Remember the Philosopher Jagger…

…Who once said, “You can’t always get what you want”. He did however continue and say, “But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find, you get what you need”.
The honest truth is; I’ve never been much of a fan of Christ’s Mass. I don’t want to be a downer, and go into my reasoning for why, but I will explain something that I usually get a lot of “what?”’s from.

Christ’s Mass

Why do I say it like that, and why do I always spell it like that?
Well, you see, we don’t truthfully know when Joshua of Nazareth (oh yes, I said Joshua, but that’s a different story) was born. It was most likely in the early spring late winter, like March-April time frame. The Holy Roman Catholic Church had this policy of taking old heathen celebrations, and turning them into “Holy days” (which was shortened down and where we get the word “Holiday” from). They did this with several things, wait another couple months to hear where we get the Easter bunny from, but, they of course did this with December 25th.

The 25th of December was when the Roman Empire worshipped Caesar and the Sun god, Apollo, the early church still liked having the fun celebration part, but felt really bad that it was involved with paganism, and so, like the HRCC does, they made people feel better by pretty-fying the calendar, and said, “HEY EVERYONE! You know… we never really celebrate the birth of our Lord… so… here’s an idea, let’s have a special Mass service on the 25th of December in honor of Christ’s birth”

Hence… “Christ’s Mass” which over the years, people, like they do, have gotten lazy, and what started as a special focus on attending church to celebrate the birth of our Lord (Christ’s Mass) turned more and more into the modern “Christmas”, which is turning more and more secularly into “X-mas”. I really really hate sounding like a baptist pastor, because I think they suck, BUT! The truth is… (I hate saying it) when you say “X-mas” you really are Xing out “Christ” from the Holy Day (holiday).
Aaron, you can get on my case about my cliff note explanation and how I left things out later, but, that’s what cliff notes are.

So anyway… Last night at Mass, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “this time last year, I was talking Andrew into going to Midnight Mass with me.” Then during the response portions, when I couldn’t understand what the crowd of Aussie’s where saying, it reminded me of when Val went to Nic’s baptism, and was freaked out by all the Catholics, and he told Phil he was afraid. Then that reminded me of Phil, and the times I’ve been to Mass with him. Of course, whenever I think of them, I think of Luke. Basically, I really missed the other turtles last night, and dreamt of what our next glorious adventure together might be, perhaps kayaking, re-exploring Lizard’s Mouth, maybe another attempt at throwing a boomerang once I come back with a working one that is not just for show and have learnt the proper technique behind the throwing of one. Whatever it might be, I sure wish they had Skype.

Last night I had this amazing dream, Paul and I went to the butcher, and we found Tri Tip! Not only did we find it, but it was like really really cheap! So we bought a couple of them, brought them home, I totally free handed the recipe for Suzy-Q seasoning, and it was the GREATEST Tri Tip I had ever had. It was glorious, and our tummies where all filled with awesomeness. Then… I woke up… then, went back to sleep, and had another horrible Zombie invasion dream, but this time, in the form of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which meant, I had limited vision, poor reaction time, and was basically screwed because I suck at CoD: MW2.

This morning as we opened presents, everything was going great, and any of you that know me for any significant amount of time, know that I like giving people gifts or any shape or kind. So, all was well, then, after I finished opening mine, I finished watching everyone else open theirs. Adam got a Rocky “Italian Stallion” robe, which he got the idea for when I showed him online the Rocky boxers I wanted to get myself. I was actually thinking about the last time I was together with the Turtles and our families, and watching them open the “pre-make up” presents I got them before leaving, and just as I was about to conceal all emotion as I typically do in awkward scenarios for me, Paul unwraps a “Cheers” t-shirt and begins to sing the first couple lines of the theme, “Sometimes you want to go, Where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same, you wanna be where everybody knows your name.” …Ya… Thanks Paul… almost lost it at that point, but, I managed to keep my s together through that one. It does slightly help that Aunt Wendy (Paul’s sister) and Uncle Allan kinda remind me of Aunt Carrol (step-dad’s sister) and Uncle Dave, whose house we had lunch at today. Both Grandmas’ say (un-planned) funny things which we all turn at look at each other trying to decipher. So, the home feel was there for a good chunk of the day.

Even if I didn’t get all that I wanted, (Italian Stallion Robe, Rocky American flag boxers, and a metal heavy duty DVD case to replace my broken one) I did get what I needed (for the most part) I got to chat with Andrew online (until it was time to open presents which is why it was such a quick short bye), a sense of home, and the love of friends and new family. Oh ya, and finding out I might still have a chance with the cute New Zealander girl from the news agency AND! 3 Platypi (which I named Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle)

I hope that as ya’lls celebrate; keep in mind the true reason for the season. That lil’ Jewish kid Josh, who grew up to save us all, and who could kick the crap out of any fat bearded man in a red suit any day if he wanted to.