Merry Christmas, again!

In modern commercialized culture, the penitential season of Advent is usually done away with in favor of one month-long, ever-escalating sojourn into Christmas, with the holiday abruptly ending as the bell tolls the midnight hour on the night of December 25th. This is, of course, a rather ridiculous way of doing things. What do people suppose "The Twelve Days of Christmas" are - they are not the twelve days before Christmas, but the twelve days after, from the Feast of the Nativity (Dec. 25) to the Feast of the Epiphany (Officially on Jan. 6, but - grumble - actually celebrated on Jan. 8 in the United States)! How I love belonging to a Church with a liturgical calendar. :)

So, this means that if you are a Catholic, you get to have Christmas for another couple weeks. Hip hip, hurray - it also serves as a good excuse to put off taking down the Christmas decorations... So many boxes, oh bother.

Anyway, I suppose I should say what I got for Christmas. My sister gave me the soundtrack from the movie, Millions; a Douay-Rheims Bible; and the late John Paul II's book, Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way. My mother gave me really lovely clothes, and a porcelain Madonna and Child. My Grandmother and Grandfather gave me $120; my father gave me... A Maglite. Yes, I know, a flashlight. But he's sweet, dear Dad, after all, and it's the thought that counts :)

I loved all my gifts. Of course, the best gift of all is the Incarnate Word. Thank You for giving the world Yourself, Emmanuel!