oh holy night

oh holy night
the stars are brightly shining
it is the night
of our dear saviour's birth

today was sort of a nothing day, a throw away. i didn't have anything to do and i didn't do much as a result. i finished wrapping my presents for my family, and read my book. i watched some of my best friend's wedding, runaway bride and erin brokovich. apparently there was some sort of julia roberts marathon on tv.

right now i'm just waiting around for church, at 10 p.m. tonight. we just finished dinner...my dad made a traditional seafood dish, something italians do on christmas eve. italian tradition dictates that family gathers on christmas eve and cooks a never ending meal and eats all night. my birthday -- three kings day, little christmas, the twelfth day of christmas -- is also another big italian holiday. they open gifts on that day i think.

we don't follow the whole tradition, my family has made traditions of its own. we try to go to church on christmas eve, and in the past our church only had a 5 p.m. mass, which really started at 4, and you had to get there at 3 to get a seat. now we have a later mass, but we haven't ever been, so tonight will be a new tradition i guess.

christmas morning is when we have all our traditions. i don't know about your families, but in our house "santa" doesn't wrap his presents. which means we're not allowed to come down into the family room until everyone is awake and ready.

of course, us kids always wake up first, and we go in mom and dad's room and they usually are tired because they went to bed like two hours before. they make us go to sleep for another hour, whatever we can stand. when they finally get up, my mom or dad has to go set up the video camera before we can get in the family room. once that's ready we can go to it.

after all the gifts are opened, my mom makes pancakes and we have a nice big and yummy breakfast.

when we used to have grandparents in the area, we would spend christmas day with my dad's parents and the day after was for my mom's parents and that side of the family. this is the fourth year that we're not spending the day on long island. and i have to admit, its tough looking at the calendar and making plans on that day, knowing that the its wide open, there's no family for us to go visit any more. i used to look forward to that day more than christmas day sometimes...

have yourself a merry little christmas
let your heart be light
from now on
your troubles will be out of sight

still, i am lucky in many ways. and this is the time of year to be truly thankful for and aware of family and friends and love in your life. like how the grinch stole christmas...which just so happens to be on tv right now.

perhaps christmas doesn't come from a store
perhaps christmas means a little bit more