I am exhausted. Ten service liturgies, four services to past one a.m., and a Community Christmas Dinner for more than one hundred are plenty of Christmas Day for this Parish Coordinator. But the exhaustion is chuck-full of gratitude and appreciation for those who pitched in and made all these things come together.
To much of the western world, Christmas is about what we get and what we accomplish. And I’d be kidding myself if I didn’t number myself among this crowd. But I’m not grateful solely for the objects and tokens that my kind and generous friends and family have given to me this day. I am overwhelmingly more grateful for the kindness, love, and community that has been shared with me. From the friends who shared their Christmas celebrations, their love of their neighbors, and their joy in this season, I have gotten an immense amount of satisfaction and pleasure from being loved and cared for. The pleasure and joy on the faces of those at the services and the neighbors who joined us for Christmas Dinner was an accomplishment worth savoring. And none of it can fit inside a box, a stocking, or under a tree.
Exhausting? Yes, and more than well worth it.
Happy Christmas.
Annemarie
The Daily Cup 
I was thinking about you and the Clergy yesterday while we were slinging peas and stuff around the kitchen. There is no Holiday for you! But the faces of the folks at tables and in the pews..were priceless. God Bless you. Sleep all day…..! Bob
You’re well on your way to expert and excellence status, heading to 10,000 hours at a rapid rate. Well done!