I’ll be hard pressed to relate all the wonderful events of last week. Thursday night our SS class went out to eat. Mind you, that’s not all we did. Katrina Estes Hill – author, illustrator & storyteller – entertained us with tales from her childhood. All her stories were in poem format and hilarious. Those of you raised on a farm or near a farm will be delighted by her books. We also played “dirty Santa”. We firmly believe in “stealing” and newbies get the brunt of this tradition. Bro. Kelly (minister of music) had a book, a pair of binoculars and a cake stolen from him. He did finally get a chance to steal the binoculars back & went home happy. My ladies are so nice to me all year ‘round, but at Christmas they shine. Last year I got a beautiful clock from them and this year they gave me the most beautiful afghan, which is a misnomer. It’s a rich wine color velvet that looks more like it should be the focal point on a wall somewhere.

Saturday MomaG & I went to Katelee & Tucker’s Christmas program dress rehearsal since we couldn’t attend Sunday night. Talk about a couple of little hams. They danced and sang with all their hearts. Katelee’s solo was great even though she was upset about some props that were missing.

Katey, Andy & I drove up to Memphis to eat dinner with Molly & Kevin and attend the Memphis Symphony Orchestra & Choir’s performance of Handel’s Messiah – the whole 3-hour piece. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was. We were all awestruck that one man could write all that. The only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been having Laurie with us, but at this stage of her pregnancy she definitely couldn’t sit through the performance, even with the intermission. The Cannon Center for Performing Arts is a huge place that can accommodate lots of activities at once. The auditorium where we were seats approximately 2200 people. Saturday night’s proceeds went to the Orphanos charity. It was so much fun to laugh with the kids – lots of laughter before & after the performance. We got home about midnight - late for this Mamaw.

Last night was the BBC cantata – On This Very Night – a labor of love and you could hear it in every part from the choir and the orchestra. It takes a lot to make something like that come together. Kudos to the choir, soloists, instrumentalists, sound guys, audio/visual team, narrators and Bro. Kelly. And hats off to those who volunteered to kept the nursery.

There's lots going on this week at work; then a long break. If nothing happens, we should be off all next week and the first two days of the next, coming back on January 2nd . Let’s hope nothing happens!