Music for the Season

The concert season has, mostly, come to an end for Celestra. She has one more item on the list and that's tomorrow then she's home free. Christmas break, no more concerts, and she's even done Christmas shopping. Lucky kid. Me on the other hand, not even close!

So for your viewing pleasure, I give you a picture tour of all the concerts from this month! Enjoy!

December 3rd held the first concert of the month, unfortunately due to location I couldn't take any pictures. Not that Cele was complaining! The concert was a joint concert with USU's women's concert and Flute choir. It was probably my favorite of the season.

So since you don't get any pictures of that concert, you get to look at a cool pic I took early in the morning just outside my work.

A beautiful winter morning

December 4th (yes the next day) was the annual Tabernacle concert. This concert always features the concert and cantate choirs and a guest. This years guests were a brand new children's choir from Salt Lake. This was literally an all day event for the kids.

First we started with practice at the Tabernacle at noon

Then it was dinner and games

with the Salt Lake choir

And then it was performance time

First up was concert choir then our friends from Salt Lake performed

(pictured below)

And now it's time for Cantate

All together now

The next performance was a mini concert in St. John's Episcopal Church. Since it was on Sunday as part of their regular church services, I decided it was better not to take any pictures.

Then on the 14th the annual Seasons Greetings concert came to be. This year the performance was held in the Morgan theater, a bit of a different venue for this particular concert since the Kent concert hall is currently under reconstruction.

Cantate choir performing during the Season's Greetings concert

All of the choirs performing 'Jingle Bells' with Sassafrass, our guest artists this year as the finale to the Seasons Greetings concert.

The next concert was Cele's band concert on the 15th. I didn't bring my camera to this performance but I did get a few pics on my phone so, while the quality isn't the best, at least it's something right?

Band Concert (If you look really closely, you might be able to find Celestra)

Friday night was the last major event of the season, the Holiday Home Tour. We had 7 homes throughout the valley that people could go through and see how they were decorated for the holidays. At the end the kids performed once again at St. John's. This was a really fun night, if a bit crazy on my end since it was a fundraiser. All went well and we got lots of positive feedback.

A home in the home show

Performing at St. John's

Heather Hopkins played the cello for 'Noel Nouvelle'

We also had a former choir member who accompanied the kids on her harp.

Cele and Grandma Eiko at St. John's

All of us at St. John's

Just mom 'nd me

Celestra and CCC's final performance for the season will be tomorrow. They have an annual tradition where they carol at the various nursing homes and assisted living centers in the valley. Then she gets to sit back and relax and enjoy her Christmas break.

Waaaay behind!

So once again, I have gotten WAAAY behind on my blog updating and lots has happened since my last entry. So now you all have to suffer with a very long entry. So here goes...

We shall start off with Thanksgiving day. A day spent with my favorite family: The Brown family. We had everyone there except my brother Nicholas's family since they were hosting his wife, Amanda's, family at their place this year. So we had a house full of good food, great company, and lots and lots of little ones. It was a great way to spend a holiday that, in my book, is all about family.

Some of the boys playing on the stairs

The grandkids table

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying the two newest members of the family

Just look at that grin!

Hi Grandma Weeks

Nope, not even this family can claim to be free of wacko's

Aren't I just adorable

Hiding in the corner

Then it was time to decorate the house. Well after freezing my butt off bringing in the decorations from outside off the back porch, to what to my wondering eyes should appear but a completely frozen snow globe. And the best part? It defrosted very nicely and did not break. Good thing too, it's one of my favorite decorations. After all it was a present from Celestra about 4 or 5 years ago!

Look at me, I'm completely frozen!

Then there was the, what has become annual performance of the Nutcracker for Celestra. 4 performances over Thanksgiving weekend. This was Cele's 4th year and she still loves doing it. Which means it will probably happen again next year as well. At least she has fun right? Even if mom wants to tear her hair out with all the practices and performances she has to drive her to, through Thanksgiving traffic and just wonderful weather.

Warming up and practicing for a Nutcracker performance

At the performance on Saturday night (which I came to and Cele joined me to watch the rest of the show) I ended up sitting right in front of a good friend of mine from Middle/High school. (We've been friends since we were about 12) So since it had been awhile, we headed to Charlie's for ice cream after the performance so we could sit and shoot the breeze while our kids

got sugar highs.

Jessica and I

There was also a parent board meeting for CCC the last week of November and one of the ladies brought along her adorable daughter so you get to see a random picture of an adorable little girl with a great name.

Adorable little Ella (my middle name :0)

And now we are into December. Cele has already had two performances. One in the performance hall with USU's flute choir and women's chorus. That was a great concert! The flute choir really added to the choral numbers and they were really fun to watch for Cele since they had all of the different types of flutes on display from the piccolo to the contra bass flute. There was also the annual Christmas concert in the Tabernacle with the concert choir and a guest performer. This year the guests were a brand new children's choir from Salt Lake.

Performing in the tabernacle

If you would like to see more pictures from the last concert, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/cachechildrenschoir/20101204#

Well that's all for now. Next week Cele has 5 concerts/performances and I finish classes so you might have to wait till the end of next week for another update but, in case you want to come to any of the concerts here are the dates and times.

