Christmas morning was lovely with brilliant sunshine.  A change from the overcast days of rain and a surprise 5 cm of snow that turned to slush that we had experienced over the previous week.

I accompanied my bride to 10:30 mass and wore a suit.  Nobody gets dressed up for church these days and sadly, not even for Christmas… but I remembered when it was a special day and that is what my mother would have wanted me to wear.

The church holds about 800 people and there might have been 900 for the mass.   As I looked around maybe 1% of the men had bothered to put on something special and they were mostly older than I was.  A far larger percentage of the ladies had dressed up and many of the kids (although in Pat’s Parish there are very few little kids)  Still pretty casual for a special day.

We arrived a half hour early to join the choir in carol singing before the mass.  It was pathetic.  The average age of the choir is 75 and while they tried hard they could not fill the church.  I tried my best with my off key singing but noticed that virtually all the 500 people that showed up early were just mouthing the words.  Pat sang next to me (she is good), and I did my best to fill the void.

Granted most of the carols they selected were in the key where the only males that could follow would have been castratos.  (Good King Wenceslas was not a selection)

Still this was a lovely morning and Pat liked to show off her well dressed husband to the many ladies that belong to her CWL, so for her a success.