Christmas Eve in Norman----- still Friday

My roommate Charley and I played music for a service at his church earlier this evening. His guitar-picking and my cello-bowing (and occasional plucking) were a big hit. And I realised that it's been almost two and a half years since I last played in front of people. Practicing at home with other people within earshot doesn't count. Nor do lessons, where Kyle was apt to stop me at any moment to critique my phrasing or my posture. Two and a half years is a long time to go without an audience. I've really missed it.
It's also been at least six or seven months since I was last in church. I don't think I've missed that.

Charley has gone to pick up his kids from their grandparents' house, and Mark should be home soon from his gig at one of the state prisons (we're such a musical household), and then we're all going to sing and play Christmas carols and bake cookies for Santa... until the kids go to bed, which is when Charley and Mark both go into frantic-parent, Santa-still-has-a-lot-of-wrapping-to-do mode and when I get to start packing. (To my parents when you read this: Don't worry. I'm always ready somehow.) But there are also possibilities of Jaegermeister, hot chocolate with butterscotch schnapps, and a plummy merlot, so it won't be all work.