{"id":1701,"date":"2011-03-08T06:45:41","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T11:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2011-03-08T06:45:41","modified_gmt":"2011-03-08T11:45:41","slug":"from-the-brides-fathers-notebook-day-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=1701","title":{"rendered":"From the Bride’s Father’s Notebook – Day 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Bride’s Father’s Notebook – Day Four<\/a><\/p>\n

Thursday, December 24 (Christmas Eve!)<\/p>\n

This morning was church.\u00a0 I wept to hear the story of the Great Cosmic Surprise, the birth of Jesus from Mary among farm animals.\u00a0 God-in-flesh in straw.\u00a0 What’s he doing here?\u00a0 Why would he come?\u00a0 I was comforted and wept tears of relief at such a word spoken in the scary, fragile context of this world and it’s condition.\u00a0 Even good news, such as this wedding, is fraught with uncertainty as any human endeavors are.\u00a0 And of all things, this isn’t just any human endeavor; it’s my own daughter getting married.\u00a0 How will they make it?\u00a0 Will they have enough money?\u00a0 Can their relationship grow and mature to take the blows it’s sure to get?\u00a0 God with me, you say?\u00a0 In the straw and manure-filled barn that is my life?\u00a0 I’ll take it!\u00a0 I more than took it. I wept tears of joy and amazement to hear the joyful story proclaimed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Illumined by the miracle<\/p><\/div>\n

After church we stopped at a Starbucks.\u00a0 We four laughed and talked, sharing a coffeed, festive moment.<\/p>\n

Later in the day was tux fitting, car washing, garbage out-taking, home and food primping and prepping, and then, finally, the cheese fondue, a recent but firmly entrenched Christmas Eve tradition that kicks off our family celebration.\u00a0 We had fun sharing the moment, dipping hunks of bread in the aromatic goo kept hot in our rice cooker.\u00a0 Then came the presents, then carols at the piano, then steak, then a movie.\u00a0 I worried a little about the religion difference between our daughter and her affianced, since Christmas and its songs and customs are pretty heavily religious.\u00a0 How to be religious, to honestly express spirituality without imposing it on one who doesn’t share it can be dicey.\u00a0 Thankfully, he is open minded and easy-going, and besides, he is marrying into a family who values these things.\u00a0 I think he knows that and doesn’t mind.\u00a0 And anyway, what better way to get to know a family than at holidays and traditional family events?<\/p>\n

I wonder how this new family will establish, by design or not, their own traditions and events?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Our lovely little table-top tree<\/p><\/div>\n

From the Bride’s Father’s Notebook – Introduction<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Bride’s Father’s Notebook – Day Four Thursday, December 24 (Christmas Eve!) This morning was church.\u00a0 I wept to hear the story of the Great Cosmic Surprise, the birth of Jesus from Mary among farm animals.\u00a0 God-in-flesh in straw.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40],"tags":[15,182,184,183],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1701"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1717,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions\/1717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}