Kid's Mass

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a churchy person. I was raised Catholic but no longer practice except at Christmas when I go with my parents to appease my Mom (sorry Mom). So we went to mass on Christmas Eve the other night. As usual the church is pretty full even though we got there 30 minutes early, so we ended up sitting in the "family room" - one of two rooms enclosed on either side of the altar where parents can sit with small children. This way they don't disturb the entire congregation if their child starts screaming but they can still hear the service.

I think it was one of the most entertaining masses I have ever attended! We also discovered that it was the mass where the choir was made up entirely of kids.....under ten I would estimate. I would venture to guess that they had practiced once together.....maybe more and they just didn't pick up on the different cues. Needless to say, there was one kid who happened to get right in front of the microphone for each song and just sang his heart out. His enthusiasm was wonderful....the singing was not. But it was great to hear anyway.

The other entertainment was watching all the kids in the room. We had a boy next to us who was about two and his big sister who was four, they both kept vying for their Grandma's attention. There were two girls in front of us as well.....about 6 and 9 years old. They kept climbing on their Grandfather during the service, which was cute. Then throughout the service the 9 year old kept whispering to her Grandfather but she would cup his ear with her hand and get her mouth right in his ear to whisper. It was so funny.

Of course we also had the variety of crying, screaming, whining, and temper tantrums going on. It made it challenging to listen to the mass, which was fine with me. My attention span isn't long enough to pay attention to mass the whole time anyway, so it was much more fun to watch the kids. There was one girl about three years old who had fallen asleep in her Grandfather's arms. It's always amazing to me what kids can sleep through.....she never stirred through all the off key singing, screaming, and crying.....she was completely gone! The only way I can sleep that deeply is if I take a sleeping pill.

Aside from the shenanigans of the kids, the only other part of the mass I found intriguing was that they had a guy dressed as Santa Claus come up to the front of the church at the end of the mass. Apparently he came in to get a blessing on his travels for the night.....cute idea for the kids. Surprising that the church would bring in Santa Claus but a nice touch for the kid's mass. It was great to be around all the kids and be entertained by their antics....good reminder of the innocence of youth on Christmas Eve!

I Matter

Every year our program (Cardiac Rehab) has a Holiday party for our patients so that they can get together to socialize. Not that they don't already do this on a regular basis when they are exercising (or supposed to be exercising), but apparently it's been a tradition to give them another chance to socialize with each other. This year I took charge of locating a venue and putting everything together. I loved it!! Anyone who knows me, knows that I love organizing social gatherings (I'm working on being less introverted, let me know if I'm succeeding....HA!).

The day of the party, everything went great and many of the patients let us know that they had a great time, the food was good, the games were fun, and the company was great! It was a great feeling to know that my first attempt at organizing this shindig worked out so well. The icing on the cake though was when one of our heart transplant patients (the one mentioned in a previous blog) stood up at the end of the luncheon and gave the staff a little speech of heartfelt thanks. She is an excellent speaker and with tears in her eyes, she proceeded to let us know how much we mean to her and the other patients. How much we help them in their struggle to improve their health, not only physically but also guiding them through their emotional upheavals and bringing a smile to their faces with our quirky personalities. You really play the role of psychologist when you work in Cardiac Rehab and there are many days when you are not sure if you've reached the person you're trying to help or not. It was wonderful to hear the gratitude in her voice and see the sincerity in her eyes...to know that our work is actually making a difference and that we DO matter!!