Ward Christmas Party

OK - Decompression. We just had our ward Christmas Party tonight and Anthony and I were in charge of the music/program. It went well . . . actually - I think it went really well, but I always come home and mull over all the things that went wrong. OK - I'm not going write about the wrong things yet . . . no I am. First of all - this man came up to me as I was trying to set up and asked if he could see me in private. I was so confused. I had never seen this man before - and here he wanted me to meet with him out in the hall where nobody was around. My first thoughts were - there is no way I'm going to leave the cultural hall with this man. I told him no. I asked him very curtly - 'What is this about?' He repeated his request. And I again - told him he could talk to me right there. He asked again if he could meet with me away from the kids - and I still didn't get it. I took a few consolatory steps towards him and away from Allison and he finally told me in a low voice that he was Santa! Oh my goodness gracious! It didn't even occur to me that this could be Santa. I was so mean! Here we were at church and I was so suspicious. Oh dear. Well we finally figured out the whole Santa entrance thing. I felt so silly. I tried to apologize to him after the party . . . I am so silly.

So that was one wrong thing . . . the other thing was when we got to the church building we were running a little late - and I get to the gym - and there on the stage was the whole Santa set-up complete with an artificial fire place, arm chair, and Christmas tree - with the curtain's pulled up just to the edge of the ensemble. I was crushed. I had practiced the music set-up using the screen on the stage - and now there was no way access it. I at first thought - oh maybe we could move this set-up just a few feet to the right so we could see the screen. But the activities directly kindly and wisely told me that would not work. Santa had spent an hour on this set-up and it was going to stay. I was so frustrated. I didn't have a key to access the big screen in the back of the gym - and I had envisioned the only other option as a little portable screen on the floor of the gym and nobody was going to be able to see it. My whole plans came tumbling down before my eyes. How was I going to make this work? Anthony kept reassuring my frazzled nerves that it was going to be OK - people would be able to see the little screen. As he worked on that I tried to make phone calls to access the screen at the back of the gym. Nobody was home that supposedly had the key. Anthony meanwhile - brilliantly put the portable screen on the stage next to the Santa set-up. It worked! It was high enough that everyone could see - and we angled it just right. It was perfect. Meanwhile - the bishop and stake presidency member who are part of our ward found a key to access the screen, but by that time the party had started and so I decided to just use the screen on the stage.

OK -so that is the bulk of the wrong things . . . and they were eventually made right. Now for the good part - Anthony is amazing! He was the MC tonight - and it never ceases to amaze me how well he works a crowd. Put a microphone in front of him and watch out! It was so fun. We started off with a Ho, Ho, Ho contest - seeing which group could give the best Ho Ho Ho's. Moms and Grandmas vs. Dad's and Grandpa's vs. Kids. Of course the kids won. He had a couple kids help him judge. Then we got into the picture puzzles. I put up picture puzzles for various Christmas Carols (thanks Mom!) and everyone guessed the song. We started with Jingle Bells, Santa Clause in Coming to Town, Rudolf . . . we had a bunch of kids wear reindeer antlers for that one - and had the kids do the actions. Then we did Frosty . . . Anthony told the kids that if they sang really loud there might be a surprise. He had one of the kids volunteer and she went backstage and put on the Frosty costume and came out in the middle of the song and danced on the stage. It was cute. Afterwards - Anthony told about how frosty had to go back into the freezer . . . I don't know - I can't retell all the jokes Anthony told - but he was so funny!

So the biggest hit of the night - The 12 Days of Christmas. I called Mom this morning to ask for her last minute help on this program and she told me about this activity she did last night at a Christmas production she put on. It was great! Each table was one of the 12 days. And they would stand up and do the action when we got to their part. It was so fun. We had Lords A'leaping across the back of the cultural hall. Kids squatting to lay eggs like the geese-a-laying. A table of adults standing up and dancing like the ladies dancing. The only bad part . . . I was so focused on trying to keep the song 'going' . . . I was playing the piano . . . that I totally forgot to rest after some of the things to allow them to say their little saying. For example - the 2 turtle doves where to flap their hands like birds and then say 'coo coo'. I forgot to rest to allow them to say their part! Oh dear. I even had thought about it before hand . . . be sure to rest . . . but I forgot. The higher days 6-12 - they had time to say their thing . . . but the other didn't. Nuts. Next time I do this - I will do it a capella - without the piano. I think the piano was a distraction. Oh well.

Oh yes - and the other sad part. Some of the picture puzzles had pictures of people in the ward in them . . . but nearly all the people who were in the pictures weren't there. :(

*sigh - all in all - I was very pleased. Oh yes - one more thing. Carrie had sent me some links to good Christmas workbook sights - and I found coloring pages for the 12 days of Christmas on one of them. It was perfect! When I was going around telling the tables what day they were - I left coloring pages and crayons for the kids at the table. That was a very good thing I think. It kept some of the kids busy.

Alright . . . this was a long report.