A Very Busy and Wonderful Christmastime Weekend

 The Christmas musical at our church this year was held last weekend, and it was a new adaptation of Charles Dicken's classic, "A Christmas Carol."


 There is so much effort and creativity that goes into each Christmas and Easter musical, and this year was the largest cast and production yet. The messages of the musicals are always very meaningful with a lot of fun and humor mixed in.


Alyssa and Emma were privileged to be a part of the cast.
 




















Alyssa had a small role as Elizabeth Stone, Ebenezer's schoolyard crush, and she sang with the children's choir. It was her first experience in any of the adult musical productions, so it was exciting for her to see how everything works in the rehearsal process and backstage! It was also her first time trying to speak and act with an English accent ~ I think she pulled it off and did quite well!


 Emma was a last minute addition in the tiny role of "The Child of Want." All the costumes were so beautiful and she came out in these rags...but she was so happy and proud of the tatters and the dirt smudges that we are still working to get off of her.


 Here are the girls on Friday night laughing at the reflections of their different characters as I got their hair ready for the opening night show.


 Very excited to see her sisters perform.


 Emma was very sad (sad is not even the right word, it was far beyond that) to find out that her sweetest friend Halle's birthday party was right during one of the Scrooge performances. The morning of her birthday, we picked Halle up so she could spend a few hours celebrating with our girls. We were so happy she could spend part of her birthday with us, it was perfect and sweet time spent between friends, and the next best thing to being at her actual party.


 




















On Sunday morning after church, we headed to the art museum for their Next Generation Artists Family Sunday. Alyssa's class had their art on display there and this is her and her friends' recycled art project that they titled, "The Party Fridge." She and her classmates also had a Hand Chime Choir performance in the atrium of the museum.


 For the Family Sunday, the art museum had some great Christmas crafts for the kids.


 The girls loved them.


 They decorated special wrapping paper, painted tiny gift boxes, built tiny chairs, and made colorful noisemakers.


 The picture quality here is terrible, but this is a very typical pose for our girls. A and E ready for the photo and laughing at Rebekah as she runs away.


 




















After crafts and hand chimes, we were off and running back to church for two more showings of Scrooge. On the drive back the girls enjoyed these cute ornament cookies that my mom got for them to snack on.

It was such a busy weekend, but also a huge blessing to the girls to be able to be part of Scrooge. It was amazing to see the musical, all the work that went into it, and see how so many people came together to share the message of God's love at Christmas. It is my prayer that many people who were able to visit the church for the musical were ministered to greatly by the message.

Thank you so much to my parents who braved a drive through snowy, windy conditions just to see the girls!!! They were so happy you were there! With 5 performances we tried to split up our viewings so that one of us would always be there, either helping out in the building or watching. My parents were there Sunday and even though they didn't complain, I'm sure the drive up and back was rough.