Is it really December already? Goodness the time flies – particularly when you're having fun! And fun we are having in the Religious Growth and Learning (RG&L) program at First Parish.

Last Friday evening, though not an RG&L program per se, our First Friday Fellowship attracted the largest number of participants to date. Joining us were a nine week old infant, a 90 year old parishioner, and every age in between for a truly multi-generational evening of food, worship, and Christmas caroling in the streets of Lexington.

During the worship service we were invited to share something in our lives that brings us joy, and to demonstrate how we express that joy. Many of us mentioned family and friends, and there was hugging and hilarity as people demonstrated those joys. Parish Hall by candlelight was warm and beautiful, and our worship service friendly and meaningful.

Following the caroling, singers returned to church for warm sugar cookies (thank you Jeremy, Peter and Regie!) and hot cocoa. If you haven't attended a First Friday Fellowship evening yet, please plan on coming in January. They are a lovely way to spend an evening with fellow First Parishioners.

Yesterday, the entire Sunday morning RG&L program for preschoolers through eighth graders was invited by Follen Church to their Children's Music Sunday, held at the Waldorf School in East Lexington. Matt Meyer, a world class drummer, led us in a morning of rhythm, using our voices, our bodies, and drums and rhythm makers of all kinds. It was certainly a joyful noise as about 80 of us banged away in call and response, led by Matt. Matt knew that First Parish 2-8^th graders are focusing on Justice in our December mini-term, so included a Pete Seeger song about coal miners unionizing in his repertoire .

Next Sunday, 12/11, continuing our Justice theme, we will welcome guests from Occupy Boston to our mini-term session, as Elementary Cluster teacher, Alexis Marvel, is active in the movement, as is Intermediate Cluster teacher, Bart Frost. And on Sunday, 12/18, we hope to have guests from our own congregation visit to reminisce about their experiences protesting the Vietnam War in the 1970s.

Activities on these Sundays will include making “kindness cards,” or sentiments of support and encouragement, for the Occupiers to take back to others at the camp in Dewey Square. And on 12/18, we will be making Christmas centerpiece table decorations for the Bristol Lodge Family Shelter in Waltham.

5/6^th Grade Our Whole Lives (OWL) wraps up with an ice cream sundae celebration on 12/11. Seventeen children have been engaged in this class all fall. Huge thanks to Deb Weiner Soule and Ben Soule for leading the class! Many thanks, too, to the parents of the kids for bringing them to class each week. It was a great class full of awesome kids!

Pin the tail on the reindeer, anyone? Junior Youth also have a party on the horizon – a Yankee Swap Christmas party at Follen Church on Sunday, 12/11, from 7:00 – 8:30 pm. Youth should wear something festive (and reflective of the season), and should bring a wrapped gift that costs no more than $5, or re-gift something appropriate, or create a gift (again, something appropriate that, if a baked good, does not contain nuts!). We'll be having more fun than a 7^th or 8^th grader can fathom (though they did a great job planning this event in November – what a creative bunch)!

The Senior High Youth Group is also having a Yankee Swap Christmas party, on 12/18. As you hopefully have noticed, they are scheduled to return to Appalachia in February, 2013, and have begun their fund raising efforts by selling soup each Sunday during coffee hour. They are very appreciative of your support, and encourage you to keep on visiting their table in Parish Hall each Sunday morning!

The Winter term of Sunday morning morning programming begins on Sunday, January 8, 2012. No childcare or RG&L programming will be available on either Christmas or New Year's Day. I hope you are enjoying the offerings of the season, and I hope you are thinking of a white Christmas for all of us who ski! Merry, merry to all!