Sunday, December 19, 2010

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.

Friday, December 10, 2010

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