I remember a few years ago before they had moved to this very nice house in Des Moines' eastern suburbs that we were all over at their house, watching some pretty entertaining Discovery Channel special on rollercoasters. It struck me that this had nothing to do with Christmas, yet there we were. I wasn't yet married to Anna, so this was my first time being up anywhere near that late on Christmas Eve. I had always gone to bed really early so that I could get up really early on Christmas Day.

Well, as a part of being Catholic, they go to midnight mass every year, as I have for the past 4-5 years. I've gotten quite used to it. The first year, I found it really odd that they would sit around, impatiently awaiting the midnight hour to come along, often falling asleep. In fact, I was the only one awake that first year, enjoying some very cool rollercoaster footage. Talk about your introduction!

Christ the King Church has mercifully altered tradition this year, pushing up the midnight mass to 11:30. The logic is that maybe communion will be right at midnight. It's great news for me; I might actually be home by 1:30 this year!