My Christmas Spirit

I took a few hours off today to get a bit organized for Christmas and make a trip to the fitness center to make room for some extra calories I see in my immediate future. This evening my "friend" Terry is coming by. I am scheduled to work tomorrow so hopefully he won't stay too late. "We'll see how that goes," she said with a note of sarcasm.  

Tomorrow evening I am going to a candlelight church service with my mother. It has become something of a tradition. As a child I was a devout Methodist, but I have long since been an atheist and a self-confessed, pain-in-the-butt on the matter, as too many people on the Net could attest. So it might seem kind of odd that I would go to church on Christmas Eve. Well, for me it is a case of nostalgia. We are going to the church I attended as a youth, and of course my mother being there adds to the sentimental mood. I've always liked a good Christmas carol, too. I'll actually put five or ten dollars in the collection plate. However it is highly unlikely that I will return to the fold and leave the service a Christian once again.  

I'll drop by my parent's on Christmas day, probably some time in the early afternoon. They always ask me what I want for Christmas and I always tell them I do not know. I don't know because I already possess almost everything I could want. I have my health, good friends, and I live in a manner that would be the envy of 95% of the world's population. However, I consider myself to be very fortunate rather than blessed. Yes, I'm a pain-in-the-butt atheist, even during Christmas.