Christmas Eve. It’s Christmas Eve.

I won’t lie: this time of the year is hard for me to get through. I struggle to hear vapid music without making comments (You: that damn drummer boy. I am looking RIGHT AT YOU when I bring this up.) (As an example of a comment that I’d like to make.) I am still not over the exact mathematical allotment of Festive Holiday Minutes™ per family that my in-laws tracked (and were so, so kind let us know when we were deficient.). I miss my mom, who died 20 years ago next week. The days are short which makes me feel bleak.

But. I have a million good memories of my mom and I have a loving family. No one (so far as I am aware) tracks my time allocation. We’re past the winter solstice so the days are already getting longer. And these verses from “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” help me see the beauty of the season even through all the things that don’t feel happy or kind or joyful.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
two thousand years of wrong
And man at war with man hears not
The love song which they bring
O hush the noise ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow
Take heart for comfort, love, and hope
Come swiftly on the wing
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing

So today I will take heart for comfort, love, and hope; rest beside that weary road when I need to; and will listen for the angels singing (hopefully with a drum accompaniment).

San Elizario, Texas
photographed 12.15.2025