The Christmas Spirit!
It’s been a busy week, damn. Wednesday I went to three back-to-back appointments, Thursday - PT, Friday - Sis’ office party, Saturday - church concert and Sunday - Rogue One. I also spent all weekend waiting for news about test results and boy, doctors need to work on their bedside manners - more on that at a later date.
Let’s talk about the Christmas concert! Last year my sister really wanted to go to her church’s Christmas concert, which was to raise money for the local food pantry, and since she knows the one thing I do miss about going to church is the music, she asked me to go, as you may remember. It was right smack-dab during those first awful months of Mom having shoulder surgery/multiple heart-attacks/heart surgery and we just needed a breather in the middle of all that to enjoy the season and have it actually feel like Christmas. Now this year we are far less stressed than last, but even the typical Christmas madness can feel like too much, so it was nice to have a minute to let it just be “Christmas”, you know?
Every year they do a few parody type songs. This year it was “Can’t Stop From Eating” done to the tune of “Don’t Stop Believing” about Christmas dinner, “Staying Inside” done to the tune of “Staying Alive” about how cold it is outside and an absolutely stunning rendition of Adele’s Hello that was basically, ‘hello it’s me I’m calling to say that I’m bringing my boyfriend home to the meet the family’, like basically the woes of bringing a signif-other home for the holidays. The young lady who sang it is only 20 and she gave Adele a run for her money. I will say their lead lady doesn’t have a stunning voice so much, but she is definitely the ‘host’, she has all the personality. But this young girl, just wow. She’s been in the group (with her twin brother who plays the trombone) since she was 14. They also had an older lady who blew me away with her Chestnuts Roasting rendition.
And the whole group did a fantastic version of a Pentatonix song, “Mary, Did You Know?” where they turned off the lights and just held candles and it was unbelievably moving. They also did Little Drummer Boy with a drum solo in the middle that the whole group joined in on - bongos, snares, drums and uh ‘clackers’, but their drummer just sold it, like damn. I love a good drum solo. They also did Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 which is amazing to see done live. They brought it home and just watching each instrument come in, one after the other, was amazing. They finished out with Hark the Herald Angels, which is my absolutely favorite religious Christmas song. They did an interesting thing with it where they started out slow and soft and choir like, and then upped the speed and rocked it out, and then slowed down again at the end. That is one of my favs to play on the keyboard but I can never decide if I like it better slow or fast, but from now on, I’m going to play it like that! Then they got a standing ovation, so they came back on and did Home For The Holidays.
It was fun and funny and people clapped along and some parts of it were just so moving. They made some remarks that have us wondering if this is the last year they will be doing it, but I hope not, because I have enjoyed going these last few years. Sis says if they don’t do it next year, we’ll find something else, because we really do need that time-out to find the holiday spirit. And find it we did!
Let’s talk about the Christmas concert! Last year my sister really wanted to go to her church’s Christmas concert, which was to raise money for the local food pantry, and since she knows the one thing I do miss about going to church is the music, she asked me to go, as you may remember. It was right smack-dab during those first awful months of Mom having shoulder surgery/multiple heart-attacks/heart surgery and we just needed a breather in the middle of all that to enjoy the season and have it actually feel like Christmas. Now this year we are far less stressed than last, but even the typical Christmas madness can feel like too much, so it was nice to have a minute to let it just be “Christmas”, you know?
Every year they do a few parody type songs. This year it was “Can’t Stop From Eating” done to the tune of “Don’t Stop Believing” about Christmas dinner, “Staying Inside” done to the tune of “Staying Alive” about how cold it is outside and an absolutely stunning rendition of Adele’s Hello that was basically, ‘hello it’s me I’m calling to say that I’m bringing my boyfriend home to the meet the family’, like basically the woes of bringing a signif-other home for the holidays. The young lady who sang it is only 20 and she gave Adele a run for her money. I will say their lead lady doesn’t have a stunning voice so much, but she is definitely the ‘host’, she has all the personality. But this young girl, just wow. She’s been in the group (with her twin brother who plays the trombone) since she was 14. They also had an older lady who blew me away with her Chestnuts Roasting rendition.
And the whole group did a fantastic version of a Pentatonix song, “Mary, Did You Know?” where they turned off the lights and just held candles and it was unbelievably moving. They also did Little Drummer Boy with a drum solo in the middle that the whole group joined in on - bongos, snares, drums and uh ‘clackers’, but their drummer just sold it, like damn. I love a good drum solo. They also did Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 which is amazing to see done live. They brought it home and just watching each instrument come in, one after the other, was amazing. They finished out with Hark the Herald Angels, which is my absolutely favorite religious Christmas song. They did an interesting thing with it where they started out slow and soft and choir like, and then upped the speed and rocked it out, and then slowed down again at the end. That is one of my favs to play on the keyboard but I can never decide if I like it better slow or fast, but from now on, I’m going to play it like that! Then they got a standing ovation, so they came back on and did Home For The Holidays.
It was fun and funny and people clapped along and some parts of it were just so moving. They made some remarks that have us wondering if this is the last year they will be doing it, but I hope not, because I have enjoyed going these last few years. Sis says if they don’t do it next year, we’ll find something else, because we really do need that time-out to find the holiday spirit. And find it we did!