Our Christmas Eve this year was a little different than past years. We have had a tradition of having my parents and my sister and her husband to the house after 4pm Mass for a chicken stew dinner. This year with my parents living on Cape Cod the drive is a bit much back and forth so they did not come. We were joined by Allison’s friend Colleen and her mother, Sue. Colleen and Sue attended Mass as well and just happened to get the pew in front of us. They came back to the house after Mass and we enjoyed the traditional chicken stew that Allison makes.
Mass this year was at Saint Mary’s Church and they have a nativity scene out on the lawn. I always get a photo of the kids by the nativity scene after Mass except for last year when we had to watch Mass on Facebook. I like seeing those Nativity Scene memories come up on Facebook each year, though.
There was also some fresh baked bread that Colleen and Sue brought and this year I picked up a French Silk Pie from Munroe Dairy because it sounded good. It was really very tasty. After dinner we talked in the living room and the family had my read How Murry saved Christmas for everyone. Colleen and Sue had never heard the story before and they enjoyed this silly tale very much. We also got a nice family photo for the year by the tree thanks to Colleen suggesting it.
I almost always forget to do that. It was a very nice evening and Allison and I stayed up for a while preparing the gifts. Luckily Allison had wrapped most of them last night so we weren’t up too late.