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!