The last few days have been a whirlwind.
On Tuesday after the 11am Mass, I led my “Tuesdays with Fr. Maury” group on a sharing about “a less than happy Christmas”. It was very interesting and many different stories. Afterwards, I met Katherine and Ceil Mattingly for lunch. Ceil is recovering from surgery and Katherine came for a visit. Our fathers worked together as U.S. Marshall and our families were like one big family. It was great to be with them and catch up on the other members of the family.
Then I drove down to Maggie’s and took a nap. Maggie made supper for Tim and Kerri, Mike Jenkins, AnnMarie, Bradley, Cathleen and me and we had a nice visit. I went to bed early so as be up early for our trip on Wednesday.
We caught the bus to NYC the next morning in the Jesus the Good Shepherd parish. It was a sunny day and the trip was great. Lots of goodies for the trip and a nice long talk with Fr. Paul made it go quickly. That evening, we went to see “Nice work if you can get it” with Matt Broderick. It is full of old songs but was delightful.
On Thursday, we met our cousins, Sharon and Amy for lunch. Again, it was fun being together. Their son, Alexander was in school so he couldn’t join us like he had last year, when we first met him. He is 3 and a half and adorable!!
For supper, we met Bill Donahue, whom I worked with at Good Counsel. He is now the superintendent of the Bryan Hills, NY school system. He looks great and is very happy. I tried to get together with him whenever I get to NYC.
Except for a walk up to see the tree and a few walks around the theatre district, Maggie and I just relaxed and talked. We did have a very extensive talk with a maid, Marietta from the Philipines about the church but mostly we just relaxed.
I relaxed too much and left my keys in the hotel room and did not find out till we got back to Maryland.
I borowed Maggie’s car and came home to the rectory (the seminarian had to let me in) and went to bed.
Today, we left around 7am and went to Maggie’s. I worked on the ornaments I give each family in my family for Christmas and the calendar from St. Michael’s, which I give to each member of the family. Then, we went to pick up my car and then I stopped at a post office and bought and paid for the postage to mail my keys back in a mail pouch. My cousin, Lauren, who lives here in Silver Spring, is going up to NYC to visit her sister and she will send me my keys. I dropped off the couch at her house. I got lost!! LIFE IS NEVER EASY.
I had the 11am Mass and then I met with a couple whose wedding I will celebrate in April. Their parents and a grandmother took us all to lunch and we had a wonderful time. The father of the groom is Joe Villani, who was with me at St. Vincent’s.
I came back and had confessions and now I’m about to go to the rectory and relax.
Till tomorrow!!!