Remember the Reason for the Season
I am back home from a two week Christmas tour of Switzerland and Austria. It was an amazing and fast-paced tour with receptive crowds everywhere. We wound up in two beautiful churches; one in Judenburg, Austria and the last one in a beautiful church in Vienna called Votiv Church. Vienna has a large cathedral in the center of the city called St. Stephens church that was built in the 1200s. It was semi-destroyed at one time and was rebuilt. Votiv Church is a smaller replica of that huge St. Stephens church. The unique thing about these churches is, the ceilings are so high, they can’t heat them! So at the church in Judenburg, we wore scarves and gloves while the audience wore their warm clothes as we sang. The Votiv Church in Vienna was even colder but they did provide a small heater on the stage so we didn’t freeze in place. Would you believe the Votiv church on Saturday night was full and the temperature in that beautiful but cold sanctuary was below freezing? As we sang, I could see our breaths escaping from our mouths. That gave me the assurance I hadn’t frozen to death!
Sunday morning we left the hotel at 6 am for the Vienna airport and boarded the plane at 8:10 am and sat on that plane for one and a half hours waiting on the wings to be de-iced. I was ok with them taking as long as necessary to be sure we lifted off the ground. I even lifted my feet on takeoff to help the pilot. So, we took off around 10 am, bound for Frankfurt, Germany, where we transferred to our Lufthansa flight to Chicago on a 747 double-decker. I must say that was the most uncomfortable plane I’ve been on. The seats were too small and as tired as we were and as busy with up and down travelers going to the bathroom, sleep was impossible. We arrived in Chicago around 3 pm and because of the delays in Vienna, we missed our connection and were put on a later flight. By the time we arrived home, it was 9 pm Sunday night. We had been up for 36 hours!
So now it’s Christmas time for us and we look forward to spending time with family. Merry Christmas to all of you and remember the reason for the season.