Christmas Eve

Last night was The Best Christmas Eve in memory! For the first time since 1954 - that's over 53 years, folks - I didn't have a Christmas Eve gig! After last Christmas Eve's hair-raising nightmare, in which the perpetually unprepared music director at my former church job attempted a full-blown Christmas Cantata, complete with choir, bell choir and instrumental ensemble, without once rehearsing the entire group together, I was a totally wacked out nervous wreck. Even though things, mercifully, came together and the show was pretty decent, I swore I would NEVER subject myself to that level of blood-pressure-raising insanity again. After a series of further unpreparedness episodes throughout the first part of the year, culminating in the biggest "Fuck You" I've ever had thrown at me, I decided I'd totally and irrevocably HAD IT with that level of frustration, and quit that stupid job in August. Hence, last night's delightful Christmas Eve! The husband and I stayed home and drank champagne in front of a roaring fire, whilst petting cats and listening to schlocky Christmas music on the local Classical music station (some of which was tacky beyond belief... whatever happened to taste???). At about 11:00 a storm blasted through the North Bay, upending 90-gallon trash containers and blowing anything not tied or weighted down all over the yard, and quite successfully finishing off my woebegone tomato plants. The evening's sunset, or lull before the storm, was absolutely gorgeous, though...