Christmas day: snow falling, my pretend-grumpy Uncle Jim, my Aunt Char and cousin-in-law Erica, my cousin Paul and me drinking tea.
Even if there are only five of you, Christmas isn't necessarily quiet!
Char and I started the day off heading to church. The 11 pm Christmas Eve service seemed too late with our colds, and we instead got to hear a wonderful sermon on Christmas Day about John 1: 1 - 3. Our rector, John Newton, talked about the telescope that's being built in Australia that will see the light from 14-billion-year-old stars, and how Jesus' friend John was looking beyond and before that when he said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He pointed out that John was likely not penning such a different story (compared with others' manger scenes) in order to discuss a new philosophy in front of a roaring fire with a glass of port, but rather to call people to transformation. This reminded me of the book that I am already ready to re-read: Bryant Myers' Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development. When I can get my head out of my to-do list long enough (!) I am really excited about putting in to place those principles.
After church we finished the meal preparations and Paul and Erica came over. Our family friend Aldine was also supposed to come, but it began snowing and the streets were beginning to look treacherous, so she didn't come. I think we ended up getting four inches, instead of the two inches we were promised.
Fun fact: people from warmer places say funny things about snow, such as, "it's too cold to snow today". I've lived in Minnesota a total of eleven years now, all of them as an adult, and I know it gets pretty cold here, including a week every January where it never gets above zero degrees (-18 C). It also snows some, including when it's really cold. A couple of days ago it was only 14 degrees (-10 degrees C) and snowing. In fact, it's never really too cold to snow. Apparently, at -40 (same Celsius and Fahrenheit) it's not likely to snow due to the moisture capacity of the air (I just looked that up).
