our life as a dream,
our time as a stream glide swiftly away,
and the fugitive moment refuses to stay;
for the arrow is flown and the moments are gone...
Come, Let Us Anew text: Charles Wesley
It was such a full month - I will try to give you a nutshell version:
We
started off the month with a terrific Canadian Brass concert in Kansas
City. A former CIS orchestra student,
now a music major at William Jewell College in Kansas City, was singing in the
choir as part of the concert so Steve and I attended and were well
rewarded.
The hall was just magnificent. We got "cheap" seats in the choir loft behind the performers but sound was still perfect.
This is me with Zac and his mom, Diann
a view of the area outside the concert hall. Beautiful view of the Kansas City skyline
Speaking
of concerts…..there was the CCO one, the Lange 7th grade one, the
Rock Bridge one. All went just
fine. All were over by the second week
of December. Whew, big load off my
shoulders. I also played Silent Night in
a piano/flute/cello trio at a Linn branch Christmas program and in our ward on
the 22nd. That was fun to
prepare. I played in a cello/drum/vocal
trio at a Community United Methodist Church event. Got paid for that one :)
And, Tamara and Suzanna Kitchen and I played for the Candlelight
Christmas program.
We WERE going to ring
and sing for the Salvation Army but weather got in the way.
Weather
this month has wreaked havoc with so many events. Every weekend, except this past one, has had
nasty winter storms.
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| ice on the crepe myrtal |
The most
significant cancellation that impacted me was All-State orchestra
auditions. Originally scheduled for the
first Saturday – postponed to the 21st and then ultimately cancelled
and replaced by students submitting recorded entries. I heard five of my six students personally
and they played incredibly but technology and the postal service have both
tried to sabotage Rock Bridge’s efforts so we will see if any of my students
make it. We had planned our annual
family outing to Historic St. Charles for the 21st but freezing rain
was kind of intimidating so we went on Monday the 23rd, sacrificing
the ringing and singing and, sadly, the presence of Sarah and Melanie.
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| me with some friends at St. Charles |
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| Steve and me at the Lewis and Clark restaurant |
Weather did not deter Steve and my drive to
Kansas City a second time this month, on the second weekend, to attend a temple
marriage. We had rain all the way there
and half-way back but then ran into snow and 35 mph driving the rest of the way
into Columbia. Yuck. And, when it was not precipitating, it has
been bitterly cold. January and February
type weather. Except for this past
weekend when we had temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s! I played for a wedding at the Churchill
Memorial yesterday (Kathryn Lindaman – former long-time cello student)
and who
would have guessed that in late December to have such lovely weather?
Christmas
preparations went all right.
Steve and I
“retired” many decorations this year.
Too special to just throw or give away but just not enough room to
display them. We also eased up on the
goodie making – no time and no need for the calories. Cherry nut cookies, however, did NOT make the
cut.
Neither did cut-out sugar
cookies. Trissy was to benefit from this
effort. As the iced and decorated
cookies lay on cookie sheets in the spare bedroom, Trissy discovered them and
got to sample at least two before she was discovered! Bad Trissy.
And, early in the month, Steve kind of went crazy baking tons of cookies
for his people at work. He sends out a
list of available cookies and they check off the ones they would like. Take 10 co-workers and 9 different types of
cookies and you do the math. He was a
baking maniac. Lucky for me, one has to
eat gluten-free so I got the leftovers.
Yay.
Of our
far-flung children, we just had Elise this Christmas. She arrived the Wednesday before. So, our Christmas morning was very peaceful
and quiet. Sarah and Melanie didn’t join
us until almost noon and Steven and Tamara spent the morning with her
parents. We had our Christmas dinner at
6:00 when Emily and Joe and kids arrived.
Also joining us were Steven and Tamara and her parents, Sheila and
Carroll. It was a merry evening of food
and of music – YES, the family of the music teacher actually performed some
Christmas music. And, I think everyone
liked it enough to want to do it from now on.
(hooray).
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| Lucy trying on her dress-up clothes from Melanie. Noah, Joe, and Elise in the background |
Sadie and Bones worn out from all the celebrating!
The Southerlands stayed
until Friday morning and it was so great to have them here. It was good when they left, though because during
the night Thursday, four of us came down with the nasty 24 hour stomach
bug: Elise, me, Steven, and Sarah. Emily and crew had already dealt with this
the week before so I am pretty sure they didn’t give it to us. I haven’t been so sick in a long time and
never have 24 hours lasted so long.
Steve nursed us all (well, Tamara took care of Steven) – fetching ice
chips, going to the store to pick up popsicles, taking them to Sarah at her
place. He never came down with the full
blown sickness but he has not had an appetite since Saturday. We are both still not on top of our game
today. Steve did have enough energy to
drive Elise as far as Jonesburg this morning where they met up with Joe so
Elise can spend today and tomorrow with Emily and family. We will go there tomorrow and drop Elise off
at the airport early Tuesday and continue on to Indiana.
And, now
I am going to go lay down. Merry
Christmas everyone.
