IF.....
I were to allow my bubble of happiness to be burst..........which I won’t............

I’d start with the Flower Fairy coming home on Christmas Eve and telling me that her boss gave everyone except her a Christmas card - with cash inside. It was not so much the lack to the cash, as nice as that would have been, but the total lack of Christmas wishes, considering she has worked there almost a full year. I must say it was difficult for me at Mass,in the processional queue at the back of the church, when the pastor thanked this man for the lovely church decorations, to not stick my index finger in my mouth in an exaggerated gagging motion.
(There is also a certain amount of bad feelings abounding because Fran has only been at the animal hospital a few months and she received the humongous Godiva gift basket, a scarf made in Ireland and other perks. Bridget quotes Charlie Brown, “I got a rock.”)

Karen called around 9:00 pm to wish us a Merry Christmas and to say that she would probably never set foot in a Catholic Church again. Must redouble my prayers. I should have warned her that Christmas Eve Mass can be of a penitential nature for even the most devout and she should probably just visit on an average Sunday. Will wait until she calms down to pursue further discussion.

Allowed myself to be dragged into a religion/political discussion with my lapsed Catholic brother-in-law over dessert on Christmas Day. Didn’t help that I had imbibed several large glasses of champagne and he had had most of a bottle of chardonay. I could hear, with my failing right ear, my mother-in-law asking my two sisters-in-law why I insisted on using the term “pro-life.” And then there was some sort of laughter........ My father in law just stood up and left. Luckily, we had to leave to see Frances off on her Vegas trip around the time lawyer/brother-in-law was declaring that belief in God was no different than belief in the Easter Bunny. Sparkling domestic wine does not leave me in the best position for apologetics - that is best done sober and even, perhaps, heavily caffeinated. I think my sister-in-law blames me for getting him drunk and putting her in the unhappy position of doing the driving home to the south ‘burbs.

When the kids settled down, I put on my new flannel nighty and crawled into bed to watch the Godfather on Bravo and nurse my psychic wounds and blooming headache.

So what is it with lawyers and God? Between my sister and my brother-in-law, I am quite concerned.........