UVA Messiah Sing-In

I've documented it pretty well here just how much I love attending the Messiah Sing-Along at the Kennedy Center each Christmas.  This year we have a TON of family coming for Christmas, which I am BEYOND excited about.  We also have Ryder's baptism on the 23rd (which is a big part of why so much family will gathering here)(that's also the day of the Kennedy Sing-Along).  So I really can't do both.

So it was time to try something new: the Sing-In at UVA's Old Cabell Hall!

This was the 51st year doing this, and the first year that my choir director would be conducting the Sing-In (in the past he's played the harpsichord!), so that made it a little more fun for me.  Also fun, I was able to sit with my friend from choir, so I was singing along with someone I usually sing with!  Craig was a little nervous, because they seat everyone by their part, so he couldn't sit with me like we usually do.  (There is no choir in the world in which basses sit next to sopranos.)  But he lucked out and was sitting behind five of the basses from my choir (who all performed Messiah two years ago, right before I joined!), and even he admitted that it was a lot easier singing his part with all them so close.

This was very different from the Kennedy Center one-- the orchestra was made up of volunteers who just showed up that day along with all the singers, so they were a little rough.  And there was no professional choir to pull everyone along: we all would either sink or swim together!  And unlike the Kennedy Center, this felt a little more like a rehearsal.  Michael wasn't afraid to stop us and make us try something again.  (He once corrected the sound we were making and then on our second try exclaimed, "That was a lovely sound!  Now imagine how great it would sound if you sang with beautiful rhythm, too!"  Such a Michael thing to say!)

But it was still SO MUCH FUN!  I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and even though we had to pay for tickets, that was still cheaper than parking at the Kennedy Center, and it only took a couple hours total, rather than taking the entire day.  So that was a win!

Just to make it even more of a date night, Craig and I left early and stopped at Panera for dinner and hot chocolate.  We spent the whole time there on our phones shopping Amazon and got all our Christmas shopping done.  It was a GREAT way to spend an evening!

There's a very blurry photo of us at Old Cabell Hall!

The hardest thing now will be deciding which one we do next year!