Christmas 2007

Yes, we have had an excellent time so far over the Christmas holiday.

December 20: Nicole and Kerry arrive, 11p or so.

December 21: large party at our house. This event turned out really nicely and involved most of the usual suspects.

December 22: party at Ray and Linda's place. Featuring seven-year old holiday brew - and caroling!

December 23: party at Mary Beth's place. Good food and lots of fun playing cards etc.

December 24: all three photos are from this date. Paul Jr. was coerced or whatever into playing Santa for a party next door - and did a fine job. Photo shows him getting his courage up with elvish assistants. Then we had a wonderful family dinner at Richardson's before returning home to open gifts. etc.

December 25: Patricia had to work. So we visited her in the afternoon and had fun saying hi to her friends. Chris came up with an amazingly fine Christmas dinner. Later on, (Patrick's U of A buddies) Michael and Taylor came over with a newish "video" game named Rock Band. This led to hours of singing. Two short videos here demonstrate the skills involved. Video one features Chris on vocals, Paul Jr. on guitar and Patrick on drums (check out the technique!) Video two features Kerry on vocals and Nicole on guitar.

December 26: something of a day off, though Patricia made a great dinner in the evening while others played Euchre. Then we watched a movie ("Joyeux Noel") which was entertaining though not great; fun to watch together.

Today: another big gathering for the Holiday Bowl (ASU v. Texas). And Jim and Carol will be arriving, yippee.

The only downside is that Patrick is spending chunks of time down in Tucson taking a winter session course.

More fun to come.

Christmas photos (1990)

I have no reason to post these photos from 1990, other than that it is Christmas, and I do like the photos. And check out the video game that Chris has (Jordan v. Bird, I believe). Ages here were Nicole 9, Chris 8, Kerry 7, Patrick 4, Paul Jr. 3.

Photos from Choral Union concert 12 03 07

Some photos taken at the Choral Union concert at Camelback Bible Church on the evening of December 3, 2007. Photos show performers, director, fans, warm-up. Courtesy of PJ's camera.

Choral Union Holiday Concert 2007

Chris, Paul Jr. and I had our (ASU Choral Union) holiday concert held at ASU's Gammage Auditorium on Sunday, December 2. We performed two sets of music: five of the choruses from Haydn's "Creation," and three pieces by John Williams from the movie, "Home Alone." The Haydn pieces were delightful. The "Home Alone" pieces were not our favorites. Performed per usual with the ASU Symphony Orchestra - neat. Patricia and I had dinner after at Carlsbad Tavern with Linda, Ray, Paul, Nedda.

We had a second performance at Camelback Bible Church on the evening of Monday, December 3; just performed the "Home Alone" stuff (with piano accompaniment instead of the symphony), and one of the Creation choruses (performed with four of the other ASU choruses so the sound was different/nice). Patricia and I had dinner with Chris at Chelsea's Kitchen after.

I missed the Saturday rehearsal with the orchestra. Patricia called from the side of the 51 freeway, just a bit north of the Northern Avenue exit - had a front-wheel blowout. So I drove there and we eventually got the tires taken care of. Which took some time but was sort of fun by the time we were finished.

By the way, it turns out that the "Creation" oratorio was considered one of Haydn's major works. There is some interesting info available by clicking here. Apparently the premiere was highly anticipated, and special crowd control measures were needed. Lawsuits were threatened over ownership rights, translation, etc. This all happened in the late 1790s but sounds quite modern indeed.

Photo is from the ASU website; perhaps you can recognize one of our performers if you click to enlarge. "Creation" selections below.