Messiah Sing-In 2016

Last night I went to a performance of Handel's Messiah by the Utah Symphony, under the baton of guest conductor Eric Schmidt, the Westminster College Choir, the Utah Symphony Chorus, and soloists Abigail Rethwisch, Sarah Coit, Christian Sanders, and Markel Reed.  The audience is invited to sing along during the chorus and it was so much fun!  Handel's music is absolutely glorious and I especially loved "For unto us a Child is Born," "Glory to God in the Highest," and, of course, "Hallelujah!"  Markel Reed sang the baritone part at last year's performance and he was amazing.  He was amazing again this year, especially in "The trumpet shall sound."  He received thunderous applause after this section!  I was a member of the Westminster College Choir all four years of college and seeing them on the stage made me feel very nostalgic.  I used to love performing Christmas music this time of year and, to this day, I still love hearing Christmas music performed live.  The annual performance of Handel's Messiah is a wonderful tradition (I have done it now for three years) and, while I was feeling pretty festive after putting up my tree on Saturday, I am now filled with Christmas spirit after such an amazing concert!

Note:  I bought a copy of the score last year and put it in a very safe place.  Of course this necessitated a massive search of my house to find it for this year.  Luckily I found it in time.

O Christmas Tree

I love it when my house is decorated for Christmas!  I try to put my decorations up right after Thanksgiving so I can enjoy them for as long as possible.

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon hauling everything up from the basement and putting up my tree.  Hanging all of the ornaments on my tree is so much fun because most of them bring back lots of memories.  I listened to my favorite Amy Grant Christmas songs and burned a pine scented candle while I decorated and now I am so excited for Christmas!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Note: My family has played shanghai rummy every night for the past three nights.  I have won every game!  I think they all hate me now...

Mannheim Steamroller

I think I have established the fact that I absolutely love hearing Christmas music performed live so it should be no surprise that I bought a ticket as soon as I found out that Mannheim Steamroller was coming back to SLC for a Christmas concert!   I have seen them several times and I usually thoroughly enjoy it.  Musicians Bobby Kunkle, John Blasucci, Ron Cooley, Roxanne Layton, Becky Kia, and Logan Penington, along with the Mannheim Steamroller Orchestra, performed music originally arranged by Chip Davis (who doesn't tour with the band any more) with images projected on a large screen behind them on stage at Abravanel Hall yesterday.  I really enjoyed their classic Christmas songs such as "Deck the Halls," "We Three Kings," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Joy to the World," "Good King Wenceslas," and "Carol of the Bells" and I was very happy to hear my favorite Christmas song, "O Holy Night," performed live once again.  However, I was a little bit disappointed that the second half of the concert featured many songs from their Fresh Aire albums.  I was unfamiliar with many of these pieces and I would have much preferred to hear Christmas music in a performance billed as a Christmas concert.  I was also a little bit disappointed that the videos shown on the giant screen were exactly the same as those shown at previous Mannheim Steamroller concerts.  Again, I really loved hearing the Christmas music, and I am glad that they ended the concert with a beautiful rendition of "Silent Night," but I'm not sure that this concert was worth the money I paid for it.

Christmas 2015

Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year.  We awoke to lots of snow but, since I live two minutes away from my parents, I was able to get there in time to open presents.  Sean set a strict 9:00 am start time because he gets so excited he can't wait much longer than that!  Here is what the tree looked like before we started opening presents.

Santa Claus definitely came!  The white envelopes on the tree contain $50 bills.  My Dad has done this for all of us every year since I can remember.  Here we are opening presents!

Marilyn was the most excited about getting an iron!  Apparently this iron is especially made for quilting!

I got a selfie stick.  I really wanted one and everyone laughed about it but all of my officers seem to have so much fun with them.  I also got an Instax mini camera (which everyone now wants) and a silhouette cutting machine (which I am really excited to play with). However, I'm most excited about getting the Star Wars complete saga on Blu-Ray!  I feel a marathon coming soon!

The best part of Christmas is watching Sean and Tashena opening their presents!  Tashena got lots of clothes and a new phone!  She is pretty much the happiest girl in the universe and spent much of the day texting her friends!

Sean got clothes, a bean bag chair, a case for his 3DS, lots of 3DS games, and the coolest R2-D2 slippers ever!  His big present was a Robosapien robot which entertained all of us for hours!

Every year my Mom makes sweet rolls for breakfast after we open presents.  In the evening we had a delicious dinner and played Shanghai Rummy late into the night (Tashena won!).  It couldn't have been a better day!  We were all very spoiled with presents but the best part was all of us being together and continuing our many Christmas traditions!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!