Holiday greetings...

More holiday blessings that I am thankful for:

* Friday evening, the last night of Hannukah, which was spent with good friends- frying latkes, laughing together, sharing gifts & great food.

* A peaceful Saturday (aka "Christmas Eve Eve, according to Brendan), for the most part. Brendan still needed a great deal of distraction from OCD thoughts, but with 2 parents home the distractions came more easily. Charlie took him to a local children's museum for the morning while I wrestled with the printer (putting together a yearly picture album for Grammie is becoming a tradition) & wrapped gifts. In the afternoon we had a japanese lesson & worked out our New Year's schedule with Tomoko. If the weather co-operates (we're supposed to finally get lots of snow here in the northeast US in Tuesday) we'll take Tomoko to lunch next Wednesday then she & I will go shopping for the ingredients for osechi ryori, traditional Japanese New Year's food. We'll cook it next Sunday & have special soba noodles with her in the evening on New Year's Eve, then we'll get together again on New Year's Day to eat the food we made. I'm really psyched! Brendan played Adventure Quest when there was no other sufficient distraction & in the late afternoon we rehearsed for Christmas Eve with the other 2 members of our vocal quartet, Jessie & Ed, & then made pizza for dinner to share with Ed & his wife Newc. It was another lovely evening of friendship & really put me in the holiday spirit!

* A busy, but not quite frantic, Sunday (aka Christmas Eve :) wrapping the rest of the gifts (whew!). Charlie watched some episodes of "The Addams Family" with Brendan (a gift from some patients) & after the wrapping was done I watched the 3rd (& best) InuYasha movie with Brendan, which we'd been saving for a special occasion. We had a big lunch & early dinner, so we could be to church to rehearse with our quartet & the choir by 6:00, for the 7:30 Christmas Eve service. This was our first service with our former accompanist, soon-to-be music director (our present music director resigned last Sunday after the mummer's play because he finally realised that he didn't have time to do the job...) & so everything was feeling very new. I had programmed the music for this service, since our just-resigned music director is out of town, so I was kind of nervous about it all coming together... but it did, really beautifully. Brendan brought his new dragonology book to read during the service, but was too distracted by noises to concentrate & had a lot of trouble with tics in the early part of the service, partly because we were singing the prelude up in the choir loft & he was waiting for us down in the pews. We offered to let him go to the lounge & play AQ on the church computer during the service (although I'd have worried about him the whole time, out there alone) but he said that he would stay in the service because he wanted to be with us on Christmas Eve & didn't want to miss holding candles & singing "Silent Night" at the end of the service. Sweet boy :) He did really well, too, as long as we were nearby. When we got home I "rocked Rufus to sleep" while Brendan & dad put together a stocking for Rufe (an apple, some carrots, & a candy cane :). Then Charlie read "The Night Before Christmas" & "Olive the Other Reindeer" to Brendan at bedtime, instead of our usual couple chapters of Eragon. He fell asleep soon after, & Charlie & I sat, had some eggnog, & just enjoyed some quiet time together. Charlie's support throughout this particularly busy & stressful holiday season is the main factor in my still being sane, & I feel so blessed to have him by my side...

Earlier this evening I took the photos of Brendan in front of the tree wearing his Kirara (cat-demon from InuYasha) hat, which he received last week for Hannukah. Happy holidays from our family to all of our online friends!!