Holiday Pops!

Sunday
A wonderful day of music and getting in the holiday spirit. I had decided to stay home this morning and watch the service on line. It was a great service, and I was sorry not to be there in person. The service started with a wonderful duet prelude played by Tom on the organ and Patti on the piano. The choir anthem which I hadn’t heard before since I missed practice on Thursday, and that was the first time they’d seen it (!), was a really neat quite “jazzy” piece, and sounded good, especially with the short practice time! I think Michael our director is struggling to keep on top of things, having lost his wife earlier in the year, leaving him responsible for the care of his 100 year old mother who lives with him. I guess whatever plans he had in place haven’t worked out very well,so he is struggling to find a solution he is happy with. On top of this he lives a fair distance from the church.There was a good message from David in his series Home for Christmas, with a focus on Joy, since the Advent candle of Joy was lit this morning and Tom finished off with a great solo piano arrangement by Mark Hayes.
This evening we had tickets to the Cincinnati Pops Holiday concert, and I decided I was going to to go anyway, but wear a mask, but fortunately a further test read negative, so I didn’t need to worry. We don’t usually go to the Pops concerts, but I fancied going this year for a change, and it was great fun, a lively mix of Christmas carols, secular Christmas music, and some Hanukkah music. There was an excellent very talented combined youth choir, including students from Sycamore High School, where our kids went to school, a guest soloist, and dancers. The hall was beautifully lit and decorated, and was packed out - and this was the last of six concerts over the weekend! The top left in my collage were a group of singers performing in the lobby before the concert.