Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Christmas Celebration


Christmas Concert
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.
My in-laws live in a wonderful senior community. They have the most active social life now -- it's wonderful. They have made some fantastic friends and have some really good times. My father-in-law, Ros, joined the Chorale at their community. They give two concerts a year and practice every week. This past Saturday, we went to their Christmas Concert.

They are joined by a bell choir, JuBELLation, that is directed by the same woman who directs the Chorale. They alternate songs and do two songs together.

It was wonderful! Very traditional which makes sense. They did a "community sing" in the middle which was so much fun. I found myself remembering alto lines from doing the same songs in High School. The picture below shows my father-in-law in the dark glasses with the dark hair.

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We took the kids and it was a little long and slow for them but they were very good. My nephew, who is in 5th grade, was also there and also wonderfully well behaved -- including silently entertaining Gage when Gage was just about DONE! I took the kids up to look at the bells after the concert and one of the bell ringers came and talked to us about them and showed us how they worked. He let the kids try bonging them with the mallets they use sometimes. It was so thoughtful. And, I learned something too. Bellringers wear gloves so they don't leave fingerprints on the bells! I figured there was some fancy technical reason why but it's just not wanting to polish them as often! Love the practicality!

Here is a video clip of parts of two songs. First comes the bells doing We Three Kings and then the chorale doing the same song -- albeit a very different version. The songs are just snippets.

3 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

They sound terrific! That sounds like one awesome senior community.

Oh- and your living room looks just beautiful!

Unknown said...

Thank you! It was such a fun event and they did sound good!

Especially the bells.

And, thanks for the living room compliment! I'm really pleased with it! Now to get the rest of the house in ship-shape before our Christmas Eve Eve party on Saturday! :O

LauraHinNJ said...

Love the sound of those bells (the choir was nice too).