Ring the Bells

I have been helping teach pre-school music at church this fall on Wednesday nights. And, by that I mean that I help put the appropriate DVD in at the appropriate time (which you would think would be easy enough, but I manage to botch it up a good bit of the time), I play bad cop and threaten to put instruments in time out if people are playing them instead of listening to Ms. Lisa, and I occasionally (ok, once) fill in and do the whole shootin' match when Ms. Lisa can't be there. It has been a lot of fun. (Seriously.) Especially considering that both of my kids are in the groups that I "teach."

Ms. Lisa is due to deliver a baby really any second now, so we went ahead and scheduled the Christmas program for last night so there would be a higher likelihood that she could lead the thing. We have spent the last few weeks trying to nail down a couple of songs we've been working on for a while and trying to teach a couple of Christmas songs for good measure.

Last night's program was, well, it was. Lisa had made me a CD of all the songs we'd be performing in case she went into labor at the last minute and I had to step in. We decided it would be easiest to use that CD even if she did make it because then everything would be in one place (and I'd be less likely to screw it up). When I arrived at church at the appointed hour, there was no Lisa in sight, so I grabbed the CD out of my purse and threw it into the player. It spun for a second and then said "Er", which I presume means error. I tried a couple more times and then went down the hall to procure another player. That one didn't work either. Luckily about this time, Lisa shows up (thank the good Lord), but she didn't have all of the back up CDs she'd used to burn my copy. Her mom was with her and went back to her house to get the back-up CDs and it did work out. Except that I put the 2nd song in first and then couldn't get the 4th song to play at all - due to the fact that I'd turned the volume all the way down to make a new ending to song 3 since we never could get the kids to learn all three verses of Away in a Manger. Considering all my puddle wallering and car-interior-soaking activities earlier in the day, I should have expected that things would not go smoothly - at least where my involvement was required.

I keep telling myself that no one really cared about our technical difficulties. There were only parents and grandparents in the audience and fully half of them were seeing their kids perform (and I use that term loosely) for the very first time. So, they got what they came for despite the glitches.

Here is a video of their last song: Ring the Bells. Please note the preacher's kid on the back row on the right side of the video (starting about half way through). He really got creative with ringing his bells. I would have uploaded some of the others, but the video quality is poor and, well, I'm just not into punishing you any more than necessary. Enjoy!

On a slightly different note, I have managed to stay on my feet and out of trouble today (and I am in for the evening), so I am in a much better mood today. I haven't even cried all day. Maybe I'll get into this Christmas season after all. Talk to me again after my next foray into the shopping arena and I'll let you know where I stand. I will, after all, have to go back out since yesterday's excursion only procured one gift.