When Christmas falls on Sunday....

...Christmas weekend becomes a marathon. Services Christmas Eve. At least I didn't have to go in early to cope with the poinsettias, owing to having forgotten to tell the DOM to call me if help was needed. Worked during the day Christmas Eve on Sunday's sermon, went to church for services, team-leading the volunteers. That's when I found out the pastor was preaching Christmas Eve on the same text I was using the following morning.

And then after service he told me, well, you never focus much on the text on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, those days are for a message of reassurance and comfort and joy. Of course, I *had* been focusing on the text for the prep...Which led to a great sermon re-working after 11 PM Christmas Eve. Once I had the (new) points I was planning to use figured out, I realized I was too tired to write the whole thing out, so went to bed...

.....and woke up at 3 AM realizing I couldn't remember the middle of it. I fretted for a while before deciding to just roll with it--after all, the pastor (who is a fine preacher and thus One Tough Act to Follow) wouldn't be there to hear my ignominy.

Sunday morning the pastor SHOWED UP at the 9:30 service. Great.

Oh, well, it wasn't a total flop. People liked it and S. the opera singer was there and sang "Oh Holy Night" having flown from the East Coast overnight and a good time was had by all. And I raced to make it to dinner with friends at 2 PM.

And by 10 PM I was sitting on the couch staring dully into space with a splitting headache. Which, apparently, is what happens to church types when Christmas falls on a Sunday.