Believe

He's making a list,
And checking it twice;
He's gonna find out
Who's naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

A host of Believe I-V

Christmas has begun in my heart. It hit me with such wondrous aplomb tonight in church, that warmth rushing through me in a way nothing else can. It's a gift to have that belief in the true message of Christmas is it not, those memories of midnight mass and walking home on icy streets in the wee small hours, the 7 members of my immediate family all huddling together for warmth, frozen yet glowing with that inexplicable warmth.

So what should bring such merriment! I was chatting in the car enroute with Callum whilst Reuben lay flat out on the sofa at home resting up, about him buying a little present for Reuben and vice versa. I asked him what he should buy and he suggested "blue" and that Reuben should get him "yellow". So I thought then that they might exchange a photo of each other and perhaps we'll wrap them up in blue and yellow. I have modest tastes when it comes to Christmas presents. That's how I grew up, although when you're in a family of 7, that did mean there were 42 presents under the tree on Christmas morn.

From Callum's party at the YWCA school (he calls it the WC School), the kids banging away on the piano, then off to Saint Monica's strikingly gorgeous church for their Elementary School carol concert, that place which where the boys were both baptised and which has often embraced me in darker hours and given solace, and Callum only slept right at the end of the 2 hour concert. I'd called the church asking if they had a nativity play, and when they mentioned instead the carol concert, I jumped at the chance. The church was heaving with parishioners wishing to catch their excited kids on camera, the air full of angelic choral voices, each grade arising to the occasion to sing the carols of old.

The pupils, adoring, no utterly respectful, of their teachers as they stood to sing on the altar in the finale.

There's a grand level of theatre to this church, a huge video screen for everyone to watch, professional cameramen at work capturing the moments and emotions with such sensitivity, but you remember you're in LA and so it all feels about right. The church is quite simply my most beautiful place to go. I respect it for its traditions at Christmas, that the trees are not hung til Christmas Eve when it all begins, giving that wonderful magical feeling of waiting which is often sacrificed when Christmas is often considered over on the day of. For me, it really only begins on Christmas Day, the first day of Christmas, the day I'll hang the star on the tree to guide the wise men ;-)

The Monseigneur was there welcoming us all. They even had a Santa party afterwards and Callum wouldn't get off his lap. That suited me fine of course. It felt like the Christmases of old and being so far from home, that's a rather special experience to feel.

PS I've listened to Coldplay's Christmas Lights possibly twelve times today. I cannot get enough of it, swiftly downloading it along with Fairytale of New York to gorge on it until my cup is filled.