First Churchless Christmas Eve

To those readers who took an interest in my religious beliefs as they relate to my parents' traditional practices: I DID NOT end up going to church for Christmas Eve. But the surprising part is that neither did my family...

I was over at their house with my sister and her husband for dinner, and although they were planning on going (with or without me) to the 11:00 service at their church, a combination of separate factors ended up causing them to give up their plan. Everything from getting caught up in singing Christmas songs with me on piano (both those of the secular and religious variety, I might add) and being tired by the time the service rolled around, to a general feeling that perhaps the Christmas Eve service was going to be identical to those of the past (therefore offering nothing new) and a desire not to venture out in the heavy rain that had recently starting falling all ended up keeping everyone with me last night, much to my surprise.

Now, although I was assured I had nothing to do with their decision to abandon their yearly tradition, I still feel a little bad that it turned out this way, as I had no intention of changing their traditions, only mine (well, naturally changing mine alters theirs, but I never assumed it would have an effect like this, whether truly a valid cause of not).

So, there it is. Does it feel weird not to have gone to church on Christmas Eve for the first time in my life? Not really. It's actually a bit liberating. We ended up having a sort of mini church service ourselves in the sense that we pretty much hit all the songs they would have sung at the actual service anyway, so hopefully my family didn't feel like they missed too much in the end. And, contrary to one of my readers' concerns, I DID end up contributing to my parents' tradition in my own sort of way while still being true to myself...

Christmas Song of the Day: Wham! - Last Christmas