The Epiphany

In the maddest of rushes this morning, from one school to the next, and then to the church of Saint Monica's which we enjoyed mostly to ourselves, celebrating Little Christmas, the last day of Christmas, Nollaig Bheag, the Epiphany and I was to discover, the original Christmas under the Julian calendar. One Ethiopian family at school is celebrating their Christmas Day today. I love this Church, the warmth it exudes, how it opens its arms and embraces, how much like home it feels, how exquisite the music, how comfortable the boys feel when visiting it.

And when we emerged from the church, a group of Saint Monica's High School lads, seeing me swing my Canon over my shoulder, asked me to snap them. They looked to be of South Pacific descent and I asked if they could do the Haka, which they willingly obliged on. The pics turned out pretty fun given I had the boys in the car next to me (link to follow).

The Epiphany's also known as Women's Christmas and sometimes Women's Little Christmas. What a lovely tradition, that being the time for Irish men to have taken on household chores for the benefit of the women, who are free to celebrate with friends and female family members.

And so, in that true spirit, I took the loves of my love from church in which we had sat, ran, danced and listened to Callum holler at the top of his voice to enjoy the echos resounding, I took the boys to PF Changs and I have never before seen Callum enjoy so many courses of hot spicy food. I kept having to order more. Delicious!

And tonight, before the end of Twelfth night, I will take down the Christmas tree. How it has warmed our home and our hearts, how I have loved reading Christmas stories beside it with the boys on my lap, even as they tore apart the decorations, thus confining them to the upper echelons. The centre of our home for 5 lovely weeks and a gorgeous creation from God, its life gave me strength, I hugged it goodbye, all spindly and dry, and the force of nature ran through me, and to breath in its fragrance I'm filled with good feeling. Its lights rarely extinguished throughout this time, I turn them off now and thank the tree wholeheartedly for giving us its life for our pleasure and that of passersby. It leaves our home with the respect it deserves, to be recycled and renewed.

Merry Christmas. 'Til next year.