Christmas Sunday

Wow!  We had such a wonderful Christmas Sunday today.  It was filled with good service, good lessons and an all-around good Christmas spirit.

In November, I conducted a Primary choir for stake conference.  Because the music was pretty short, I pulled out an arrangement that I had written for "Come Follow Me" for our Primary Sacrament Meeting program that used two violins and a cello.  All of the musicians were children, of course.

From that, the bishop's wife from a neighboring ward asked me if the kids could come back and perform for their ward on Christmas Sunday.  Altoona has a very small population that attends church, and most of the congregation is elderly.  There are only 6-10 kids in Primary each week, and I think there are fewer youth.  Usually attending another meeting isn't possible because we are busy in our own ward, but since we currently have our church meetings in the afternoon, we were all for going to Altoona in the morning.

It was an absolutely beautiful service.  The bishop's wife had written a program based on talks given by President Monson at the annual First Presidency Christmas devotional--what a sweet spirit to bring into the meeting!  In between the different selections, she had chosen musical numbers.  At first, we were only going to be singing, but as the program progressed in development and the day neared, we were recruited to do more.  Happy days!

Another family in our ward has a boy Johannah's age who also sings.  They had asked if he could sing with my kids sometime, and since this was the first opportunity since they asked, we brought him along too.

At 7:55, Max arrived at our house.  We jumped in the Volvo and drove the 45 minutes to Altoona.  We had 30 minutes to run the three numbers.

First, Mark played an oldie but goodie:  Gesu Bambino.  He initially scoffed at playing it because it was a song that he could play when he had only been studying horn for three months.  However, the quality of his playing has greatly improved since then, and it was just beautiful.  The bishop's wife was left in tears just during the rehearsal :-)

Then, the three kids sang "Were You There on that Christmas Night?", also a favorite.  I must admit that I've become accustomed to Johannah and Mark singing together (and Ethan before he left on his mission).  Their voices blend really well, because obviously, they are from the same family!  Having Max changed the sound of it all, but judging by people's reactions, it still was beautiful.

For the final number, I wrote an arrangement of "Silent Night" for Johannah and Glo on viola and violin.  When I wrote it last year, it was just for them and piano.  However, Edrie (the bishop's wife) wondered if I could work in the congregation singing the actual song in the arrangement.  Back to the staff paper!  I did work it in, along with organ too.  Edrie said she had never heard the congregation sing like that before.

Whenever the kids are about to perform, I lecture them about accepting thanks.  I tell them (and they could all tell you this) that when someone tells them they enjoyed their music, they are to look the person in the eye, smile and say "thank you".  Naturally, as the kids age, their thanks become more heartfelt and more elaborate, but those three things are the minimum.

After the program was over, we were surrounded by people.  Their hearts were literally overflowing with gratitude.  We had the cutest older women telling us that they just couldn't hold back the tears.  We heard how our music invited the Spirit into the meeting (although I think President Monson's words had a lot to do with that).  There was even a piano tuner that came up to Mark and told him how good his intonation is :-)  I can't think of someone who would know better than a piano tuner!  Several of them begged us to come back next year.

We were actually in a bit of a time crunch because we needed to get back to our church meetings (and especially choir practice before church).  After 25 minutes, we finally broke away, made quick pb&j's in the back of the car and were off.

We just made it in time for our choir practice which went until 12:29--sacrament meeting started at 12:30!  I ran over to the organ, played prelude for like 30 seconds, got a copy of the program for the next hour, and Mark hopped up on the stand to lead the music.  I hadn't seen the program, but it turns out that I was involved in every number, either playing the organ, playing the piano for the choir, or playing the piano for the three kids again.  It was kind of goofy because the musical numbers alternated between the choir, and the congregation singing which meant I kept walking back and forth between the organ and the piano, and the only way to get there was to walk off the stand and across the front of the room.  I felt a bit conspicuous, to say the least.

Then it was off to teach my Sunday School class.  I was exhausted by the end, and I figured the Lord would forgive me if we skipped the last hour of church after doing church things for 7 hours straight :-)

People always talk about the "true" meaning of Christmas.  I can't think of a better way to spend Christmas Sunday.  Serving by playing music.  Again, I am so thankful that our family has music in our lives.  It is such a blessing.