Sunday @11am in St. John's Episcopal Church in Logan (across the street from the tabernacle)

Tuesday @ 7pm in USU's Morgan theater (this is the choirs annual Christmas concert)

Wednesday @ 7pm in the MLMS auditorium (Cele's Christmas band concert)

and

Friday from 5-8 pm the Holiday Home tour. (Tickets are $10 and you can buy them from us, at Lee's, or at the doors of the homes. This is a chance to see some of the really nice homes in the valley all decked out for the holidays!) The kids will perform at St. John's after the home tour at 8 and 8:30pm.

Well, that's all for now folks! TTFN

A weekend of thanks and fun

This weekend was the annual Anderson family Thanksgiving dinner (always held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving). Celestra and I have missed the last few years because a certain young lady has been consistently performing in the Nutcracker chorus. While she is doing so again this year, as the practice Saturday was not mandatory and since this is her third year, she was able to miss and we were (finally) able to attend the family Thanksgiving again.

Once again this year, the food was excellent (as always), the company was top notch and Kristine and Eiko ran around like crazy (just like normal). So while we missed the last few years, nothing much has changed except the addition of a few new faces to the mix, though we did get a chance to meet all three of these darling little girls at the family reunion earlier this year...

Millie and Molly Wheeler. These active twins are already one year old. Hard to believe.

Zoey Green, the newest member of the Willson family

Marsha in her *beautiful* pilgrims hat

Looks like Tasia lost her head! Hope she finds it soon.

Robert waiting to carve the Turkey (his traditional job every year)

while Kristine scoops out the stuffing.

Kathy Clark, Our birthday girl

Colten playing in the bubbles

Mother and daughter: Annie and Katie

Aren't they adorable

The kids sing us a couple songs

Then it was off to spend the night at my friends Laura and Jim's place. They recently moved to Salt Lake and we hadn't had a chance to see them since the move. It was a fun night playing Life and hanging out with them and their two dogs, not that Cele was complaining about the dogs!

Bubba: This dog can

SNORE!

Jim and Laura as themselves

Cele with Hamlet

The next day (today) we headed out, met up with another friend who deserted Logan for Salt Lake (Jessica Allen) and hit the movie Harry Potter 7, part 1 at the Jordan Commons. Great movie. It follows the book really well and yes it ends in a cliff hanger but then it's only half the story. You should definitely all go see it! If you have little kids however, be aware that there is one scene where Ron destroys the locket. He is shown his worst fears wherein Harry and Hermione are together. They appear to be nude but you see nothing. Thank heavens! Just a slight warning for any who are worried. Something easy enough to skip over in the DVD version (just a suggestion).

A Spooktacular Day

Another year, another crazy Halloween. This Halloween marks Celestra's final year as a candidate for Trick-or-Treating so that being the case, she lived it up. She and her two best friends and younger siblings in tow headed out for a night of candy gathering to the utmost.

While I spent Friday at work dressed as a zombie along with my intrepid co-stars Dotta and Tracy. Yep, you guessed it, another themed Halloween at Subway. Always soo much fun!

The Subway Zombies

Celestra the Ranger (based off of a character from

the Forgotten Realms series - yep another book character

for the bookworm!)

My sister Alisha's family on Halloween

Autumn Sounds

The kids in costume: Jade, Jade's little sister, Celestra, Emma, and Erika L.

The first Band concert of the year has come and gone, and may I say, that was the shortest concert I have ever attended. So strange! The concert was great but the beforehand stuff was where all the fun was. To begin with the start time for the concert was changed to 30 minutes earlier than the original scheduled time. This made it quite fun to get Celestra there on time as she had choir rehearsal from 4:30-6. Then it was straight over to the middle school for the concert.

Now when I said short, I really meant it! The concert was no more than 30 minutes long and only the 7th and 8th grade bands played. Each with just three pieces.

Singin' in the cold

"Cache Children's Choir, Cache Children's Choir. If you love to sing, come to Cache Children's Choir"

"Shake, Shake, Shake Caprice. Twirl your sticks over head, Shake, Shake, Shake Caprice"

"2nd grade, 3rd grade Cadet Choir, Cha-Cha-Cha. 2nd grade, 3rd grade Cadet Choir, Cha-Cha-Cha."

"Concert Choir, Concert Choir, Concert Choir, Concert Choir. 1, 2, 3, 4 Everybody In"

"Cantate, Cantate, The Best"

"Hail the Utah Aggies. We'll play the game with all our might. See the colors flying. The Aggie Blue and fighting white. How they stir us onward. We'll win the victory all right. Hail the Utah Aggies. We're out to win so fight, fight, fight."

"Utah State, Hey! Aggies all the way! Go Aggies, Go Aggies! Hey, Hey, Hey!"

"Hail the Utah Aggies. We'll play the game with all our might. See the colors flying. The Aggie Blue and fighting white. How they stir us onward. We'll win the victory all right. Hail the Utah Aggies. We're out to win so fight, fight, fight."

(all this accompanied by fun rhythm and beats along with an assortment of Orff instruments)

Cele with some of her choir mates watching some of the other floats before the parade starts

my goofy kid

Cele with some of the other kids at the end of the parade

Yesterday was the annual USU homecoming parade. Another year, another cold walk down main street singing and chanting what you saw above. The kids had a blast and were as wacky as ever. And maybe next year I won't have to walk backwards the whole way again. Three years in a row. This is becoming a habit.