Last things

This morning I sang in the choir at my parents' church. We got to sing a nice descant on the anthem. I got choked up during the opening procession because I realized that tomorrow's Christmas Eve service will be the last time I will sing in a church choir. I'm excited about all the new beginnings in my life, but I am also very sad about some of the things that are ending. I love to sing so much, and certainly I will have plenty of opportunities to sing in the future, but I won't be in the choir. That's one of the reasons I made sure to go to the choir reunion at Sewanee this year. Theoretically I might make it back for another one of those, but it's hard to tell.

This is also my last Christmas with my parents at their house with all of our old traditions. There will be new traditions and my folks will visit me wherever I am working, but this time next year, I will be very busy, and I suspect that Christmas Day will become a time to collapse.

I finished wrapping today, and I finished Christmas letters earlier in the week. I've been trying to enjoy my time here, and I've found almost no time to study for GOEs. I'm not convinced studying will help, and I hate to spend my last Christmas here driving myself crazy for this ridiculous test. Hopefully it doesn't actually matter if I study.