Traditions

I want to say that everyone has them but I think Bryan might disagree with me. He doesn't really care about traditions. He'd likely say that we traditionalists are the ones that are in the minority. I think he's wrong. Especially at Christmastime. Traditions all over the place. Family traditions. Neighborhood and community traditions. Even state traditions (for example...what is Christmas in Utah without The Festival of Trees, lights at Temple Square, "Forgotten Carols" and Kurt Bestor Christmas concerts?) But there are a few Christmas traditions that tend to reach beyond the local, beyond even the national sometimes. And I got to experience a couple of those this year.

We have a very good and well respected ballet school here in our hometown, and they perform The Nutcracker every year up at Weber State University. A live orchestra and principles from Ballet West make the whole production even more impressive. We get tickets every year because we like to support Julianne's friends and other girls from the neighborhood who participate. But when that iconic music starts and the curtain rises...I get goosebumps. And I think that even if we didn't know a single dancer up on stage, I'd still go.

This year my mom, my sister Melissa, and I had the opportunity attend and participate in the Utah Symphony's Messiah Sing-In. My mom has been singing The Messiah for years and knows it well. Melissa and I many years ago sang a couple of Christmas seasons worth of a traditional/gospel Messiah mix performance at the Grand Theatre so we were familiar with a few of the choruses as well. But this was the first time we'd ever been to the annual Utah Symphony's big to-do. So for those who are not familiar with how this whole Messiah thing works, here's a brief synopsis....
1. The Messiah is way too long to do in one sitting. Well, you could certainly. But it would be a much longer evening than is generally acceptable so the director picks which solos and choruses will be done, with the popular traditional choruses like "For Unto Us" and "Hallelujah Chorus" being a given.
2. The Symphony plays the whole thing, obviously.
3. They have four soloists...soprano, alto, tenor, bass.
4. In this case they also had the Utah Symphony Chorus to sing along with us on the choruses....presumably to buoy up the singers in the audience in case we botch our notes.

5. And we in the audience follow along in the program as to which song comes next and then follow along in our Messiah scores. (As a general rule, if you want to sing you bring your own music.)
6. Then when a chorus comes up, anyone wanting to "sing-in" stands up and goes for it.

It's such amazing fun! But also quite a spiritual experience if you really pay attention to the words being sung. And when we sang the Hallelujah Chorus it was such an incredibly joyful experience. Which is of course what the song is all about...singing joy. The Hallelujah Chorus is actually in the middle of The Messiah, so I was really glad that for an encore we got to do it again....

Time Out For Women

I'd never been to the Deseret Book sponsored Time Out For Women before. I'd had lots of friends who'd attended over the years and had heard good things....but I'd never made the time or frankly, really even had the desire to attend myself. Not that I didn't want to go, specifically. Just hadn't ever thought about going. I'm not sure why. But this year's theme was "Higher."

 Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
 "THINK HIGHER about your purpose, BELIEVE HIGHER as you face challenges that will require all your faith and heart, and LIVE HIGHER as you choose between good, better and best in this busy world." 

Being a member of a singing group called Higher Ground and helping co-write a song called "Reach Higher"...clearly a lot of my thought process and activities this past year has revolved around the idea of living and thinking HIGHER.

So I decided to look into going. Time Out For Women is a weekend full of faith promoting and inspiring music and speakers. There is a service project to participate in and a even a little bit of shopping to be had. My friend Julie (from Higher Ground) offered to join me and we opted to spring for the nicest seating section for the full weekend (you can choose to do just one day or both). Julie is a TOFW veteran so she knew all the ins and outs of how the whole event worked. And boy did we have fun! We laughed ourselves silly, took advantage of many of the photo ops and meet and greets, and spent more money than we probably should've on clothes and books. And then the actual speakers and performers....oh, oh, oh! We were most definitely lifted HIGHER.

