"Little Drummer Boy" at St. Patrick's

Christmas Eve. Baby-blue skies above, turquoise waters all around. The heat is sweaty hot already at 8am. Do I miss the snowy Norwegian Christmas? Reindeer, sleds, jinglebells...?
Hmmm. let me think.

More like: Sleety snow and slushy roads turning to treacherous ice on the steep slopes. Icey, gusting north-winds chilling bundled up shoppers in the dark winter streets.
Don't think we'll complain about the weather here! What we miss is family, friends, being at home making Christmas.

Here we find the St Patrick's Cathedral on the Bay Road, just beyond the BoatYard. There's a 6pm mass and it's jam-packed with Bajan families. It's a great mass, beautiful and swinging liturgical songs, a sincere and jolly black priest and a friendly, mostly white, congregation. When the priest decides he wants to sing "The Little Drummer Boy" for all the little boys at mass today, the band and the congregation join in, in a slightly muddled rendition. When a little girl runs up saying it's her mommy's birthday we all sing "Happy Birthday...Dear Mommmmmy"

After church we walk the 10 minutes back to town, to the "Waterfront Cafe" where we've reserved a table. The view is towards the inlet and the Christmas-lit town square beyond. A jazz group is playing inside and the boats tied up here on the dock are swaying gently to the music. Merry Christmas!