One of my Christmas Eve “traditions” is on hold for the next two years – ordering snack food through the window at the Shell gas station in Ancaster’s Meadowlands.
I have a friend who works for the Hamilton Street Railway and the past couple of years, I’ve joined him for his last trip on Christmas Eve. When we arrive in Ancaster after 11pm, where he waits 25 minutes between trips, everything is closed except the Shell. The Shell isn’t fully opened, only the window and we tell the cashier what we wish to purchase and they slide it through the window after we pay.
I attend Christmas Mass with two of my closest friends and their family at 8pm in Burlington.
Tomorrow night, I’ll attend Mass in Burlington and then …. while, I’ll have to figure that out. My friend doesn’t drive weekends so it will be another two years before we restart our “tradition” again.
… a couple of years ago, a lovely woman I was dating at the time called while I was walking to the Gas Station. It was rather amusing to explain the tradition to her. Later that evening, I was looking for chocolate in my place about 3:30am in the morning. (I was working on a breaking news story) Not finding any, I opened her gift to get the chocolate (and replaced with twice as much chocolate two days later). She, rather humourously, noted I should’ve bought some chocolate while at the gas station.
… lastly, here’s a YouTube still with audio of my favourite popular music version of a Christmas Song