Silent Night

Before I settled into the idea of not attending church over Christmas, I had talked with a friend about going to a Christmas Eve service together. She called it Midnight Mass, and the service only involved singing carols and reading the Christmas story- exactly what I would be interested in. Mom was interested as well, but we made no concrete plans.

Christmas Eve day- we spent time with relatives most of the evening at my parent's place. They went home around 11pm. In my thinking, a Midnight Mass would start at 12am, midnight... Mom and I looked at each other- what did we feel like doing? Did we want to drive to downtown Calgary and go to the service? Yes, no, yes, no. Finally... YES! We wanted to go! We asked Dad and Adam if they wanted to join us. They were nestled comfortably in the living room, Christmas tree and wood burning stove glowing. Adam was tired but yes, he wanted to come. Dad was really tired. He was worried about his eye lids not staying open during the service, but also didn't want to be left to himself on Christmas Eve. "Once you get in the car," I said enthusiastically, "You'll probably wake up more!" Okay! Yes, we would all go to the Christmas Eve service together.

We piled into the car with anticipation. The 45 minute car drive to downtown Calgary woke us all up a bit. The service would be really neat, in an old beautiful downtown church with all kinds of people. We commented that we had never been downtown on Christmas Eve before! We got a bit giggly. Once downtown, we all contributed to directing Dad as to how to get to the church. We pulled into the parking lot, 15 minutes early. "Hm, this is probably why there aren't any other people walking in yet. We're early," I thought to myself. We looked around the parking lot. Should we pay for parking? Would someone really tow us on Christmas Eve? Yes, Dad decided, we should pay. $5.

On to the service! We crossed the quiet icy street. The church loomed ahead of us- ah, for a warm atmosphere with carols and candles and probably a choir, and with the whole family. A new experience for us.

We went to the first door. It was locked. As we left to find another, a man opened it from the inside. He looked at us and said, "Yeah, use the other doors. You can probably still catch the last 5 minutes."

"What??" I said, "Doesn't it start at midnight??"

"Oh no way," he exclaimed, "Thank goodness it doesn't start at midnight!! Yeah, it's almost over. You might be able to catch the last verse of Silent Night..."

We looked at each other with shock! We ran around the corner and entered the front doors... I couldn't believe it... wouldn't Midnight Mass start at midnight?...

We hurried through the lobby and entered the sanctuary all at once. There was no room to sit- we stood awkwardly at the back. The people were all humming Silent Night. It was quiet and the lights were beautiful... They hummed one verse. Then the service was over. The brass quartet played "Masters in the Hall". People started filing out...

We all looked at each other with wide eyes and started laughing. A most hilarious moment in the Dippel history. I managed to connect with my friend and her family and expressed my disappointment over missing the service...We wished each other a merry Christmas.

We walked out again over the icy street and back to our car, 5 minutes after walking over it the first time. We laughed hysterically together in the vehicle and I thanked my family numerous times for having a good sense of humor. Dad commented, "Wow, that was the longest service I've ever been too- my goodness. I almost couldn't stay awake."