Merry Christmas!

First off, a very Merry Christmas to all of my readers. I hope you've been off enjoying the holiday with family and friends.

While I have no intention to rant about it, because I'm sure enough other people already have. I really wish that Christmas was more relaxing and felt more like, well... Christmas. While I certainly think that time with family is important, I really wish that the time leading up to Christmas, and the holiday itself, were more relaxing, contemplative, and about what they're supposed to be about. I could go on all day about that, but I won't.

Instead, I will mention the part of Christmas that made me the happiest. Last evening I went to Christmas Eve mass at the Episcopal church that I am now very much a part of. I have never been to a more amazing Christmas service in my life. The church is an impressive piece of architecture and parts of it date to the late 1820s. It was "greened" for Christmas and looked absolutely amazing. Aside from that, the service was very high church and the attention to detail really came through. As always, the music was amazing. It made me happy to have some part of the holiday feel like it was just right. In addition to that, I should mention that I was an acolyte for the Sunday service the day before. I'm finally getting pretty involved in the church and am looking forward to being a part of things the way I was in the various Catholic churches I had been active in.

What's amazing to me, is that it was last Christmas eve that I went to mass and decided afterwards that I was through with the Catholic Church. It has now been a year since that decision and I never could have anticipated how much things would change in that time. In fact, it was mere months ago that I was blogging here about my serious confusion about Christianity and even about the existence of God. I am very grateful to the church I now find myself in for having made a real effort to get to know me and support me at a time when I needed it most.

A thank-you to all of my readers who offered input, support, or just read. You all helped in some way.

A very Merry Christmas to everyone again.