Christmas eve eve...stuffed

The fallen tree when I gave up trying to hoist it up alone.

In my last post I told of setting up for Christmas day. The Christmas tree man delivered us a massive tree. My son-in-law and I set it up and tied it with ropes.  Some volunteers did a marvelous job decorating it. I got a text from one of my Church members who was visiting the Church this morning that the tree had fallen over. I was busy sorting out the transport for some people but I eventually arrived at the Church. I thought I could easily hook up a couple of ropes and gently pull it up, back in place. It was so heavy! My rope broke. I re attached a rope, had some others tied to stop it falling over and began to wind it up. I nearly had it vertical after giving myself a blister and rope burn, but a tie I had on it broke and it fell in a different direction onto the floor. At that point I gave up and took 25 legs of lamb out to Marlow Pie factory for them to cook them for tomorrow's meal. My son-in-law had arrived and upon returning to the Church we decided to saw about a meter off the bottom to lighten the tree. This we did and with still a lot of grunting and pushing and pulling we erected it again. I have done some really tough physical work today and have arrived home with sore muscles everywhere. (I am also peeing blood in my fancy "bionic plumbing system" - too much heavy stuff or rough and tumble stuff seems to set that off, its a bit tender.)  Young people blithely say, "You are as young as you feel." It doesn't quite work that way. I try to ignore my condition and age, but tonight I know I am not twenty one! I am sore and exhausted.
There is a 97 year old man in hospital who was my childhood minister. His health has improved, for a time there I thought this was his time. He has been a regular at our Christmas dinners, taking pride in the fact that he was the oldest volunteer. I called into the hospital to see him on my way home. "How are you?" I said. He looked at me glumly. "I'm puzzled" he replied. "What about?" "How am I going to get to St Andrew Street Church tomorrow?" he said.  I told him that maybe he could give it a miss this year, and I promised to bring a bit of Christmas cake in and tell him how it went after the meal. 
Speaking of aging I received this link in an email early today and the song rang bells. I have been singing the chorus all day, "Senior moments and brain farts."  I share it just for fun.
However old you are, where ever in the world you are, have a great Christmas Day. I hope you experience life-affirming love. Thanks for reading my waffle from time to time.