It's Christmas Eve...

...and I'm excited.

Why? Well, that question can be answered a lot of different ways:

  1. I will be opening presents tommorrow (greed).
  2. I will be celebrating the birth of my redeemer tommorrow (joy).
  3. I will be able to talk to my brother and some of my other relatives who I don't see too often tommorrow (socialization).
  4. I will get to sleep in (first time in 4 1/2 months!) as long as I want tommorrow - I'm going to midnight Mass (in my cassock and surplice, nonetheless!) (relaxation).
  5. I will have one less day of Christmas break, one less day of my Earthly life (bittersweet sorrow).

Greed. Joy. Socialization. Relaxation. Bittersweet sorrow. Those are the ingredients that make up my Christmas. I'm willing to bet that's about the same for the rest of my American generation. I'm not saying it's all bad, but we ought to find ways to focus less on the sorrow and greed, and more on the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus is, after all, the 'reason for the season.'