Pre-Christmas activities

Finally getting a chance to catch up here! 

When I finished up my last post on December 2nd I was fighting a cold that was trying to settle in my voice.  It never did cause me to have total laryngitis, but it did affect my voice, I had to cough a lot some days, and then I finished it all up with nasal congestion.  I think the last two days I finally feel like I'm truly kicking it to the curb.

But the show had to go on, so in spite of not feeling the best I was still doing all my regular things - cooking for Anthony and Lori's family, midweek Advent services, and choir practices.  Along with LOTS of hot ginger tea, Zicam, Ricola lozenges (honey and echinacea), Mucinex, tylenol..... 

The weekend of December 6 and 7 I got my Christmas decorating done.  I always love this view from my kitchen - so much prettier than the toys that are usually in that corner of the living room.

Speaking of toys - here's where they live during the Christmas season.  As if my music room/office isn't already full enough!

Dick finished up the porch decorations.  I love coming home to this warm, welcoming sight.

From the front door one evening.  We've had snow several times the past two weeks.  

I have so many little crafts that Destiny and Elizer made a couple of Christmases ago.  I got the idea to use sticky tac to hang those little wreaths on my kitchen cupboard doors.  

On one of Dick's shopping trips he came home with a new Christmas cactus.  Mine had bloomed so beautifully for a few years, but had a FIT when I repotted it two summers ago, and even though I nursed it along and got lots of buds, the foilage always looked half dead and the buds rarely became flowers.  I am so enjoying this new one!

Sadly, last Thursday morning our Christmas tree lights refused to turn on.  We just got this tree last year!!  Dick tried all the things, but nothing has worked.  We are awaiting something he ordered from Amazon - a new power supply transformer something-or-other to replace the thing that plugs into the wall.  I think it's coming all the way from China or something.  Meanwhile our tree is dark.  Ugh!!

 

We got new throw rugs for the living room.  They were 14 years old!  Here's a picture of the bigger one.

I'm not ready to show the ones at the front door because I need to get the creases out and put the gripper things underneath.  Our need for new rugs was brought to the top of the list when the runner that goes to the kitchen would no longer stay in place even with grippers underneath because the backing was too old and brittle.  

I know my decor is out of date, but I don't care.  I don't want to spend money on new everything.  So in my search for new rugs I had to go with ones that were on clearance at Walmart - because they're out of date, lol!  Perfect for me!  These are not as heavy weight as the ones I had, which I don't like.  When I put one of them in place I said to Dick, "These won't last 14 years."  And then,  "I'll be 88 by then."  What??????  

Now, on to our big Christmas program Sunday, December 14.  Somehow our children's morning program and our choir cantata were planned for the same day.  We decided never again!  

Last Wednesday evening, December 10, after our midweek Advent service we placed folding chairs on the stage for the choir.  I had put tape at strategic places on the floor so they would know where to put them.  Then I put a post-it note with a name on each chair.  This arrangement was for our final rehearsal on Thursday evening.

After choir rehearsal we had to take all those chairs back to the social hall and get the stage ready for the children's program.  One of our guys had made this stable.

We had a final children's rehearsal on Saturday morning.  It went terrible!!  

But on Sunday morning they did fantastic!!!  It was like a miracle!  Everyone just loved it!

Then after the morning service was over, that whole set had to be dismantled and put away, and the chairs for the choir had to be put in place again for the evening cantata!  Why chairs?  Because a lot of our choir members are older.  I have them sit at strategic places in the cantata, like during solos, etc.  

The cantata went great!  I think it was one of the best-sounding choirs I have had at this church. I have struggled so much with directing from the piano, turning my pages, singing soprano to keep things going, etc.  But by Sunday evening's performance I really only needed to play the piano and often did not need to sing.  There were excellent singers in each vocal part.  It was a joy! 

Our narrator has a strong, clear voice.  She has narrated for each cantata since 2018.   At one point on Sunday evening the impact of the words she was reading brought her to tears.  

