Because I sit in the chancel with the choir, I snapped a couple of our recently-ordained assistant both celebrating for the first time and again for her first Christmas eucharist.

We still have the window candles up (those stay 'til Candlemas), but Miss Freddie does not find that adequate sparkly light. 🤷‍♀️

We're doing that tonight, and the cat is truly devastated. (Of course she wants us to leave it up til Candlemas.)

An adult home from college was baptized! And no choir call, so I got to sit with the fam in the pews. Plus a great deal to give thanks for at the moment, even with the world being, well, *gestures.*

Missed due to travel, sigh. So it was morning prayer together in the car for me & wife, complete with some particular thanksgivings. ❤️ (Along with a firmly-worded text to our rector to take a real break in the coming days.)

Love the Thurman - and, being a medievalist, also the Julian of Norwich!

Snowy! But enough of the choir made it for us to do the anthem. Plus the cookie exchange & ingathering of the toys for the toy drive. And a special blessing for me & wife from our assistant rector for an intention we're holding dear this week.

Got to go *twice* - this morning as "usual" at 11 with choir, and then got to sit with my wife instead of in the choir stalls at evensong. Both psalms were just top-notch house faves.

Had trouble finding a parking spot because the 9 AM family service was so packed! (Apparently, the 8 AM was full, too!) And then at the 11 AM, a crowd + marvelous preaching + top-notch hymns + a special blessing for an intention our family's holding dear right now.

We do, sort of - All Saints in the morning, All Souls Requiem sung in the evening. (Sort of especially nice this year with a bunch of All Saints baptisms in the morning! If a long day.)

Kickoff of our stewardship campaign. The sermon was lovely, and the stewardship chair's message equally so.

... so it was a day rich in blessings for our community! (Some of those blessings were through Scripture, and some through joy and humor, and some through a genuinely astonishing array of baked goods.)

All 3 of our usual services combined into one, at which Bishop Gene Robinson preached & presided and our choir premiered a piece written in his honor, conducted by its composer. And then after we worshiped together & gathered around the Table, we all brunched together in the parish hall...

Holder of a PhD in Literature, the snobbiest of the Literature degrees, here. Co-signed.

I did not love the anthems on tap for today, but after the service, a non-choir person commented that they were both meaningful. Reminder: just show up and sing and the Holy Spirit will handle it. Also, so many people that we ran out of the homemade bread for Eucharist and had to default to wafers.