Friday night we had the awesome opportunity to hear from Sheri Dew (one of my heroes...the woman is amazing), Terryl and Fiona Givens (a husband/wife historian and author team) the new Deseret Book singing group... quartet of men called Hudson Lights. And then if that wasn't enough, the finale of the night was Ann Romney (wife of Mitt Romney). Julie and I went home that night filled to bursting with light and goodness. Call me cheesy if you must but that's how I felt.

(When I told Sheri Dew that she was my hero, she laughed and told me to "aim higher.")

And if that's all we had, it would've been enough. But we had all of Saturday! And Saturday consisted of musical talents Sandra Turley (a Broadway singer) and the ever popular Hilary Weeks, and spoken messages from Mary Ellen Edmunds, S. Michael Wilcox, Jennifer Brinkerhoff Platt and Laurel Christensen Day. We laughed till we cried. And then cried some more as our spirits grew from the messages shared. I learned so much. I was inspired.

Apparently Hilary Weeks presents often at TOFW throughout Utah and all over the country. And when she does, tradition states that the final song of the day be "I Will." This is a song that we have performed a few times in our Higher Ground performances. A song that has a message that has touched me so deeply that I even made it the theme of a Sacrament Mtg talk recently. And when Hilary Weeks sings this song at TOFW the words are projected onto a big screen at the back of the stage and we in the audience are invited to sing along. I can't tell you what a perfect way to end the weekend that was for me.

I hope that I can hold onto the feelings I felt and the things I learned during this TOFW Higher weekend. And I sure do hope I will get another chance to attend TOFW again some day in the future....

Scraping frost with MP3s?

I remember well the days when with freezing hands (because if I wasn't prepared with a window scraper, what makes you think I would be prepared enough to have gloves) I would scrape my frost-covered car windows with a cassette tape cover. Something random in the glove box...Alphaville, Depeche Mode, OMD or something similar.

This morning I found myself scraping the frost from my windows with a CD case. Josh Groban in this instance. And this is not the first time a CD case has been my scraper of choice. (It works better than a credit card...trust me on this, I've tried it.) Being the more mature age of 40, you'd think I'd be wise enough to carry a scraper in my car. Apparently the age on my birth certificate does not necessarily equate to smarts....

But times are changing. In my car is pretty much the only place I listen to actual CDs anymore. MP3s are what we listen to now. In the not too distant future I will probably own a car with no CD player at all. Just a plug-in to listen to a playlist I've downloaded from my iTunes account. And how can I scrape the frost off my windows with that???

Scuttle

In my opinion, Julianne played the part of Scuttle brilliantly in the production of The Little Mermaid that she performed with her local theatre group recently. She continually blows me away every time I see her perform. And though it may be presumptuous of me to say so, I do actually feel that I am experienced enough in theatre and music to pass judgement on her skills. So though I am her mother, I don't think it's solely based on bias when I say that my kid is good!

Unfortunately I made a rookie blogger mistake and left my nice camera at home. So the pictures that follow are taken with my iPhone. Which might have not been too bad seeing as they were performing in their studio which isn't the hugest of spaces anyhow...but I was not able to snag myself a front row seat. Less than stellar camera combined with a seat on the second to back row equals somewhat grainy pictures. Hmph. But I'm using them anyhow....probably more than you care to see. Because I am a proud mama.

"ARIEL! HOW YA DOIN' KID???"

 "Whoa, what a swim!"

This show was actually put together in preparation for a trip to the Junior Theatre Festival being held in Atlanta, Georgia in January. They are only allowed to take 15 minutes worth of material to the festival so these 5 performances were not only so the parents could see the show, but also an audition of sorts. The director brought in a couple of judges to each show to watch and rate each scene and help decide which sections would head to Georgia. This was Julianne's biggest goal....to get her big scene to the festival. Because though Scuttle is featured in numerous parts of the show, her main scene is when Ariel comes to Scuttle to ask about "Human Stuff"....and Julianne gets to sing a very hilarious song with back up "gulls" and all sorts of choreography.

I personally thought it was the best scene of the show. (Bias or experience?) And so Julianne was thrilled (and I felt gratified) to learn a few days later that her "Human Stuff" scene consistently ranked at the top of each judge's list for all five shows. And hey... it's going to Georgia!

