that my brother can attend. Maybe a Twelfth Night celebration? The biggest problem is coordinating schedules. Dad and I are, of course, free at any time and my nephew is now mostly generating income by giving private music lessons but he sometimes picks up shifts at the restaurant he used to work regularly at, both for extra cash and to help out the owners, who he likes. His sister works several waitressing/bartending jobs and rarely has any time off, let alone time to spend with the relatives as opposed to her friends. And Bro is a teacher but usually has a side gig that keeps him busy at night. So it might be a while before we can all get together...
I didn’t realize that there are Christmas Eve services in the morning.
Not usually. Most years, there's a Christmas Eve service Christmas Eve evening but because Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year, our pastor decided to just have a combined service in the morning and nothing in the evening. I have some thoughts about that but they're not particularly charitable, so...
Growing up, they were always candlelit services in the evening. I still remember my mom singing a solo of “O Holy Night” during one of those Christmas Eve services. She was an opera singer (soprano) and also sang at Carnegie Hall but she sang in her church choir too.
I LOVE a candlelight service on Christmas Eve. When our church does a CE service, we always end by dousing the lights, lighting candles (and giving the kiddos battery operated candles) and singing "Silent Night". Almost every other church I've attended on Christmas Eve does the same.
I bet your childhood church's choir was amazing 😊 That's a lovely memory of your mom to have (and "O Holy Night" is my favorite Christmas carol, though my favorite individual Christmas song is my guys' (Home Free) version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?". I didn't even LIKE that song that much until I heard their version 5 years ago and now I'm obsessed with it <g>.
