Golden Gifts at Mass

I like that New Year's Day fell on a Sunday; otherwise, I might have skipped going to Mass. I took Punchy at noon.

Beautiful parts:

1. The crèche. So lovely, with Baby Jesus intact on His bed of hay. The magi, so elegant and earnest, approaching with their gifts.
2. The Christmas trees on the altar, strung with white lights.
3. The priest's words in the homily, about letting go of any pain and sorrow from 2016 and welcoming the new year.
4. The songs, including "Angels We Have Heard on High."
5. The "peace be with you" handshaking.
6. Seeing so many familiar faces that I have watched grow and change over 25 years in the parish. Among them: The nice woman who ran track at a high school that competed with ours back in the seventies; her pretty dark-haired daughter; a woman who was a Eucharistic minister at Van Dyk Manor, where Dad was; the family with the two red-haired boys, now handsome young men; the twins and their moms from Punchy's school and CCD program; the pleasant, pretty mom who ran Christmas Corners the year I backed our black Volvo station wagon into somebody's husband's expensive new car. [The parking lot was packed.] I had to run in and tell her so she could it announce it over the microphone.
7. Punchy extending her small hand to me for the Lord's Prayer.

Good night.

TCOY

1. Walked Sug around block under starlit sky w Punchy and her baby, Sophia Rose.
2. Prayed at church.
3. H., Fig, Punch and I had brunch w bagels and lox, sparkling apple cider, tofu mock cream cheese for Fig.
4. Watched part of "Twilight Zone" marathon and read some old books from the early '60s.
5. Dinner with the Mernins at Tierney's.
6. Going to sleep.