Friday night was Hanging of the Greens - or those who know it well call it HOG. This was my 5th performance in Hanging of the Greens and my parents 4th time seeing it! They drove all the way to SAU after work in order to see the magesticness that Spring Arbor proclaims. As far as I'm concerned its not HOG without the Bethlehem Processional which was the intro piece again this year. The choir sings as they walk in the church from the back doors. They are swaying together and once they reach the the front of the stage they raise their hands with the beat - and it is just soo powerful! I love it. I was supposed to be waiting back stage but I snuck up to the balcony to watch that song with my family (and Tab and Sarah)! The String Ensemble played 3 songs - first: What Wondrous Love is This? second: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - which was arranged by one of the students and beautifully done! Third: Mannheim Steamrollers version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen! Every year we get better and this year was no exception. The Christmas Carol winner was written by a freshman boy - and it was fantastic! With the exception of the last song - but the band which was horrible - unless the arranger was going for dissonant cords throughout all of your favourite Christmas songs - it was a GREAT HOG!
After the concert - the fireworks were great and it wasn't BITTER cold - just COLD. Nick after several years of not standing by me during the fireworks finally had the opportunity - but my dad had to go to the bathroom so Nick took him - missing the first 2 mins of the show - but he returned and therefore no tears were in order this year. Then we pow wowed upstairs in the fire side. Sarah joined us and we enjoyed the chatting. Then we had Anna take a family picture of all of us infront of the fire!!
After the yummy cookies, pretzels, wasail and punch - we loaded up some of Michaels stuff to move home, then Nick & I followed my parents to the hotel to crash their pool party! We chatted with them for a while in the room and then Dad, Nick and I went for a late night hot tub party. It was closed but the front desk lady was nice enough to turn the lights back on for us quiet guests! We returned to the room where mom was watching Say Yes to the Dress and we watched a bit of that together before heading home.
It had been about a month and a half since I had been to my house, and Christmas time is just my favourite! Saturday morning we decided to meet mom and dad for lunch in Ann Arbor since we were both stopping there anyways on our ways to Canada! We met them at Bennigans - mainly for the Death By Chocolate - which when we got their found out they weren't making anymore - my dad was quite upset by that - and because of that they gave us a free Banana's Foster.
Then after dropping something off at Tyler's we headed home. There's nothing like getting home and being sent back out the door before you even have a chance to take off your shoes. Steph needed help moving a new coffee table into her house so we went to do that. Then we got back home again - and before we could even think about taking off our shoes again Dad sent us out on another errand. On the way back from this errand we knew they'd be gone to the Cantata practice before the performance that evening so we stopped at Bulk Barn - where we ran into dad! HA.
The Cantata that evening went well! I just love seeing Dad up there singing. I had a flood of emotions crashing inside my head. "I miss singing up there with all my friends", "I wish I had gotten a chance to be in the choir at the same time as my mom & dad", "There's are lot of new people- and they're missing some of the great oldies", "oh, I hope Landy is healthy enough to walk both his daughters down the aisle this year" etc. Then when my mom joined in singing back up for one of the solo's that's when the tears that were resting on the lower lids of my eyes spilled out and all over Nicks shoulder. OOH what an emotional time that was! As far as the actual cantata goes - the drama was very real- able to hit home with most anyone that attended. Addressed the questions - "why do bad things happen to good people?" and "where is God in these situations?".
Saturday night after the fellowship portion (which Nick and I hung out with Mark/Krystal and Terry) we headed home and totally relaxed. The kitchen was our first location for hanging out while mom made a vegitarian lasagna and I made us Potato bowls for dinner! We watched The Antique Roadshow. Nick and Mom would compete to see who could guess closest to the value of the antique. I loved being lazy and cuddling with my dad and Nick! That's probably my favourite part of being home - the non-rushing - just being with each other part.
At Church on Sunday morning I got to hold Kenneth Medenblik - a 5lb little baby who is a twin! His twin bother, Lincoln is still in the hospital hopefully out later this week! I loved finally holding a baby after waiting soo long since Jennie had her babies and we haven't been able to hold them yet!
After church on Sunday morning we headed over to Stephs for the Foster Christmas. Now we're a pretty wild bunch so a fun time was in order. This year we had 4 little children to entertain us. Wyatt & Emma, Peyten and Michael. Very cute, very entertaining. Anyhoo after most had left only little Michael was left. His grandpa had fallen asleep - like usual and the idea of whipped cream came up. Soo - his step-daugher-in-law, Marlo got up, grabbed the whipped cream and before she could get to uncle Richard - Uncle Steve (his older brother) decided for once in his life to protect him instead of picking on him. He turned the whipped cream back on Marlo and a fight broke out! Gotta love it. In years past we have witnessed the common fight over the turkey heart, we have cut off the tips of peoples socks on more than one occcasion, thrown new comers to our family in the pool and other ridiculous things!! I love my family! We have soo much fun!
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