This morning Ray and I pried ourselves out of bed at 5:30 to head down to St. Thomas the Apostle, Hollywood, to prepare for the 8 o’clock meal of the Breakfast Club for the homeless in Hollywood. We were joined by other sleepy-eyed folks who were there to cook up our usual breakfast fare of scrambled eggs, turkey, sliced potatoes with cheese, bread pudding, cereal, milk, orange juice and muffins. We had a small crowd of patrons since the holidays often produce more than the usual number of homeless feeding programs throughout the city, but everyone seemed grateful for the hot coffee and warm food. We were working out of our newly renovated kitchen so besides not quite knowing where everything is now stored, everything else went fabulously well. After all, we have a new oven that actually works and lots of stainless steel surfaces where we can all spread out and prep food to our heart’s content. So, we had complete success.
After returning home, I fell back into bed for what turned out to be a three hour nap. Ray was up sooner and when downstairs to make oatmeal cookies. To give you some idea of the kindness of my husband – when he came up to wake me up, he brought two freshly baked cookies and a cup of coffee. How is that for a good man?
We got dressed and headed back over to church for a Boxing Day celebration hosted by our Welsh rector and his parents. This was a lovely low-key gathering of food and friends to relax and catch up. Boxing Day is a national holiday in Britain and is based on the days of nobility when servants who worked on Christmas received the next day off and were sent home with boxes of food from their employers. Now it is apparently a day of visiting friends not seen on Christmas and general relaxation. We accomplished just that over at our rector’s home what with the potluck and the company of people who had gathered to just be together.
After the Boxing Day reception, I headed down to church to serve as the thurifer at the 5 o’clock Vigil Mass, which is said in Latin and has a cantor. It’s a lovely service, one of my favorites. I always love to serve as thurifer because that person not only handles the incense burner for the censing of the altar and the Gospel procession, but also helps to prepare and serve Communion. (I am convinced I am really a twelve-year-old boy acolyte trapped in the body of a 60+ year old woman!)
After church, we went back up for a quick visit with the rector and his parents and a few friends before heading home. Ray and I are now in bed with the dogs at our feet, ready for an evening of NOTHING except perhaps a little television. That sounds just fine to me.
Tomorrow, I serve again at the 10:30 mass because many of our acolytes are out of the town for the holidays. Normally, I don’t serve five days in a row so this is an exception. Clearly, we need a few more acolytes in the corps. If anyone is reading this and is interested, please let me know. I will point you in the right direction to get trained.
On that note, I’ll say good night. I have some serious resting up tonight before starting again tomorrow.
I hope you’ve had a lovely day, my dear readers. May the holiday spirit keep you safe, warm, well fed and dry. With terrible weather brewing in the Southwest, I hope and pray you are not stranded on a highway somewhere during the terrible blizzard that is hitting Amarillo tonight. Or else, negatively affected by the rain and storms pounding down in North Central Texas. Stay safe.
Sleep well. We will talk again tomorrow.
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