December 16: Sick Kids, Christmas Decorating, Christmas Cantata, New Cartoon

This morning, at about 2 a.m., my son decided to vomit in his bed.  So, we got him cleaned up and his blankets and sheets changed.  He got back into his bed, and ten minutes later, he decided to vomit in his bed again.  At 2:30 a.m., we repeated sentence two of this post.  Then I took him to bed with me and spent the rest of the night being kicked and punched by a sleeping four-year-old.

When I went to pick up my daughter for church from Grandma's house, I found out that she had a sore throat.  I ended up being a solo act for Sunday School and worship this morning.  It was a crazy morning of rehearsals and organizing.  The lead singer of the praise band was ill, too.  We had to change one song, convert another into a cello/guitar solo, and re-orchestrate another.  Not fun.

My daughter now has white pus on her tonsils, and my son has thrown up again.  I am in the middle of an Ebola breakout.

Sunday, I'm supposed to write about one of my favorite things.  I was planning on talking about Christmas decorating, since I have to help put up my parents' Christmas tree this afternoon.  However, that has been delayed.  I do love decorating, although this holiday season seems like one continual exercise in garland and twinkle lights and tinsel.  I have been decorating various places (home, work, church) since the weekend after Halloween.  I don't want to talk about decorating today.

I want to talk about something I am going to attend tonight.  An annual Christmas concert at a Catholic Church one city over.  I have been going to these concerts for close to sixteen or seventeen years.  The choir is usually fifty or sixty voices strong, and the music is always gorgeous.  Before the actual cantata, the choir usually sings a few choral pieces that are in Latin or German or Old English. Those pieces are my favorite.  Complex and layered, with a hint of Gregorian chant.  It really puts me in the Christmas spirit.  And, considering the CDC is probably going to be breaking down my door soon and placing my entire family under quarantine, I need all the Christmas spirit I can get.

If you want to get in touch with Saint Marty tonight, go look for him at Saint Paul's Christmas cantata at 7 p.m.  He'll be the one weeping in a pew on the left-hand side of the church.

Confessions of Saint Marty