On the Second Day of Christmas

....I got a sore throat.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

On the second Day of Christmas I got the day off.  I am sort of, unofficially, on vacation.  The interim Senior Pastor decided that I would preside and preach on Christmas Day, and he would preside and preach today, and we would each get the other day off. 

On Tuesday I will be officially on vacation.  But, since I was off today, I went to church with my mom, who doesn't get to go to church with anyone usually, since my dad is in a nursing home.  Before that, I got up early to make blueberry pancakes for my husband, who was going to play for three churches at his church.  I watched the movie Pollyanna, which is coincidentally one of my dad's favorite movies.  There was a great line that I hadn't noticed before, when the townspeople go to the pastor for help when no one else will speak up, because, as Pollyanna says, 'no one owns the church.'  It seems to me that this is still one of the big responsibilities of the church, to speak up when no one else will, because 'no one owns the church.' 

On the second Day of Christmas I heard the Pollyanna sermon, and I heard a great sermon at my mom's church too, all about the Incarnation as God's deep presence in the suffering of the world.

My mom and I visited my dad in the nursing home.  We put up a little Christmas tree with a few small bulbs, listened to Bing Crosby and looked through a memory scrapbook my mom is making.  I saw a picture of my dad with his army buddies for the first time.  He remembers a funny picture of me when I was little, would like a picture of that in his scrapbook. 

Later on, I came home, started the fourth pair of cable footies (I still have all this yarn and presents I didn't get made).  I do think I need a new project, though.

And tonight, as I'm getting ready for bed, and getting ready for "official" vacation, which starts on Tuesday, I realize that my throat hurts and I'm a little achy.