Round Two of Christmas Madness!

For one of our Tuesday night activities, I decided that we would attend UVA's Messiah Sing-In, truly one of my favorite holiday traditions.  Unfortunately, most of the youth opted not to come, a fact which disappointed me greatly.  (It's hard for me to not take it personally when people don't love the things that I love, you know?  In all fairness, most of them were preparing for finals and it was a very late night.  But STILL-- the Hallelujah Chorus!!!!)  But the youth who DID come had a wonderful time, as did I.  So it was still a success in my book!  (In my defense, the UVA Sing-in is always held on a Tuesday, which is when we have our activities.  Last year I missed it, so I vowed that this year I wouldn't let that happen.  Next year I'll probably just cancel the Tuesday night activity and tell people that anyone who wants to join me is welcome!)

Ember, Kendra, and me.  The men and boys were all seated in the tenor section (much to Craig's chagrin, since he's a bass!)

UVA is fun!

The following Saturday was the stake's Joy to the World concert, another thing I love.  I'd been trying to attend choir practice for it, but that was challenging since it's a half hour away at the airport road building and on a Sunday night, which was frequently when Bentley was calling.  But I went whenever I could, and the music we were singing was quite lovely.  It turned out my friend Janelle was going to be performing in an octet, so I was excited to hear her (she is a middle school band teacher and also plays French horn).  And THEN, I found out that my favorite performers, the Jones Family singers, were ALSO going to be singing, so then I was stoked.  (I'd heard they wouldn't be there and was so disappointed, so when it turned out they could come after all, it was just the best.)  And they were as amazing as always and made me cry, I love gospel music so much.

Somewhere in there, we also found time to go to the Cville Band's Christmas concert.  This is a free concert at the Paramount, but you had to line up early to get seats.  We'd had Stake Conference in the morning, followed by choir practice, and then Kendra and I went straight from rehearsal to the Paramount.  Kendra managed to snatch seats for all of us on the balcony, and Craig and Camille joined us there.  Janelle plays with them, too, so it was fun seeing her at both concerts!  (She was one of my FiA workout buddies, and I was sad to not be seeing her much when I quit, but fortunately I usually run into her at the all-district band concerts and we managed to get together for lunch during Thanksgiving!) 

Another big Christmas thing that happened was Bentley came home from BYU!!!  Craig and I were so excited to have him back that we BOTH went to the airport to pick him up!!!

So happy!

He got home late Wednesday night-- his siblings were all very disappointed that they wouldn't get to see him until the next day, but since he was staying in Camille's room, she woke up enough when he went to bed that she managed to give him a very sleepy hug.  Even Bentley, my prickly son, thought that was pretty sweet.  

I enjoyed getting to hang out with him for a couple days while everyone else was still in school.  We had lunch at Torchy's and he helped me take the Honda into the shop since a light had come on when I was driving home from the band concert.  (It needed a new alternator.  Grrr.)  He also had a dentist appointment where it was fun trying to explain his upcoming mission (and related paperwork) to them!  And he slept quite a bit, trying to get caught up after the rush of finals!

Friday night, my parents flew into town!  I picked them up and before I could even get their luggage out of the trunk, Br. Gaskin arrived as our official stake representative.  And then I got to watch as Craig, my Dad, and Br. Gaskin ordained Bentley to the office of an elder, which was a very sweet experience!  Bentley's Utah stake leadership was on stand-by to record his ordination so he'd be able to go to the temple the next morning.  We were lucky that it wasn't quite so late in Utah!

We tried not to stay up too late hanging out talking, but we are not very good at that in my family!  So it was a late night, made even worse by the fact that we had to get out the door the next morning at 5:30am in order to arrive at the temple by 7am.  {Groan.}  But it was really cool, we got to all go through the temple with Bentley!  My original thinking had been to maybe do this the day after Christmas, but when we realized that meant Donna would miss out (she and Tom were going to Houston for Christmas), we figured out that there was exactly ONE window where all of Bentley's (LDS) grandparents could be in the temple with him, and that window was first thing in the morning on Saturday.  So that's what we did!

Tired, but happy!  The cold is waking us up!

There were a few other people from the ward who also joined us-- the Steeds (who very kindly met Donna at her hotel and made sure she found her way to the temple), the Huffs, and Steve Morgan & Amy Patchett.  The Herrings were also planning to be there, but had a medical emergency that prevented them from coming (that's a whole 'nother story full of miracles which I am happy to tell you about some other time, but I probably will not be blogging about!).  There were a few other people I wish we had thought to invite, but it was a very hectic time for us.  We did the best we could!

 

The temple was lovely, as always, and I was so glad we could all be there together!

Now it's light out and we have Donna with us, too!

Bentley should be turning in his mission papers in the next few weeks, so there should be some big news in about a month or so...?  I'll definitely keep you posted!

Once we were done at the temple, I hurried home with my parents-- I needed a nap and some food.  And for good measure, I also had my Mom French braid my hair!  I had my TOSVA Christmas concerts to get ready for!  Craig, Bentley, and Donna went to the Distribution Center and bought a bunch of clothes for Bentley, picked up Tom from his hotel room, and stopped by the hospital to visit and minister to the Herrings.  They also snagged some food at Taco Bell for Bentley, who was on the verge of starvation at that point.  (Who loses weight as a freshman????)

I was very worried about having enough energy for my concerts on so little sleep.  I actually had given up my early morning exercise routine for the week, figuring I needed to "bank" as much sleep as I could ahead of time.  (Is that a thing?  Banking sleep?  I'm not sure it is, but it definitely SHOULD be!)  So I was very thankful that both concerts went really well.  They were BOTH sold out, which I don't think has ever happened in the twenty years that TOSVA has been doing this, so that was pretty exciting.  And of course it was fun having my family all there for the afternoon one!

That's me, right by the Christmas tree!

And there's the whole choir, waiting to begin.  I think we're up to 90 people now?

Afterwards, they all got dinner at Citizen Burger Bar, which was handy because it is directly across the street from the Paramount.  How Craig managed to get a table for so many people is beyond me-- he's a miracle worker (especially considering they don't take reservations!)!  I hurried over and said Hi to everyone, then ran back to the theater to change out of my concert dress and got dinner with my friend Leah.  I felt bad ditching my family like that, but I was pretty sure that trying to eat such a slow, heavy meal with ten other people would have been too stressful before the second concert.  (Also, they could barely fit in that booth, adding me in would have been impossible!)  Leah and I enjoyed a quiet and much lighter dinner at Tilman's, which was lovely.  And the second concert went beautifully, too.  I did get quite sleepy right before the intermission, but I held it together.  (A few of the other singers complained that they should NOT have had a glass of wine with dinner because they were suffering the same problem!  Good thing I don't drink, I might have conked right out standing there!)

And then I skipped the after-concert party and went straight home to my family and enjoyed getting to hang out with everyone!  I had missed Craig giving his parents their Christmas presents, which they opted to open immediately rather than lug to Houston (can't say that I blame them for that):

(Avert your eyes if you're still upset by the most recent election!)

With Bentley's ordination, the temple, and the concerts all done, I felt like I could calm down and breathe again.  Getting all my ducks in a row for all that was surprisingly complicated and stressful!  But I could not have been happier with how it all went!