Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Survived Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone!
We survived!
To wit:
On Sat Dec 16, we had the branch Christmas party/talent night. I sang "The Wexford Carol", and accompanied myself on the piano. Leslie played "Simple Gifts" on the piano while Emily and I sang the Christmas words to the tune written by the King's Singers. Emily played "Swans on the Lake", while I played along on my trumpet.
Sun, Dec 17, was the big combined branch/ward Christmas program that I was in charge of. I thought it went extremely well. The choir sang five numbers:
* Far, far away on Judea's plains (from the hymn book)
* Star Bright, by Lorin F. Wheelwright (as a duet between tenors & basses)
* Coventry Carol, with a cello solo by John Robinson
* Gentle Jesus, by Mabel Jones Gabbott and Michael F. Moody, with just the women singing.
* Angel's Carol, by John Rutter--by far the most challenging of the bunch. I think we got it sounding OK, though!
Additionally, I sang Son of God, by Robert Peterson, in a quartet with Linda Winans, Todd Ebbert and Deanna Ebbert. I also accompanied Deanna Ebbert on the piano, while she sang One Star, by Cheryl Jones Rogers. (Very nice job, by the way, Deanna!! (if you are reading this).) And I as I mentioned in the previous blog entry, I played a trumpet descant to the final congregational hymn, O Come All Ye Faithful.
Sun, Dec 17, was also the "Advent Hymn Sing", an annual Chamber Chorale choir concert with many audience sing-along numbers (and brass & organ numbers). I'll post a few numbers from that today or tomorrow on my Chamber Chorale music website, http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/colton/chamber%20chorale%20music.htm.
On Mon, Dec 18, I went to a local hospital (Franciscan Skemp) with some other Chamber Chorale members, to sing Christmas carols for a special annual religious service for people who had lost babies. It was a nice service, with many teary eyes (including my own).
On Thurs, Dec 21, about half of the Chamber Chorale sang for the Rotary Lights. That is the annual Christmas lighting display that's held at the main city park by the river. I thought we would be singing for the cars driving past, but it turned out we sang in a tent for people walking through the display. There were about as many choir members as audience members. Pauline, Leslie, and Emily, managed to come in about half-way through--they had gotten on the loop to drive through the display before realizing that they had to get out in order to see us. I'm glad they made it! Then we walked through the display a bit, saw some live reindeer, and talked to Santa.
On Thursday and Friday I also got all of my final exams graded. I also managed to pick up a Christmas present I got for Pauline--a very nice Craftsman tool chest from Sears. It stands on casters, and has three sections that go up about 5.5 feet.
I spent most of the day Saturday working on another Christmas present for Pauline--making CDs of the songs from our Muppet Show DVDs. I had gotten most of the way through the 45 episodes at a previous Christmas a few years back, making 4 CDs, but hadn't taken the time to finished the last 15 episodes. So I got that done, and made another two 75 minute CDs. I guess we now have seven and a half hours of Muppet music on CD. Yay!
Sunday was Christmas Eve. We just had a short church service--just Sacrament meeting instead of the full set of meetings. Pauline was certainly happy not to have to teach Sunday School! Plus, the previous week we had met with the ward that shares our building, and she didn't have to teach then either. So, she's had two weeks off. In the evening we had the traditional Christmas story reading from Luke 2 and Matthew 2, with Pauline, the kids, and Thomas Odenwalder (the friend mentioned in my last blog entry, who is staying with us for a bit).
Then yesterday (Monday) was Christmas Day! We opened presents in the morning, Pauline cooked a turkey, and we watched three movies later in the afternoon/evening. Among other presents we ended up with 18 (!) new movies, so we had to make a start on them. The three we watched were Nacho Libre (funny in places, odd in others, jury's still out), Church Ball (pretty funny and well-done), and The DaVinci Code (I enjoyed quite a bit, Pauline and Thomas also enjoyed but felt it was too long).
Leslie and Emily watched Church Ball, but not the other two. The presents that they seem to like the most are (1) the *really big* cardboard box that Pauline's tool chest came in, which they have turned into a clubhouse, and (2) the "pet duct tape" Pauline gave them, which they take for walks around the house. Go figure.
Now I'm back at work, trying to finish some things up before I go out of town to Utah on Thursday.
Like I said... we survived!
We survived!
To wit:
On Sat Dec 16, we had the branch Christmas party/talent night. I sang "The Wexford Carol", and accompanied myself on the piano. Leslie played "Simple Gifts" on the piano while Emily and I sang the Christmas words to the tune written by the King's Singers. Emily played "Swans on the Lake", while I played along on my trumpet.