"When we retell the story of His birth, we speak of shepherds rushing off into the night to find him and Wise Men coming from afar to discover where he was.  But the truth is that WE are the ones who were found..... Our Savior found us in need, stepped down from His rightful throne and his glory, wrapped himself in our humanity, and came to earth to save US."  

When she got to the "WE are the ones who were found" she simply could not go on for several minutes.  It was so powerful as we all waited and pondered the impact of those words which otherwise would have gone right over our heads.

We ended the program with the audience singing "Feliz Navidad" with us, complete with the shakers from the kids' classroom.  It was so much fun!

They gave me a gift basket filled with goodies from Trader Joes, as well as a generous gift card!

And guess who could hardly wait to play Grandma's church piano after the program was over?

 

Of course, after it was over the folding chairs had to be taken back to the social hall again!  I have so many faithful, eager helpers!  We had cake, cookies, and drinks for everyone, and the social hall was full.  I didn't get a picture of that.  

We came home and I EXHALED for the first time in weeks!  I sat down with these crackers, cheese, and honey mustard from my gift basket and I watched the whole video of the cantata on my phone.  It was WONDERFUL to see everyone from the front and hear the beautiful blend of their voices.  I was a very happy choir director!

Meanwhile there had been another big thing going on in the background. Ray had called a couple of weeks prior to say that he was coming to our area on the weekend of December 13 and 14, his main purpose being to go to Harrisburg Vital Statistics and pick up a copy of his birth certificate.  He lives and works in Mobile, Alabama.  We had not seen him in two years, so I told him I really want him to come here to our house and that we would pick him up from Lancaster on Saturday if we had to and I would take him to Harrisburg on Monday.   

WELL.  I started to realize that my emotional, generous offer was highly impractical in light of our Christmas programs and my increasing lack of confidence with driving in places that I'm not familiar with and also driving after dark.  I texted Sam one evening last week, and he was GLAD to help out.  He's laid off right now and had the time.  He picked Ray up on Sunday afternoon from a friend's place in the Lancaster area.  Ray stayed at Sam and Steph's house overnight, and Sam took him to Harrisburg on Monday.  

After Dick got off work at 5 pm on Monday we drove down to Newport near Sam's place (about an hour and fifteen minute drive) and met the guys at our favorite Brother's Pizza.

We had a great time together, catching up, reminiscing...

Ray - always the comedian.

On Tuesday Sam took Ray to the Harrisburg airport for his flight back to Mobile.  I pray it won't be two years before we see him next!

Meanwhile I had another full day.  Our ladies group from church did our annual Christmas caroling and cookies event at a local retirement home. Debbie's dear mother used to live there, but she passed away this past year, so that felt a little sad that she was missing.  We had a great time!

They have a grand piano!

From there we went to Marzone's for lunch.  That was a lot of fun and very delicious!

Next we went to the church to pack gifts for the shut-ins.  A seamstress who goes to our church had made Christmas stockings for each shut-in, and people had donated lots of items to fill the stockings.  I think we did at least 31, maybe more. 

We were not able to go to Bianca and Sammy's Christmas concerts because of our schedule.  And last evening we missed Austin's first indoor track invitational because we had our last midweek Advent service.  He has gone out for pole vaulting and loves it.  Aunt Lisa is his biggest fan!!  She was watching the live feed from Florida.  Anthony took lots of videos that we were able to watch afterward.  Here's a screen shot from one of his videos.

 

We have been in the deep freeze for weeks!!  Yesterday our temp went up to a balmy 40 degrees!!  I think we're going to get rain the next few days, so all our pretty white snow will disappear.  It doesn't look like we will have a white Christmas.  I guess we had the white part early this year.  

One more thing!  Two weeks ago when I was really battling my cold, I got videos from Miki of her gospel choir concert.  What a LIFT that was to me!!!  I have had time to put just two of them on YouTube, but I hope to do more of them some other time.  Here's one of my favorites.  Miki is directly in front of the conductor, but thankfully the conductor moves a lot, so you can see Miki's smiling face quite often!