 15.4 million viewers, and won Charles Schulz and animator Lee Mendelson an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program.

The soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi is amongst my favorite jazz albums.