Christmas Eve 2024

While our Christmas tree goes up the week before Christmas so we can put the O Antiphon ornaments on it throughout the last week of Advent, we don't decorate it in full until Christmas Eve. This year instead of people teetering on tall stools I just brought in the ladder for putting on the star and decorating the top. Edie took charge of getting the star on the tip top, while Agnes danced around.

Agnes also had to climb the ladder to put ornaments on the top part of the tree. Eventually we convinced her to take off her heeled boots to make climbing feel safer.

Mary is great at ornament triage, sifting through the giant box for good ornaments to hang up (even on this tree, they don't all fit).

Catherine was crocheting a baby blanket for church, and the boys mostly observed, although I think Mary might have shamed them into hanging a few ornaments.

See, Agnes still has the boots on and is looking very unsure. She doesn't actually love climbing ladders, but if Edie does it, she does it.

Edie and Agnes convinced Dema to sew them new stocking this year because all the other kids have big stretchy stockings that can double as a hat, but theirs were non-stretchy material and could not be worn on the head. Dema fixed them up nicely.

These two are always looking at me like this.

After tree decorating and some dinner, I put Agnes and Edie to bed in preparation for midnight mass. Gussie and Mary had to be at church early so Gussie could prepare for singing his solo chant during Matins and Mary would be there in time for choir rehearsal. I was fighting a very unpleasant head cold so Michael took Gussie before 9 so I could sleep for an hour, then Mary and I got there in time to see Gussie sing for Matins. He has been singing with the schola for vespers occasionally but hasn't done anything like this before. Christmas Matins was two full hours of singing, plus his solo chant, and honestly he absolutely crushed it. He really did a great job and I hope he keeps singing.

Here is the video of Gussie's solo:

I don't have pictures of Mary singing because she sings in the loft with the choir. Since Michael and I were there early, Catherine stayed home and woke up Agnes and Edie at 11 and brought them and Michael Jr to church for midnight mass. Agnes slept in the pew the whole time, Gussie and Michael Jr served, and Mary sang. Since mass was about two hours long I restricted the parking lot hang-out afterwards to just a few minutes, so we were all home and in bed by about 2:30am. A great start to Christmas!