Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve.  We're (mostly) relaxing at home today - reading and coffee this morning, pictures of the decorations in our house before it was fully light, taking the middle Bingle daughter's dog outside.  I watched a couple favorite cartoons.  First "A Pink Christmas" the Pink Panther Christmas cartoon, based on the O. Henry story "The Cop and the Anthem". Then, a  wonderful and complete telling of the Christmas story called "The First Christmas".  It's on a super-compilation multi-DVD set of Christmas cartoons, movies, and TV shows.  It's the most complete telling of the Christmas story I've ever seen, as it includes the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, and Mary's visit to cousin Elizabeth before she was visited by Gabriel with his message to her.  Joseph's reaction to Mary being with child and the subsequent dream visit by Gabriel follows, and then the traditional story of the journey to Bethlehem, Jesus' birth, the magi, Herod's death squads, and the flight into Egypt. 

So now one daughter is making gingerbread cupcakes as we (slowly) prepare to leave for Mass.  Following Mass we'll join our oldest son and his wife, joined by all our children, for a Christmas Eve dinner of meatball sandwiches, then settle in to watch "A Christmas Story" (perhaps, if I have any say, preceded by "A Charlie Brown Christmas").  And then home for a Christmas Eve night, and an early morning, though not as early anymore as in years past, as the youngest Bingle girl is now 17.  (Although, she decreed a few weeks ago that, Yes, Santa will stop here!).

I hope you all have a happy, safe, and peaceful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!