the real holy week

I began jokingly referring to the time between Christmas and New Year's as the real holy week, but it is true. This year Christmas fell on a Sunday. We had one worship service, which centered around two baptisms, and the singing of familiar carols, and brief meditations on the scriptures for Christmas. Twice as many people came as we had prepared bulletins for that day. It was a liturgically satisfying, casual service.

We then went home, and since we had opened gifts that morning, I crashed and took a nap and then went for a walk. In our home, gathered for Christmas, were:

my wife's mother and her eight-week old labrador retriever
my wife's brother and two of his sons, one coming in from Berkeley
my older daughter's best friend and our honorary daughter from Chapel Hill, Uzma, originally from Pakistan
a gentleman we have come to know from New Orleans, now living in Charlotte, named Mr. Wingate
and our family of four, plus our cat (his name is Panda; I call him Cujo)

The days following have been spent resting, returning gifts, exercising, reading, finishing a book (due Monday actually!), visiting friends in the mountains who have just moved into a new home, and sitting with my daughter through his wisdom teeth extraction experience. In the next few days there will be a wedding, a renewal of vows service, two communion services on Sunday, and, I am sure, a few bowl games to enjoy and football commercials to memorize in the process. Tonight my younger daughter and I plan to go to the Dell Curry basketball classic, which is a big-time high school tournament held in Charlotte. Among the players are future Duke and UNC stars, including Wayne Ellington (UNC) and Gerald Henderson, both of Episcopal Academy in Pennsylvania.

I have found out that I will be profiled on Locusts and Honey, which is one of my favorite blogs. I will let you know when that materializes.

Have a happy new year, and to my friends in the clergy, enjoy the real holy week!