Merry Christmas

Christmas in Haiti.  It's about noise and it's about heat...at least in comparison to the Christmas with which I grew up. 

A lot of Latin America uses fireworks to celebrate The Birth...I've been told.  Here used to be crazy with pennysticks and other explosives.  It's not so bad this year.  Someone was telling me the government said NO to the free-for-all fireworks.  I'm not sure if it's true.  We had a bunch show up in late November, but since then it's been quiet. 

We had a concert yesterday with musicians from our church and neighboring churches plus a couple of special invited guests.  It is the first concert (I know of) in this area that was just music...no singing.  I hope to make a habit of it as the my instrumentalist students progress.  There were some very nice moments...and some 'missed opportunities', shall we say.

Read Matthew's list of 'fathers' again this season and marveled at how he went out of his way to NOT say that Joseph was the father of Jesus.  Thirty some fathers in the list, I think.  And Joseph was just the man who married Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Clearly, Matthew saw that it was important that Jesus was the Son of God.  Emmanuel...God with