Tonight I went to my friend Theresa's house for an Epiphany Party!Some old skool Catholics like to rock out on January 6th even more than they do on December 25th.
This is because the January date is the one in which the public first began to glimpse Our Lord. It was when the Magi (those 3 kings who followed the night star in the sky) arrived and saw the Christ Child for the first time!
Of course, this year January 6th falls on a Tuesday, so the celebration was pushed ahead to the closest Saturday -- tonight!
Their long driveway was framed with glowing candles in white paper bags, and I had no choice but to park in a dozen cars with mine. Their large house was exceedingly full to capacity (making me realize that most people politely had parked off-site), and as I entered the house, I was delighted to hear that carols were being sung from the living room.
I suspected that my friends were deep within the confines of the crowd in the living room, but I wasn't certain. I was stuck within the mass of people in the hallway.
A girl named Mary offered to extend her arm and reach it around and through the entrance way to the living room. She offered to take an aerial photograph, and by that I should be able to locate the presence of my friends, right?
Her idea worked swimmingly, and from that I managed to locate my friends, but now how was I to get to them?
The people in the hallway encouraged me to tread onward, but instead I literally crawled on the floor (dusting the hard wood as I went) to get to them since it was easier than attempting to walk through the sea of bodies.Fortunately, few people in the room noticed my pushy entrance since I was on my knees, well below eyesight. And when I popped up right beside Theresa and Shawn, they looked surprised! I joined right in with the singing like I had been there the whole time. My method was quite silly, but it worked!
After carols were finished, it was time to eat, and then soon later it was time to play outside in the frigid dark, for there must have easily been 50 children present and another 20 that were young-at-heart and ready to be rowdy.
It was so dark outside that we were unable to see our hands in front of us, but somehow we started playing Chinese tag, and I avoided getting caught with minimal movement. While everyone else ran around in haphazard fear, I simply held still (like the deers do) and by this strategy avoided getting tagged. Or, maybe it was just that Shawn was being nice to me. Who knows. :-)
Back inside, a handful of brothers entertained us with a very emotional (and somewhat hilarious) rendition of the Backstreet Boys' "Incomplete," which they sung to the karaoke machine. And after a few panicked searches for a missing guy of 19 years, all was well and it was time for me to head home.
Thank you, Theresa, for inviting me to such a lovely party! And thank you, Jesus, for coming into the world!
