25 December 2006

Midnight Mass starts the season

The children were very excited last night. We had been to morning Mass (for Sunday) and now we were in the waiting time until Midnight Mass. Lana and Rose had an afternoon nap, but the other childrn were too excited (or "too old") for that type of thing. Eventually, Clare, Peter and James had a two hour sleep (at their suggestion!!!) before we had to get up at 11:15pm.
The Mass was great with the priests from the Monastery in Gold vestments (as it is a great celebration) and Ariel and Eric joined the choir. I must say that the great thing about Christmas Carols is that you can sing them with any type of voice, just let fervour and volume make up for singing talent. At least, that's my theory.
We had mentioned to our neighbours we were going to midnight Mass. They thought about this when they returned home and called wishing to join us. No worries, we said and their first experience of a Catholic Mass was this one with all the bells and whistles! Do you remember first attending a Catholic Mass and wondering whether to stand, sit or kneel? Lana remembers my father giving her the tip that all the posture changes help us keep awake during long Masses. So Lana faithfully passed this tip on to our neighbours.
After Mass, Father mentioned that St Nicholas had dropped by on December 6 and left a number of sweet reminders for the children. This gave him an excuse to give a short history of St Nicholas.
Following the joy (and lollies) shared amongst the parishioners we drove home very carefully. After the rains there were lots of kangaroos and wombats on the roadsides munching on the green grass. Nothing can ruin your day like a collision with a kangaroo or wombat. It's a bit like hitting a deer, but kangaroos can be larger and wombats have been compared to mobile speed humps.

No comments: