Christmas Eve service.

[rivka]

Merry Christmas! I'm sitting here waiting for Alex to wake up. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? [Edited to add: and then she woke up, and I finished this later, after presents - about which, more later.]

Look, look, you can see our Christmas pageant!!

Christmas Pageant 2008 from Becky Brooks on Vimeo.

A million thanks to unodelman for taping and to acceberskoorb for getting it posted right away. It's quite hard to hear them, although basking in their cuteness is easy enough. Here's the script for reference in case you can't bear to miss a single nuance of my brilliant writing. ;-)

The pageant went beautifully last night. It's amazing how much more quickly everything goes when you're not able to stop the kids and give them directions. But they did great! As anticipated, the doves were pretty much incapable of remembering what to do, but they were so cute that it wasn't a problem. I just feel lucky that none of them cried and refused to go onstage. I'm so very proud of all the kids.

The closing words for the service were Jo's lovely poem about the diversity of animals attending the Nativity. What a perfect match for both our pageant and the principle of Universalism.

Afterward, we herded the kids into the RE rooms to get their costumes off, and acceberskoorb utterly floored me by presenting me with a gift: a gorgeous picture book with an expanded version of the Friendly Beasts carol. Signed by all the kids. I don't know how she did that without me noticing, but there inside the front cover are all these carefully printed or I-just-learned-cursive-inscripted messages and names. I cried.

Also, each family got a card with a beautiful little pageant ornament: a picture of their kid(s) from dress rehearsal night, cut to ornament size and laminated. Unbelievable. When did she find time to do that?!

It was really a perfect service. It was so lovely.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

*smile*

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Ohmigosh, so great. I laughed, I cried.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Cutest. Thing. EVER.

Made me all misty-eyed, it did. Thanks for sharing it with us, Rivka.

(And yes, you should get drafted to direct every Christmas show from now on...)

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Adorable! Congratulations on a job well done.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

They are so cute! And so serious! And that's lovely. I am so proud you used my poem.

[acceberskoorb.livejournal.com]

Thank YOU, for the beautiful poem. It was the perfect addition to the service!

[acceberskoorb.livejournal.com]

It really was perfect. We had lots more people at the service than last year, surely drawn by the lure of the pageant. There were even —gasp— church folks without children! We haven't had a pageant at church in recent memory and I think it filled a hole in the hearts of the families that nothing else could have. I don't think I've ever been as proud as I was watching all our small people rise to the occasion. It was truly beautiful and though it couldn't be completely captured on film, I'm so glad we got a video too, to spark my memory of how fantastic it was. And none of it would have happened without Rivka. For that I am SO grateful. Thank you!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

None of it would've happened without you, either. You know that, right? Thanks for everything you did.

What was the total attendance count? I know we must have a reliable one this year because of who was ushering.

I don't think I've ever been as proud as I was watching all our small people rise to the occasion.

Yes! I felt so honored by how earnest and dedicated they were, and by their gift of their talents and their energy. They worked hard, and they did beautifully. It was wonderful to be able to offer them a setting in which to shine.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

That went well! And we can tell Alex even in the tiny picture!

[lynsaurus.livejournal.com]

It was faaaaabulous. I'm glad I could be there in person. My favorite part was when Mary picked up baby Jesus by his head to lay him in the manger.