I hate not having a car while I am here. Especially when it's cold and rainy. To make matters worse, I have to go to the post office at some point, buy 8 million stamps, ship three boxes which SO aren't going to reach their destinations before Christmas Eve... I suck.
So I'm lazy and look like a loser. What else is new in the world... it isn't headline material, this overwhelming fact that I wait until the very last minute to send out my Christmas Cards and boxes... Last year I think I mailed them after Geoff's Birthday (1/7) so the fact they might just be postmarked before Christmas eve is a small victory. Isn't life just full of small victories? I mean, in the greater scheme of things, big huge failures vs. small victories -- I strive for the latter. Usually I'm trying to achieve the big victory. If the adjective is different, it's still okay with me.
We had choir practice last night for the Christmas services that we will be having in the next several days. So we had to practice for this coming Sunday, 2 services, Monday, a service, Tuesday a service and two Sundays from now, two services.
That's a lot of music to cram into one night. we were there for 90 minutes. Some of it is old hat, except for the new alto we picked up. And I'm still unsure of some of the alto lines I have to sing because I've been making shit up for years that just sounds good but isn't what is in the sheet music. One of the benefits of being able to learn by ear but also one of the problems of never really grasping the concepts of reading music.
The one thing that absolutely thrilled me is that one of the hymns we are singing was done by Sting on the 1987 "A very special christmas" album, Gabriel's Message. The hymn is of course slightly different than the way he does it, but the harmonies are thrilling. If we only had a tenor. How pathetic is that -- a 6 person choir. But we do a decent job. And our choir director has faith in us. I'm very happy we are doing a lot of the traditional hymns. A couple years ago, before I joined up, the choices for hymns were all wacky crap that no one recognized or knew. I mean we didn't even sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" fer chrissake, and what is Christmas without that?
Here is the mandatory Christmas Hymn List, in my bossy opinion:
1. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
2. The First Noel
3. Silent Night
4. O Little Town of Bethlehem
5. Joy to the World
6. Angels We Have Heard on High
Anything else is ... okay but not mandatory. I am not a big fan of Greensleves/What Child is this, but we are singing it. It has a great harmony line, so that makes it more fun. I hate Away in a Manger. I've never liked that one. Meh. And now we can add Gabriel's Message to the mix. And now that I know the harmony line to "In David's Royal City" which I had never heard before coming to this church, I can tolerate it.
Our choir director is British, and the pastor Australian, so that makes for an influx of weird english traditional wackiness for some of the holidays and it kind of confuses me. Doug definately doesn't dig the Anglification of his holidays... but he should be happy with the hymn selection this year.
We brought home the costumes for the kids for the pageant. Geoff tried his on. I have to stitch the shoulder a little tiny bit, but he looks a riot. He is The Star of Bethlehem. Bwa ha ha ha! He liked the costume a lot and stood and delivered his line in the living room, then demanded the costume be put away because he wants to be a shepherd. So this might take some convincing Monday night to get him to do his thing. We shall see.
Okay. Tomorrow's edition -- Linda Linda Linda. Happy birthday to Linda beano... and an entry as a gift to the girl. Until then, adieu.
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