And to all a good night

Heavy sigh.

All’s quiet in the company inboxes at my home office; the presents are bought and clumsily wrapped; the place looks reasonably clean, worthy of the antique white glove test at least; Ilsa the wonder dog is snug in her bed, licking her crotch; and in iTunes, the Tallis Scholars are chanting the Laudes Deo from the “1st Mass of Christmas.”

Ah, better than Valium. Much.

Tonight this retired Catholic altar boy heads over to Broadway to attend the 9:30 pm Christmas Eve service at Trinity Church, an Episcopal parish. (If my mother only knew.)

The rest of the world came to know this landmark of Lower Manhattan in the days after 9/11. It appeared in many newspapers and magazines, its then 155-year-old Gothic Revival architecture standing out amid a soot-filled sky; papers and other debris from the offices of the collapsed Twin Towers filled the churchyard where Alexander Hamilton lies buried.

For a moment there, red- and blue-state America gazed at those images, and in its crushing pain felt a glimmer of hope that united its people. How soon we forget.

Tonight’s service features the music of Tchaikovsky, Howells, and Charpentier. I know Tchaikovsky well, but I can’t say I’m sophisticated (or perhaps Anglicanized) enough to have heard the other two. I’m just looking forward to gathering with other believers in a festive atmosphere and hearing music performed by a choir and orchestra. If you’re interested, you can learn more about Trinity Church, or watch a live webcast of the service, by clicking here.

After that I’ll go home, make a pot of coffee and pop in my video of “A Christmas Carol.” The only version of the Dickens classic that gets it completely right is “Scrooge,” starring Alistair Sim as the wretched miser who finds redemption on Christmas morning following a series of interventions from the spirit world.

Among the notables of the English stage in this 1951 production you’ll find Patrick Macnee, Steed in “The Avengers,” playing a young Jacob Marley. And the Christmas morning exchange between Scrooge and his housekeeper, Mrs. Dilber (Kathleen Harrison), has to be one of the most tenderly rendered moments committed to film. All in all, a film well worth its 85-minute running time.

That’s all Bones wrote, for now. To all of my friends, family and readers, have a great holiday. And to Christians everywhere, a very merry Christmas.