A very busy Saturday
Today was full of all the things. First we had to sleep in. That's very important, because for some reason we are incapable of getting enough sleep during the week.
Next, we went to our church's stake Christmas activity: White Christmas on Both Sides of the Veil...or something like that? The point was to get everybody to learn how to do family history research, so they could take names to the temple. It was...somewhat confusing. Family history research has long been a weakness of ours (although we were expert indexers for a while). It seems like one of those things where they're like, "You should do your family history!" and we're like, "Okay, how?" and they're like, "Well, you know. You just...do it." (The real reason we're so terrible at it, though, is that the first part of it requires you to talk to people, and we are pretty terrified of people, so.)
Fortunately, our grandmother is pretty big into family history, so we were able to just sign in to FamilySearch and there were already some names we could print out to take to the temple. So we did!
...But that wasn't until the end of our time at the activity. We actually spent most of it chatting with a friend who used to be in our ward until the boundaries changed. We also had cookies and candy, and reminded ourselves how amazing Reese's Pieces are.
And! they wanted to livestream the activity, so we got roped into doing an interview. We sang a Christmas carol, not very well, because...I mean, we didn't sing it badly on purpose. But we kind of wanted to show people that it's okay to go in front of people and not sing the best. Why? Because we can't get anybody to come to choir practice, and we think it's because they're afraid of singing in front of people. So we want to show them there's nothing to be afraid of. And then we sang the song not very well, and then I went to the piano and played a couple of starting notes, and it went much better, except I was a little nervous and my breathing control was terrible, so I totally choked during the chorus. (Like, I literally choked because I had no oxygen.)
But it was fun! And then the interviewer asked us about Christmas traditions, and the only thing we make sure to do every year is watch Muppet Christmas Carol, so we got to ramble about why that's the best version of A Christmas Carol for a while. And that was fun, too.
After the activity, we went home and did our grocery shopping! And that was...grocery shopping.
Then we had a more somber thing to do, which was to help with the music at a funeral. The stepson of one of our bishopric died a little over a week ago, and they needed someone to play the organ and lead the singing for the closing hymn. We didn't know the deceased at all, but we wanted to help. It did make us a little nervous, though, because of our usual transportation problems. But we got them all worked out and everything went fine.
From there, we went straight to our ward Christmas party. You'd think it would cause a bit of whiplash to go from a funeral to a party, but this party was extremely low energy. It was nice, people were getting along. They had lasagna for the dinner, which was fantastic because it's something we'll actually eat, and since we'd been running around all day, we hadn't eaten...since the candy at the stake activity.
After the dinner, there was a concert! ...Which was also kind of low-energy. But it had a lot of heart. At the end, they had a sing-along (when the MC announced it, I shouted, "Finally!" from the back; I guess all the running around had me tired and therefore lacking in inhibitions), and it felt like we were the only ones singing. It's possible that other people were singing, but everybody sings so quietly these days.
Anyway, people who were involved in the organization of the whole thing would come to our table during the sing-along and urge us to go up to the microphones. We refused, because I kind of thought that if the only people actually singing along were at the microphones, everybody else would feel like they were off the hook and didn't have to sing anymore. But then they sent the little girl (she's actually a teenager, but Athena taught her in Primary, so to us, she's a little girl), and we couldn't say no to that.
Athena was like, "Fine. Just remember, you asked for it." And that's when she switched on Primary Song Leader Mode. We went up to the microphones, but we wouldn't let the band start playing anything until Athena had everyone open their mouths as wide as they could and just sing an, "Aaaah." And then she was like, "Now that you all know what it feels like to sing, let's do this." And if people weren't singing we would call them out for it. ...And that sounds kind of dictatorial and oppressive when I put it that way ("They asked for it," Athena says). And I think it was all in good fun... I don't think anybody was super offended. (Athena adds, "What's the worst they can do? Not come to choir practice?" (that's a sad joke, because our choir practice is already usually just Athena, me, and the ward music director (with three people, that's enough for an ensemble anyway, but I have to play the piano, so)).)
Anyway. We had a couple of people come to us after and say, "Good energy!" One lady said, "You made the party!" So we think it was fairly well received.
And then Santa showed up, and pictures were taken. There was one little boy in the Primary who insisted on being in every single picture that was taken with Santa. I really wish somebody had had an elf hat for him. It was adorable.
And then we came home and watched a song about how glue works a couple of times. In French, of course.
Today I'm thankful for surviving our very busy day, making it to all the places we needed to go on time (we were late to the last one, but that wasn't one that demanded punctuality so much), getting to wear our Miraculous scarves, having a couple of names ready to take to the temple, and actually getting to eat dinner.
