Second day of Christmas

I was going to upload some pictures tonight of my apartment in its Christmas splendor, for people like my mother who would like to know what my apartment looks like, but I can't find the cable for my camera. Sometimes I can find my camera, and sometimes I can find rechargeable batteries for my camera that are actually charged, and sometimes I can find the camera cable, but all three together-- that is the trifecta. Not attainable by me, at least not recently. In my defense we are still at that stage of moving in which things don't really have a place yet, and the trip to Africa and associated packing and unpacking of things like my camera added further confusion. And today we were painting the kitchen so there is kitchen stuff all over the rest of the apartment and it's all a mess. I actually made toast today by setting the toaster on the toilet seat because it's the only place outside the kitchen I could find a three-prong plug! I suppose this is kind of gross and not something I should admit to.

Anyway, although I don't have the pictures to prove it, our apartment is looking quite Christmas-y (no tree, but we do have a quite glorious poinsettia), and we had a great Christmas. We received two invitations to spend Christmas with people but they both were a fair distance away and we didn't really feel like going anywhere so we didn't. I cooked a bit and we ate a big breakfast and I cooked a bit more and we ate a big dinner and in between we opened our gifts (piled under the poinsettia) and read the Christmas story, Joel the Matthew version and me the Luke version. (Have you ever noticed how the Matthew version is all about Joseph and the Luke version is all about Mary? I never had, til this year.) Then we sang Christmas carols with Joel playing guitar and me playing my flute very badly. And then watched March of the Penguins, which Joel had bought me for Christmas. I confess I hadn't had a burning desire to see it-- the premise had struck me as a bit dull and I wondered how I would sit through two hours of nothing but penguin footage-- but in fact I was completely fascinated by it. Riveted. I highly recommend it.

We got to sing quite a few Christmas carols this year-- in our living room last night and in a great, lengthy Christmas Eve service we attended at St. Paul (the big Catholic church by my office). There's so much great theology in Christmas carols-- so much that is so strong and powerful, especially compared to all the bland ridiculous candy cane and snowman stuff that has taken over Christmas in America. I was buying up 50% off Christmas cards today and felt nearly ill at all the syrupy, weak-willed Christmas greetings I ran across. The heart of Christmas is actually something really radical. Think about these words from O Holy Night:

Truly He taught us to love one another;

His law is love and His gospel is peace.

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;

And in His name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,

Let all within us praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,

His power and glory evermore proclaim.

His power and glory evermore proclaim.