Twas in the moon of wintertime

[coneycat]

We didn't go to Midnight Mass this year, probably because it was being held at Saint Mary's, the large church downtown. Which is a perfectly nice church and all, but see, nine- o'clock Mass was held at Saint Joachim's, the mission church just down the road from my parents in the Eel Ground First Nation. It was, as usual, crowded, noisy, and a little chaotic. There were three slighty scruffy kids sitting in front of me, one of whom can't have been Catholic because he looked around like a happy tourist, didn't go to Communion, and looked surprised and delighted when people suddenly began shaking his hand during the sign of peace. A moppet of about four carried the baby Jesus, wrapped in what actually appeared to be a robe of rabbit skin, to the brand-new Nativity scene, which featured a birchbark lodge taking the place of the stable. I was unable to sing along with about half the hymns because they were in Mi'kmaq, although I do know the Honour Song which opened the Mass. And at the end the priest, Father Dave (the other parish priest is, I kid you not, Father Sam, and I bet they arm-wrestle over who gets Saint Joachim's on any given week) presented the elderly gentleman who acts as his assistant with rubber boots because Father Dave keeps sloshing water over Wilfred's feet when he washes his hands after Communion. On the way back from Communion I ran into kind of a parade of relatives on my dad's side and a very elderly lady who used to keep my cool but slightly terrifying maternal grandmother out all night playing cards. (I swear, when I was little I couldn't wait to be an old lady like my grandmother so I could stay out all night with my friends.)

All of a sudden I am just frigging filled with Christmas spirit.

Hope everyone out there is having a joyous season, or at least has plenty of snow and a warm comfy place to enjoy it.

Or whatever your local equivalent may be.