Terence always takes the best pictures. See above from this morning’s playground run-around.
Was a lovely Christmas. I am especially delighted that everything was cleaned up and put away (including children bathed and in bed) by 7:30.
Last night was the Christmas Eve service at Christ Church – one of my favorite traditions. We sang many of my favorite carols. A few scenes from church … Gracie as an angel, walking down the aisle all by herself brave and unruffled … Lucien Wood asleep on Claire Messud’s lap … Sammy and Gracie hugging in the communion line … whispering to Gracie, “there’s our dentist, Dr. McEachern!” and having the person in the pew in front of us turn around to say, “we saw him too!” – the local dentist = demigod … Grace wiping tears off of my cheeks during Silent Night and asking me quietly, “Are you crying, mummy, because it’s all so beautiful?” (no, it was because I was thinking of Nana, but it was indeed very beautiful) … outside the church with Whit during the sermon, watching a full and yellow moon rise over the horizon and through the shadows of the trees on the Common …
This year and last I’ve been obsessed with Sarah McLachlan’s Wintersong. Track 6, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, is my favorite, particularly, for some reason, the last line … I could listen to it over and over again:
… we hear the Christmas angels, who great glad tidings tell, oh come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel …
