Christmas

Nothing says Christmas Eve like King's College, Cambridge and their Nine Lessons and Carols. Cole and I stood in the kitchen and sang along to the easier carols, while I made a rather good Apple and Cranberry casserole. After the service was over, we moaned about the fact that King's College is not Catholic and continued listening to the BBC 4 online. Then we listened to more Christmas music and got ready to go to church.
The church looked gorgeous! The Alter guild outdid themselves with all the poinsettias and other decorations. The music was very good too; our choir had worked so hard for this and sounded so good. They sang my favorite carol (O Little Town of Bethlehem). Mass was awesome, as usual. Then we went to Father's for the annual Christmas Eve bash. There was so much good food and so many nice people. Gemma and I practically lay on the couch and stared into space, in a good way. Around 10:45 those who had been to Mass tottered home and those going to Midnight Mass had one more cup of coffee.
I believe this was the first Christmas where I was not awakened at four am by an anxious Cole. We slept until 7:15, a very reasonable and uncustomary hour. We stampeded downstairs and then had to wait while Mum made sure Santa had come, etc. While we waited Cole, Conrad, and Verity bounced on Mum and Dad's bed (Dad and I just stared into space). Finally Mum came back and said she thought we might have a present or two. I was then knocked down as the wild hoards tried to get to the living room first.
As usual, we attacked the stockings first. We were busy examining the many wonders Santa had brought, when I happened to glance into the kitchen. There, on the bookshelf by the window, was a brand new fish tank! We watched the fish for about three seconds and then dashed back to see what was under the tree.These we are from me, Verity, Mum, and Dad. Verity had made me about 6 billion gifts some of which I already owned, but it was still very cute. Then we all sat down to play with our stuff.
We had a very delicious Christmas Breakfast. It was so filling that we weren't hungry again until that evening. Of course, the candy we were munching on didn't really help. For dinner we had a goose, Apple cranberry casserole, bread, and oyster pie. For desert we had a cherry pie. Then we all did the dishes, listened to Christmas music, and then settled our brains for yet another long winter's nap.