Christmas Eve

It was not as busy as we anticipated on Christmas Eve Day. Josie went into work early at 8 AM and I waited for a phone call to come and help with the deliveries. She said that when she arrived, there were no orders to be filled and they slowly trickled in during the morning. I never received a call to come and help with deliveries, and Josie was done by 1 PM. She stopped at the Salon and had a manicure and also stopped at a store for a last minute gift for me which was sold out. It was 3 PM when she arrived home, a lot shorter day than was normal in the past. The people in the shop indicated that this was the slowest Christmas season they could remember. We decided to go to the 7 PM service at our old church in Sun City Grand. There was also a 5 PM service, but we wanted to take Communion which was only available at the later, Candle Light Service.

We were disappointed with the service. We arrived shortly after 6:30 and, at first, thought the service was cancelled. There were only a few cars in the parking lot that should have been filling up at this point. In years past, the church would be filled with standing room only crowds at this service on Christmas Eve. It was disappointing because: the Pastor we used to see retired about a year and a half ago and there was an Interim Pastor who was just so-so, the program was very different, the Choir was smaller and had all new faces, some of the music was strange to us, the crowd was less than half of what we were used to seeing and the Christmas Spirit seemed to be lacking. There were only two children that participated in the Children's Message at the alter. In years past, there would be ten to fifteen children participating. There is a new Lutheran church in town that opened a couple years ago and we think that may have had an impact on this congregation. We plan to try that new church very soon. We still feel better that we attended.

We watched a Christmas movie on TV and turned in by 10 PM. It looks like Santa stopped here during the night but was probably in a hurry and only left a couple gifts. We feel blessed anyway.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!