Noel

I have been trying to write a Christmas song with Steve these past few weeks. This year, Christmas is unlike the other years. No expectations, no needs. Quiet, peaceful. No rush.
We were trying to set a melancholy mood to the song and I was having trouble feeling it. I can write without thinking but writing with feeling takes a lot of work. For me, that is.
So it got me thinking about Christmases, past and present. Mainly good memories. Exciting years alternating with boring ones.
Our family tradition on Christmas Eve was to go to the 10 pm mass at the school across the street where I would sing in the choir (I loved it) and then eat fondue bourguignonne and homemade cream puffs with our grandma, and then, around midnight, open the presents. Then my parents would go to bed, we kids would follow. As we got older, we always asked for LPs and we would spend the whole holidays listening to our new records while playing board games.
On Christmas day, the whole family, aunts, uncles and cousins would gather at my grandmother for loads of food and drink and talk. That was noisy and fun. Sometines, our cousins from Australia would be there and that was even more excellent.
And then we'd have plenty of time on our hands to play hockey, go sledding, listen to music and basically hang out with our driends. We didn't do much on New Year's Eve - watched the end of year shows (just the kkids, our parents would head off to bed early). That was nice too. At midnight, we would say Happy New Year and head off to bed (I was never a late-night person - maybe my brothers stayed up. No amount of noise could have roused me.)

As we all moved out of home and settled with partners, Mom and Dad would invite us a week ahead or so so we could go to the in-laws without having to rush from one place to the next. It was very thoughtful: they never cared too much for exact dates and stuff and just wanted to see all of us. We're just lucky that way...