Next, we went to our church's stake Christmas activity: White Christmas on Both Sides of the Veil...or something like that? The point was to get everybody to learn how to do family history research, so they could take names to the temple. It was...somewhat confusing. Family history research has long been a weakness of ours (although we were expert indexers for a while). It seems like one of those things where they're like, "You should do your family history!" and we're like, "Okay, how?" and they're like, "Well, you know. You just...do it." (The real reason we're so terrible at it, though, is that the first part of it requires you to talk to people, and we are pretty terrified of people, so.)
Fortunately, our grandmother is pretty big into family history, so we were able to just sign in to FamilySearch and there were already some names we could print out to take to the temple. So we did!
...But that wasn't until the end of our time at the activity. We actually spent most of it chatting with a friend who used to be in our ward until the boundaries changed. We also had cookies and candy, and reminded ourselves how amazing Reese's Pieces are.
And! they wanted to livestream the activity, so we got roped into doing an interview. We sang a Christmas carol, not very well, because...I mean, we didn't sing it badly on purpose. But we kind of wanted to show people that it's okay to go in front of people and not sing the best. Why? Because we can't get anybody to come to choir practice, and we think it's because they're afraid of singing in front of people. So we want to show them there's nothing to be afraid of. And then we sang the song not very well, and then I went to the piano and played a couple of starting notes, and it went much better, except I was a little nervous and my breathing control was terrible, so I totally choked during the chorus. (Like, I literally choked because I had no oxygen.)
But it was fun! And then the interviewer asked us about Christmas traditions, and the only thing we make sure to do every year is watch Muppet Christmas Carol, so we got to ramble about why that's the best version of A Christmas Carol for a while. And that was fun, too.
After the activity, we went home and did our grocery shopping! And that was...grocery shopping.
Then we had a more somber thing to do, which was to help with the music at a funeral. The stepson of one of our bishopric died a little over a week ago, and they needed someone to play the organ and lead the singing for the closing hymn. We didn't know the deceased at all, but we wanted to help. It did make us a little nervous, though, because of our usual transportation problems. But we got them all worked out and everything went fine.
From there, we went straight to our ward Christmas party. You'd think it would cause a bit of whiplash to go from a funeral to a party, but this party was extremely low energy. It was nice, people were getting along. They had lasagna for the dinner, which was fantastic because it's something we'll actually eat, and since we'd been running around all day, we hadn't eaten...since the candy at the stake activity.
After the dinner, there was a concert! ...Which was also kind of low-energy. But it had a lot of heart. At the end, they had a sing-along (when the MC announced it, I shouted, "Finally!" from the back; I guess all the running around had me tired and therefore lacking in inhibitions), and it felt like we were the only ones singing. It's possible that other people were singing, but everybody sings so quietly these days.
Anyway, people who were involved in the organization of the whole thing would come to our table during the sing-along and urge us to go up to the microphones. We refused, because I kind of thought that if the only people actually singing along were at the microphones, everybody else would feel like they were off the hook and didn't have to sing anymore. But then they sent the little girl (she's actually a teenager, but Athena taught her in Primary, so to us, she's a little girl), and we couldn't say no to that.
Athena was like, "Fine. Just remember, you asked for it." And that's when she switched on Primary Song Leader Mode. We went up to the microphones, but we wouldn't let the band start playing anything until Athena had everyone open their mouths as wide as they could and just sing an, "Aaaah." And then she was like, "Now that you all know what it feels like to sing, let's do this." And if people weren't singing we would call them out for it. ...And that sounds kind of dictatorial and oppressive when I put it that way ("They asked for it," Athena says). And I think it was all in good fun... I don't think anybody was super offended. (Athena adds, "What's the worst they can do? Not come to choir practice?" (that's a sad joke, because our choir practice is already usually just Athena, me, and the ward music director (with three people, that's enough for an ensemble anyway, but I have to play the piano, so)).)
Anyway. We had a couple of people come to us after and say, "Good energy!" One lady said, "You made the party!" So we think it was fairly well received.
And then Santa showed up, and pictures were taken. There was one little boy in the Primary who insisted on being in every single picture that was taken with Santa. I really wish somebody had had an elf hat for him. It was adorable.
And then we came home and watched a song about how glue works a couple of times. In French, of course.
Today I'm thankful for surviving our very busy day, making it to all the places we needed to go on time (we were late to the last one, but that wasn't one that demanded punctuality so much), getting to wear our Miraculous scarves, having a couple of names ready to take to the temple, and actually getting to eat dinner.