Preparing for Christmas

Saturday
It was a grey damp, though mild day. We had a text from Laura this morning saying that their local ski slopes have closed for Christmas, because the temperatures have been too warm. Also, a big ice festival in Minnesota has also been cancelled, for the same reasons! Last year, it was the complete opposite -:we were experiencing an Arctic blast! As I write this, in the evening, Laura is on her way south, flying to us for Christmas, and through January 1st. Jen and Jason will be driving up from Atlanta during the day tomorrow, just for two days. This afternoon, we were at church, for a dress rehearsal with orchestra and the Praise Band for Christmas Eve evening service. While we were there, I used the opportunity to take some shots for my blip. At the left is one of the Apostle windows - the Luke window, up in the balcony at the back of the church, which I rarely go up to. Top right is the lovely nativity set which sits just inside one of the entrances, and lower right a different view of the sanctuary, taken from the choir loft. We rarely use the choir loft, and never sing from it, since it is one of the poor design aspects of the sanctuary, as the sound gets lost in the raised portion above the altar, so we always sing from in front of the altar, directly facing the congregation. The rehearsal went pretty well over all, though I felt he was taking things very slowly - I’m not sure whether that was his leadership, or the orchestra slowing things down! Afterwards, we had to move all the musician chairs and music stands out of the way, and move the handbell tables into place, since they will be playing in the morning service. Then after that we’ll have to swap them back again!
When we got back, it was on with more Christmas preparations, icing the Christmas cake, and making mince pies. Laura gets in late tonight, after 11 pm, so it’s a late trip to the airport later!
Step count: 4,621