I hope every one of you had a wonderful and happy Christmas Day.

I did.

My wife, Joan, and I had the pleasure of family and friends at our home that included some unexpected and very pleasurable ‘guests’. We ate, we drank (not too much), listened to festive and popular music and then it was time for karaoke.

The karaoke machine was brought to the gathering by Joan’s grand-daughter, Christina, complete with flashing lights and two microphones. I felt a little sorry for Christina who found her present commandeered by us adults playing our music of the 60’s, 70’s &80’s that she didn’t know and couldn’t join in.

None of the disks her mother had bought contained ‘her’ music!

Earlier in the day both of us had gone to our separate churches for their Christmas services, both of us were reading the lessons of the day (a nice coincidence) although I had even attended the Christmas Midnight Mass that had commenced the night before.

So it was bed early – at 9pm would you believe – because we were both so tired.

I had been a little worried when the service at St George’s Anglican Church lost power in the middle of the carol we were singing at 9am as the church is close to where I live and I knew the stove was on cooking the lunch. However, when I arrived home there had been no interruption in power so all was well.

I was supposed to have attended the service this morning (Boxing Day) to celebrate  St Stephen’s Day but sadly I overslept despite the extended hours I gave myself to sleep.

St Stephen was the first Christian martyr according to the Acts of the Apostles, a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem who aroused the enmity of members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy, at his trial he made a long speech fiercely denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgement on him and was stoned to death. His martyrdom was witnessed by Saul of Tarsus (later renamed Paul), a Pharisee who would later convert to Christianity and become an apostle.

The popular carol “Good King Wenceslas” mentions Feast of Stephen (Dec 26) that tells the story of a king braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant.

So now we have New Year’s Eve to look forward to and herald in a New Year that bodes to be a lot better than the past few years.

Let’s, never-the-less give thanks to God for all the good things that have happened this year including the Caribbean’s lack of all the predicted hurricanes.

Our experts aren’t quite as expert as they think they are.

A little humbling is in itself a good thing.

Blessings to all of you.