After a long hiatus, I'm back. I spent this afternoon at the Morningside Halloween party. I agreed to be a costume designer for the Halloween party and I was assigned "Miss Chris" to dress. Halfway through the original costume design, she decided she wanted to be a witch. So a witch she was.

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All Witched Up and Ready to Go
 

Gotta Love the Socks
 

Her costume was a hit. She was dubbed the "bad" witch and the other witch present was the "good" witch. "Bad" witch took the prize for the spookiest costume.

 

It was great fun -- there was a firewoman, a rock star, a cat,  and a family of pirates.

 

 

 

 

And did I mention that the Queen was present.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 Year Old Preschoolers Bell Choir

My first Christmas activity was directing a bell choir consisting of the 4 year old preschool class at my church's preschool. Having had some previous involvement with young children and bells, participation was limited to the 4 year olds.

Since I worked at the church from 2005 - 2010, I've had lots of experiences with the preschool, and I've missed being around the children. So this sounded like fun.  


Unhappy Sammy by red bells

Sammy with blue bell

We chose Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger as the songs to learn. Our first rehearsal was Thursday, November 30 with performance day 2 weeks away.



Bless the teachers who had a long talk with the kids explaining that the bells are musical instruments and not toys and that they should not complain about the color bell they are assigned.

First rehearsal went reasonably well -- all the little girls want purple and Sammy wants blue. Unfortunately neither song included a B -- the purple bell. They learned how to ring the bell and we even played Jingle Bells. At this point I think the Bell Choir will be a success if we can identify Jingle Bells or Away in a Manger at any point during the song.

Surprisingly, the boys are the best bell ringers and the girls seem more easily distracted. I learn the boys quickly but have difficulty keeping the girls straight -- all their names end in a "y" sound. With each practice the girls all want the purple bell. Neither song has a "B" which is the purple bell, but Away in a Manger has b flat which becomes our pseudo purple bell. In the children's bell world, A# is a blue bell; B flat and A# are actually the same note; there is not a separate bell for B flat. So I tied a purple ribbon around the blue A# bell. Still all the little girls wanted the purple bell. And Sammy wanted blue. I quickly learned that you had to give Sammy a blue bell if you wanted him to participate at all.


The first week of rehearsals went OK -- still hoping parents can at least identify some phrases of each song. As we moved into the week of the performance the songs sound great.  We learn though that kids, risers, and bells do not go together. Practice is called  when Sammy hits Mylie with a bell. We assign bells -- Lucy gets the pseudo purple bell and Sammy gets blue.

The bell choir debut performance is the opening of the preschool Christmas program on December 13. The 4 year olds all have speaking parts in the Christmas program where they become the main characters in the Nativity so they are all in costume as they ring their bells.

Their performance was great! You could more than identify the songs. I was so proud of them and it was fun!

We had an encore performance the following Tuesday at Morningside Assisted Living. They were just as great.


Next performance is scheduled for Valentine's Day -- Jesus Loves Me  and the first version I looked at has no purple bell!

The Crowning of the Year

I thought I would begin this blog with December, "the crowning of the year". But of course, it's now January as I begin to report on the December activities.  "The crowning of the year" is a phrase from one of my favorite Advent hymns, People, Look East.

        People, look east.
        the time is near of the crowning of the year.
        Make your house fair as you are able,
        trim the hearth and set the table.
        People, look east, and sing today ---
        Love, the Guest, is on the way.

I see December and Christmas as the "crowning of the year" and I try to "make my house fair" as best I can -- some years more elaborately than others. It's important to prepare my heart for Christmas each year in whatever way is best at that time -- sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less, but I believe we should always prepare for the Christ child. This year was fun because I had fewer other responsibilities.

I officially kicked off the season after Thanksgiving dinner. The family was at my house for Thanksgiving dinner this year. By now they all know that when "turkey day" is celebrated at my house, there will be after dinner activities known as getting Kathy's Christmas decorations out of the attic.

We have an assembly line --- I'm in the attic; Brian is on the stairs; Ronnie, Ryan & Rachel are runners between the attic stairs and the spare bedroom; and Richard is in the bedroom placing the boxes, bins, etc. in the room. Fifteen minutes or so and it's all done -- the season has begun. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the assembly line -- but here is the staging room.

                                      
                                                                     
There is tree #1 with the angel on the top. The angel is an old favorite. My mother purchased the angel many years ago at Belk's on Main Street in Columbia in the days when they had the big animated Christmas window. Mama and Aunt Doris both bought these angels; Ronnie still uses Aunt Doris' angel  on his Christmas tree.



The Angel

Tree # 2 is the Angel Tree. For years, at the annual  Sunday Before Christmas Dinner, Aunt Dean gave us all angel ornaments. Now I have all of my angel ornaments and Mother's.  Mama also made some angel ornaments. So I have turned them all into the Angel Tree -- reminds me of Mama and Aunt Dean.

 

Now the house is decorated and the crowning of the year has begun. It's time to get ready for a fun filled month.

 

 

 

 

Experimental Blogging

My first attempt at blogging. I am exploring to see how this works. This is an attempt to make my life in the slow lane look like lots of fun. And who knows maybe it is.

I've added this picture the portulaca that was on my deck this past summer. Sadly the summer is over and all of my deck flowers are gone. I seem to have missed the pansies for the winter.

Well now if I can download pictures from my camera to the computer, I just might be in business. I am going to try to report on certain Christmas activities. This week I'm looking at the debut concert of my 4-year old preschool bell choir and the annual Harmon cousins Christmas dinner.