Back Bay View: Christmas Eve Quick Takes

Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas Eve Quick Takes

Christmas Quick Takes

1. I really shouldn’t be doing this right now. My husband is out making a last run to the store. (Next year I’m ordering online EARLY. Multiple gifts have not shown up in the mail.) There are dishes and pans and powdered sugar and crusted debris all over the kitchen. My Christmas baking has been a failure. Shaped sugar cookies? Had to use some whole wheat because I ran out of flour. Chocolate crinkle cookies? Turned into a huge mess of runny dough. Something got left out. Hip Cakes? Underbaked. Can’t figure out how to package. Last ditch effort to make those pretzel bites with Rollos and nuts? Dumped them all over the bottom of the oven. I guess the neighbors are going to get a cheery greeting.

2. My Christmas cards have not gone out yet either. They are in a stack on the table waiting signatures and a short note. My husband doesn’t understand why it takes so long to get these folded up and sent off, and I’m not sure if I do either. Maybe because I keep falling asleep when I try to sign them. Or because I keep getting distracted by kids and other fun things. I keep thinking I might send fewer cards next year. Some of these friends I haven’t seen in 10 years. And some I may never see again. But then I think of how much our family likes receiving cards. I like knowing that someone thought of me enough to spend a couple minutes and $.44 to send me a card. And so I want these people we’ve met over the years and miles to know that I’ve thought of them and remember our friendship fondly. They’ve all touched our lives in some way. And maybe someday we’ll be together at that big Christmas party in the sky.

3. But they’ll have to be reminded of my affection after Christmas, because I’ve been a little distracted. For instance, this morning we played Ultimate Frisbee with some families in the wardroom. This was ultimate fun. I forget how much I love playing games like this with parents and kids. The soccer league also had a parent/child game which was the highlight of the season for me. I don’t have very good skills: I can’t throw a Frisbee straight or kick a ball hard, but I can run around and wave my arms and be a distraction to the dads who pretend not to take the game seriously.

4. Even though it’s “winter,” we spent several hours the other day on a hike to Cetti Falls. I thought it might be a little rigorous because it was an adults only climb, but I didn’t realize it would be an extreme adventure. The hike down the ravine and up the river was easy, but then we reached the falls, which could only be scaled by rope climbing, which I have never done in my life. You grab ahold of an old rope tied off to some rebar on the top of the falls and hope it holds. About halfway up I thought I was stuck. I looked down and realized I was scared to death. But I couldn’t figure out how to get back down. So I had to turn my brain off, brace my back against the side of the rock cliff and actually use my arms to climb. Then when I reached the top of the first climb, I looked ahead and realized the second climb was even higher. Fortunately the last 3 falls were shorter, although one had to be scaled through the water. No dry rock close to the rope line. I will not do this climb again, even though I have insurance. I have a weeping rope burn on my elbow to remind me that I should stick to hikes that don’t require ropes.

5. Extreme sports have not been the only thing that have kept me from Christmas preparations. Last weekend we went to a concert given by the Redemptoris Mater seminary here on Guam. The seminary is fairly new, but housed in a beautiful old hotel with ocean views and a nice courtyard where the concert took place. The seminarians are from all over the world, so their program was appropriately carols from Europe, Central America, the Pacific Islands, and Africa.

The tree. Need more lights.

Finding a place for stockings.

I can’t say the music or the sound system was professional, but the men were having a good time, and so was the audience, even though it rained a bit. The highlight was when the Bishop, who was on his ad limina visit to Rome, Skyped in. The video was projected to big screens, so everyone could see. Unfortunately, the bishop’s computer was low on batteries, so for the first few minutes of the “visit,” he and and his companion/technical consultant, a newly ordained priest from Brazil, were recording in a bathroom outside the Vatican. Then the young priest grabbed the laptop and ran around the piazza so everyone could see the colonnade and the façade. This guy was just like one of our kids in front of the Skype camera: he hopped up and down, gave the peace sign, waved a photo of himself with the Pope, and kept trying to talk over the Bishop about how cold it was in Rome. (40 degrees) It was worth the drive to the seminary.

And now we are large donors to this seminary because we placed the opening bid on a motor scooter in their silent auction. This is not an item that was on our wishlist, although I think my husband has secretly wanted one ever since he spent a year in Rome as a college student. The boys pestered him into making a bid and what he told me is that he thought he would get outbid. I’m sure we can sell this thing eventually, if no one crashes it first, but it was taken up some of our time to get it inspected and registered and insured, since its engine is big enough to fall under the rules for small motorcycles. At least we also got to eat at the seminary; after the concert there was a huge fiesta meal with the amazingly ubiquitous multiplying red rice.

6. Our other Christmas activities have been performing in the evening of lessons and carols at the Chapel. My four younger kids made up exactly half of the children’s choir. Despite sparse attendance, it was a heartwarming service in conjunction with the Protestant community on base. There are surprising talents hidden in the crowd: the Protestant chaplain’s wife plays a lovely bassoon, and it turns out my next door neighbor is a flutist.

7. Then the kids were able to showcase their caroling abilities again last night when we went singing with friends around the neighborhood. I think we frightened the first house we sang to. Everyone was off key, the little kids were scattered across the lawn, the older kids were trying to hide, and people were singing different words to “Joy to the World.” Do you say “Let heaven and nature sing” or “Let saints and angels sing?” Nonetheless, we made a joyful noise, and by the end of the evening everyone’s spirits were high and voices were worn out.

Caroling at the mini-mart.

So tonight we will try to retain our high spirits through midnight Mass. The kids all want to stay up and watch Christmas movies until it’s time to go. My husband and I are wondering how we are going to stay awake. But we also don’t want to dampen their enthusiasm for going to Church. Since this is our first year to be on our own for Christmas, we don’t have a script for how Christmas should go. My hope is that what is under the tree is neither a source of disappointment nor the highlight of the day. Neighbors are coming over for dinner. I’ve got cinnamon rolls from a can for breakfast, a simple pleasure for the kids. We’ll call all the family back home. We’ll try to retain a sense of the sacredness of the day amidst the unwrapping and cooking. And I’ll pray that the spirit of anticipation that marks Advent will continue to inspire a desire for the greater gifts of eternity.