Candles and Carols

It's Christmas Eve.    What is done is done -- and what isn't -- then it isn't going to get done!     Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the Christmas holidays for the baking is all done and the gifts are all wrapped, decorating was done eons ago and we've played most of our Christmas CDs in rotation -- shamelessly singing along whenever we're alone!

One of our favorite Christmas decorations is our German pyramid.    We've had it "forever" and for the last few years it's not been brought upstairs -- and I'm not sure why!    Armed with a whole box of little red candles bought at a German Christmas shop in Stillwater, Minnesota, the pyramid made a reappearance in 2011.

We even lit it when we had afternoon tea on dreary gloomy days.    A definitely bright spot in an otherwise dreary December day.

One of my favorite things about Christmas Eve is the service of carols and candles at Church.    Here, it's an early service -- 7 p.m. but when I was a teen we always attended the midnight one in a church across town.    We loved leaving the church at midnight and knowing that it was Christmas Day and on the way home, driving through the Country Club Plaza where their Christmas lights burned brightly.    It was a truly magical Christmas Eve -- those Christmas Eves.

The pyramid with it's three levels tells the story of the birth of Jesus and every time I look at it -- while I breakfast or while I have tea, I think of the carols about that night oh so many years ago.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing . . . 

God, rest ye Merry Gentlemen . . . 

Away In the Manger . . . 

We Three Kings . . .

While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks . . .

And at the end of service, when the carols have all been sung, when the lessons read especially the reading from Luke, the lights of the church dim, a candle is lit from the altar candle and row by row the church is bathed in candlelight as we sing . . .

Silent Night!

Our Christmas Eve tradition following church is eggnog and cookies and fruitcake while we enjoy the twinkle of the Christmas tree lights.     Tomorrow is the big day and company is coming and there are presents to be opened and a feast to consume!

But I love the peace and quiet that is Christmas Eve.     The only thing that would make Christmas Eve perfect is gently falling snow!