![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Christmas Day
Dec. 26th, 2005 09:41 amThis is the first Christmas I've spent away from home (where home is either my parents' house or my own). I'm in Sunny Florida with my extended in-laws family.
Yesterday I decided that I needed some religious and traditional observation to my holiday, so I got up promptly and went off to St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church. It was lovely, just what my soul wanted. Fairly high church Episcopal - bells but no censer - and as conservative and hoity-toity a congregation as you could scare up anywhere. I should have figured out a way to bike to church in silk and pearls, really.
The building is very island-y in design, explicitly of the Inverted Boat style, with exposed beams. All painted a pearly gray, which looks different as the light changes. Small stained glass panels set into the plain amber windows. Posh ritual items on the altar, bright brass candlesticks and gleaming silver Eucharist chalice and platen. A very nice and welcoming rector and congregation, for all their snooty look. I'll go back the next time I'm here.
I was glad I had my dose of Christmas in the morning, because it was all the Christmas I got for the rest of the day. We're waiting til tomorrow to exchange presents, because![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jducoeur's sister and family fly in tonight. Ally lit the Chanukah menorah at sundown yesterday. Other than that, we went around the island on bikes, and snacked, and played with Ally's bird. Could've been any old (nice warm breezy) day. Very pleasant, but not very Christmassy. Next year we stay in New England, and eat a fancy meal, and admire the dusty elderly ornaments on the tree :)
Yesterday I decided that I needed some religious and traditional observation to my holiday, so I got up promptly and went off to St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church. It was lovely, just what my soul wanted. Fairly high church Episcopal - bells but no censer - and as conservative and hoity-toity a congregation as you could scare up anywhere. I should have figured out a way to bike to church in silk and pearls, really.
The building is very island-y in design, explicitly of the Inverted Boat style, with exposed beams. All painted a pearly gray, which looks different as the light changes. Small stained glass panels set into the plain amber windows. Posh ritual items on the altar, bright brass candlesticks and gleaming silver Eucharist chalice and platen. A very nice and welcoming rector and congregation, for all their snooty look. I'll go back the next time I'm here.
I was glad I had my dose of Christmas in the morning, because it was all the Christmas I got for the rest of the day. We're waiting til tomorrow to exchange presents, because
jducoeur's sister and family fly in tonight. Ally lit the Chanukah menorah at sundown yesterday. Other than that, we went around the island on bikes, and snacked, and played with Ally's bird. Could've been any old (nice warm breezy) day. Very pleasant, but not very Christmassy. Next year we stay in New England, and eat a fancy meal, and admire the dusty elderly ornaments on the tree :)
