Church

Today we had a Christmas program during Sacrament Meeting at church.  It turned out wonderfully well.  The choir performed a cantata in which Brittany and Sarah both sang, and Sarah played her flute as accompaniment during one of the songs.  They sounded really good.  They like singing in the choir, since they aren’t in chorus at school.

Tonight we had our Ward Christmas Party and we had a great time!  Santa came first and the boys were really excited!  They couldn’t wait to get to the church and tell Santa what they wanted.  As is to be expected, every time we ask the boys what they want from Santa, the list changes dramatically!  🙂

We then had dinner and a great program.  The whole theme of the party was around being other people’s angels (we had a project leading up to the party where we were supposed to put all of our change into a Christmas jar and then give it to someone in need).  The program was well put together we enjoyed listening to the kids sing (who all dressed up like angels), readings, and songs where we all sang.

Today was the Naperville Mayor’s Community Prayer Breakfast that they hold annually.  This is hosted by the Heritage YMCA in Naperville.  This year, Angela was on the board to plan and produce the event!  🙂  She was in charge of all of the music.

The program included music which Angela arranged, scripture and special guest speakers.  Jack Lund, CEO and president of the YMCA of Greater New York in New York City, was the guest speaker and did a GREAT job.  Food was provided by Belgio’s Catering, and Naperville Mayor George Pradel lead in the reading of the litany.

Musical entertainment was provided by Waubonsie Valley High School junior Josh Blue a friend of Sarah’s.  Angela was very excited to get him to sing.  He is also a pianist, trombone and bass guitar player and singer.  He played Javert in the WVHS’s spring production of “Les Miserables” (which blew us away!) and frequently volunteers his musical talents at nursing homes, on church mission trips and for organizations like Feed My Starving Children and KidsMatter. He recently has been selected to participate in R.Ed.I (Restore, Educate, Inspire), a pop musical show that performs for Illinois high school students addressing issues related to peer pressure.

In addition, the group Friends in Harmony performed.  This group consists of many friends from church.

It turned out to be a spectacular event and one that I wish I could have gone to.  I stayed home with the kids while Angela did her thing there.  Great work Angela!

Today, Zach and Kirstyn had a Primary party at the church that they went to.  After that, I stayed home with Ben and the rest of the family went to Savior of the World.  It was a great production put on by the Naperville Stake.  It was a musical drama presented with a live chorus and stage actors depicting the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The girls really loved it.  All together, there were about 180 volunteer actors, choir members and backstage crew from nine area congregations of the church.  It was very touching.  I wish I could have gone, but I would have been out in the hall with Ben the whole time.  🙂

Tonight, Sarah, Brittany, and I went over to Feed My Starving Children for a combined Young Men and Young Women Activity.  We had about 60 of us there, along with about 30 others that were volunteering from other places.  We worked very hard and ended up with:

• 93 boxes
• 216 meals in each box
• 20,088 meals
• Enough food to feed 55 kids for an entire year!

We really love going over there and performing service!  The food we packed to night is going to Guatemala.

Today was our annual primary program at church, where the kids sing, give little parts and talks.  Kirstyn, Zach, and Ben all participated.  Kirstyn was one of the main narrators, and Zach sang most of the songs.  He is such a funny kid… He came to church with a tucked-in white shirt, tie, and sport jacket.  By the time he finished his program (up on the stand facing everyone), he had his jacket off, his tie off, and his shirt untucked!  Given any more time, his shoes and socks, and possibly shirt would have come off!  🙂

Ben also participated.  They brought all the little nursery-aged kids up (2-4) and they sang “I am a Child of God.”  Ben knows this song pretty well, but when he got up in front of the congregation, he froze.  He wouldn’t sing a lick.  🙂  It was pretty funny!  Every time we would mouth to him to sing, he would just bite on his finger and timidly shake his head.  He had the people behind us laughing.  🙂

Today was an absolute crazy day!  We had tons of things going on.  Early this morning, Angela and her Public Affairs cohort, Julie Stevenson left to go to Bourbonnais, IL to a preparedness fair that they have been working extremely hard on coordinating for the past 6-8 months!  There were groups from all over who participated and the fair went off very well!  Angela was very nervous that no one would come from the community down there but fortunately, she was wrong.   The attendance was great!  They also had our scout troop down there doing some cooking and survival skills demonstrations, and they brought down at least 100 loaves of homemade bread to cut up and pass out.

She and Julie left just after 6 and didn’t get back home until just after 4.  What a tiring but fulfilling day!  Way to go Angela!  You could hear the sigh of relief that this was over all the way from Bourbonnais when they started back home!  🙂  See part 2 for football and Homecoming Dance!  🙂