Sun, Dec 17, was the big combined branch/ward Christmas program that I was in charge of. I thought it went extremely well. The choir sang five numbers:
* Far, far away on Judea's plains (from the hymn book)
* Star Bright, by Lorin F. Wheelwright (as a duet between tenors & basses)
* Coventry Carol, with a cello solo by John Robinson
* Gentle Jesus, by Mabel Jones Gabbott and Michael F. Moody, with just the women singing.
* Angel's Carol, by John Rutter--by far the most challenging of the bunch. I think we got it sounding OK, though!
Additionally, I sang Son of God, by Robert Peterson, in a quartet with Linda Winans, Todd Ebbert and Deanna Ebbert. I also accompanied Deanna Ebbert on the piano, while she sang One Star, by Cheryl Jones Rogers. (Very nice job, by the way, Deanna!! (if you are reading this).) And I as I mentioned in the previous blog entry, I played a trumpet descant to the final congregational hymn, O Come All Ye Faithful.
Sun, Dec 17, was also the "Advent Hymn Sing", an annual Chamber Chorale choir concert with many audience sing-along numbers (and brass & organ numbers). I'll post a few numbers from that today or tomorrow on my Chamber Chorale music website, http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/colton/chamber%20chorale%20music.htm.
On Mon, Dec 18, I went to a local hospital (Franciscan Skemp) with some other Chamber Chorale members, to sing Christmas carols for a special annual religious service for people who had lost babies. It was a nice service, with many teary eyes (including my own).
On Thurs, Dec 21, about half of the Chamber Chorale sang for the Rotary Lights. That is the annual Christmas lighting display that's held at the main city park by the river. I thought we would be singing for the cars driving past, but it turned out we sang in a tent for people walking through the display. There were about as many choir members as audience members. Pauline, Leslie, and Emily, managed to come in about half-way through--they had gotten on the loop to drive through the display before realizing that they had to get out in order to see us. I'm glad they made it! Then we walked through the display a bit, saw some live reindeer, and talked to Santa.
On Thursday and Friday I also got all of my final exams graded. I also managed to pick up a Christmas present I got for Pauline--a very nice Craftsman tool chest from Sears. It stands on casters, and has three sections that go up about 5.5 feet.
I spent most of the day Saturday working on another Christmas present for Pauline--making CDs of the songs from our Muppet Show DVDs. I had gotten most of the way through the 45 episodes at a previous Christmas a few years back, making 4 CDs, but hadn't taken the time to finished the last 15 episodes. So I got that done, and made another two 75 minute CDs. I guess we now have seven and a half hours of Muppet music on CD. Yay!
Sunday was Christmas Eve. We just had a short church service--just Sacrament meeting instead of the full set of meetings. Pauline was certainly happy not to have to teach Sunday School! Plus, the previous week we had met with the ward that shares our building, and she didn't have to teach then either. So, she's had two weeks off. In the evening we had the traditional Christmas story reading from Luke 2 and Matthew 2, with Pauline, the kids, and Thomas Odenwalder (the friend mentioned in my last blog entry, who is staying with us for a bit).
Then yesterday (Monday) was Christmas Day! We opened presents in the morning, Pauline cooked a turkey, and we watched three movies later in the afternoon/evening. Among other presents we ended up with 18 (!) new movies, so we had to make a start on them. The three we watched were Nacho Libre (funny in places, odd in others, jury's still out), Church Ball (pretty funny and well-done), and The DaVinci Code (I enjoyed quite a bit, Pauline and Thomas also enjoyed but felt it was too long).
Leslie and Emily watched Church Ball, but not the other two. The presents that they seem to like the most are (1) the *really big* cardboard box that Pauline's tool chest came in, which they have turned into a clubhouse, and (2) the "pet duct tape" Pauline gave them, which they take for walks around the house. Go figure.
Now I'm back at work, trying to finish some things up before I go out of town to Utah on Thursday.
Like I said... we survived!
# posted by John Colton @ 9:43 AM 
Comments:
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Glad you survived christmas John.And thanks for checking the blog.My blog will be updated on a regular basis with subject info.When the 2007 F1 season starts there will be info on who's qualified where;and what time the race starts(uk time).Happy new year John.
18!!! That's a record! And I disagree with your review of Church Ball. Two thumbs down! (I just watched it last night.)
Wow - you guys could last through a pretty darn long car trip on just Muppet music alone! That's kind of a scary thought for whoever receives you on the other end! I'm glad your kids are enjoying the recycling (and hopefully their presents too!). Have fun watching all your movies. We might just have to come check out your collection...
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