 |
| Meghan's and Layne's Christmas Angel |
I have never married a church-going man. Perhaps the reason my marriages in the past have failed is because my husband, at the time of our marriage, was not interested in following a path designated by Christ. Not that I have ever expected him to sell all our goods and become missionaries. Other factors played in as well, but perhaps the root is that I value a faithful relationship with God, and the church family He provides, and my husband did not.
So I get up every Sunday and go to church to sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, or none of the above, and he stays home...and wonders where I am and what I'm doing.
The largest conflict I experience is in that of family traditions. Catholics go to mass on Christmas day. Protestants go to church on Sunday...and if Christmas is on a Sunday, church services are canceled in a Protestant church. If Christmas day falls on the weekday, then I have to explain to those in my family with Protestant upbringing that I need to go to church on Christmas...
Enter the beauty of Midnight Mass. If I can stay awake long enough, I can fulfill my obligations to go to mass on Christmas and all of my family functions as well. So this year I thought I would try that. It was a noble idea, and I was doing great with it. One of my daughters was just too tired to go to mass, so I left her to go to sleep at home, since Dad was going to be here. Bad Catholic parenting, I know, but a good Catholic parent would have scheduled a nap time for her little one, and in the excitement of the day...planned without church in mind at any hour...naps were out of the question.
I planned the whole weekend around midnight mass. We would go to mass on Christmas Eve, then sleep late on Christmas Day, open presents, have a big breakfast and lounge and watch movies and visit my grandmother in the nursing home. It was perfect. The older kids would come on the next day, since they all have many other obligations to fulfill, and we would clean in the morning before they came and go to vigil mass after they left. We would be able to sleep late on Sunday and then go meet my mom for the annual week after Christmas time with Gran D.
My life had other plans. I got sick on the way to mass. I overslept for morning mass...which was at nine. The kids ended coming at 1100 on Christmas Day because they thought it was too much trouble to drive back out here the day after Christmas...so we didn't do a big meal or party, but we exchanged gifts and talked, and it was very nice. They left and we went to JJ's mom's, since we missed her day the day before. I missed my grand mother, but it worked out to go Saturday. But because I cleaned Saturday morning, I went late, and we didn't get back in time to go to mass, Alas, we will go to mass in the morning....and God bless, I chose early mass because we will be able to get our suitcases packed in the car and have lunch before we go if we do...otherwise, we would be packing before church, and heaven help us if we forget something.
With all that said, it is hard to make traditions in a new family. It is even harder when most of those family members are married kids with other families to keep traditions with. It is much harder still when you and your daughters are the only Catholics in this new family.
All in all I think of this Christmas as a success. It could have been better. It could have been perfect according to my plan, but it was perfect in what it was. I enjoyed it very much. Great joy and peace fills my heart this Christmas...and that was my Christmas wish to begin with.
No comments:
Post a Comment