"Oh no. I can't make out a heartbeat..."

Grizzlies

We have an ice hockey team in Utah. The Grizzlies. According to my brother-in-law, Scott, who is a hockey player himself...the Grizzlies are more or less the minor leagues of the minor leagues. Considering we are a winter sport kind of state, I'm a little surprised we don't have a big NHL team here. I mean, our minor-minor league team plays in the arena where the ice hockey games were played during the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics! But nonetheless, we have the Grizzlies and they seem to have a loyal, albeit somewhat small, fan following. And it seems to be a big deal to sing the National Anthem at one of their games. Rebekah and her high school Madrigal group were invited to sing the anthem at a game recently and Lilian and I decided it might be fun to go hear them sing and stay to watch the game.

We invited my sister Melissa, her husband Scott and their daughter Maddy to come along. Which proved to be a great idea because not only did we enjoy their company, Scott was also able to give us all the ins and outs of hockey. There's a lot more that goes into a hockey game than you would think. (I was especially interested in the real reason behind all that fighting....)

When Rebekah was just a toddler, someone told me that she looked more like my sister Melissa, than me. What do you think? Because this girl is very much a "mini-me" in personality. And keep in mind, once upon a time before I started dying my hair I was also a blondie....

Concert-goers

How lucky, yes...that both Josh Groban and Michael Buble had concert tours this year and played in Salt Lake City just a few weeks apart? I've seen both of them in concert before in past years so you would think that I could save a few bucks and say "been there, done that." But see, because I have "been there, done that" I know first hand what their concerts are like which makes me more likely to say..."I want to do that AGAIN!!!" They are both tremendous performers, and of course, very swoon-worthy...ear candy and eye candy all in one package.


JOSH GROBAN

I saw Josh Groban with Chellie, Kami and Lori...my friends from childhood, we all grew up in the same neighborhood and church ward. Lori introduced us to Josh Groban way back when he first arrived on the music scene and we often drooled over his music on our various girls night out activities. But strangely enough as of this past summer when the concert tour was announced and tix went on sale, though the rest of us had been to JG concerts in the past, Lori had not. So we decided that this time, the four of us TOGETHER needed to go. And seriously, one of the highlights for me was watching Lori's reaction.

A few of Josh's funnier (and/or sillier) of his random quotes:
* "I feel like this is the Bieber moment of the show." (Actually both JG and MB mocked the Biebster.)
* "I must have really dirty shoes...I'm making Converse tracks all over my stage! I like it...it's like following a trail of Reeses Pieces. 'ET phone home...'"
* "You treat me like a piece of meat, Salt Lake City.....I like it!"
* "My hair is really fluffy today..."
* You guys actually have great rhythm! It's always a pet peeve when we ask the audience to clap and then...they can't. So yay you!!"

MICHAEL BUBLE

Last time Michael Buble was in town my sister Melissa and I went together and got cheap seats. We repeated, but upped the experience by springing for closer seats this time around. And though I feel slightly traitorous for saying this, though I've been to 3 Josh Groban concerts now and they have all been amazing and fabulously enjoyable, I still think MB ultimately puts on a better show. Michael Buble had me laughing so hard my cheeks hurt. There was confetti and fireworks. His stage was phenomenal, the things it could do...in one of the videos I took you can actually hear me say, "Oh my gosh....WOW!" He just constantly kept us on our toes but was so personable all at the same time. He joked around about us all being Mormons and how he felt "a little left out." He commented that "You guys are living proof that you don't need alcohol to have a good time!" And then after we all cheered, he followed that up with, "And now the biggest surprise of all...free coffee for everyone!" But seriously, my friend Lori's brother works for (or did in the recent past) a radio station and so rubs shoulders with all sorts of music types. And he has told Lori that musicians like playing in Salt Lake City because most of us don't drink and are therefore sober. Which means that instead of playing to a drunk and high audience, we actually "get" their show. We can focus on and really appreciate the music and they can actually interact with us as an audience. Interesting little tidbit there.