Weekend Update: Christmas Chorale and Other Goodies

It's been another great weekend--60 degrees and sunny here! I could get used to this, especially after some of the brutally cold days we had two weeks ago. Yesterday, my sis-in-law came into town (she and a friend are here for the Broncos game) and we spent the day running some errands and discovering cute shops in Old Town Arvada. My favorite? An amazing old school candy/ice cream store that has an enormous, mounted animatronic buffalo head that not only twitches its ears and moves back and forth but speaks. Apparently, one of the employees hooked up the buffalo head to his iPod after hours and played the audio book version of "Go the F*** to Sleep," read by Samuel L. Jackson. A-mazing. Also amazing? Eggnog ice cream.

On Friday, I was invited by a new friend/coworker to a beautiful Christmas concert at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on South Downing Street. The concert turned out to be half choral music and half service, with 17th and 18th century classical pieces interspersed with congregational responses and readings of various passages of the Christmas story. A few random thoughts/highlights--

1. There were approximately 60 kids on stage, two-thirds of whom were dressed as shepherds, another third as angels, and the rest as wise men. Also thrown into the mix were an Indian (feathers, not dots) and...a lion. Not sure where they fit into the Nativity scene. Strange but cute.

3. I was gratified to see that the congregation member playing Joseph was African American (and Mary was white). You don't see that often.

4. When Baby Jesus started wailing, Mary dumped Jesus in Joseph's arms and left the stage. A woman behind me whispered, "I would have done the same thing." Mary returned a few minutes later (apparently, she went to get Jesus' pacifier), but it was a funny image nonetheless.

5. I held a lighted candle while we sang "Silent Night." That was always my favorite part of midnight Christmas Eve services when I was a child because it was such a beautiful moment, everyone standing and singing with the candles glowing in the darkness. Also, I kind of like playing with fire. My entire high school chemistry class, including the teacher, called me Pyro Child after I lit my lab assignment on fire with a Bunsen burner and it got out of control.

And now, it's time to prepare myself for the trip home to see my parents in LA. It's not actually home for me and I'm not a fan of urban sprawl and smog, so I can't say I'm looking forward to the trip. My parents aren't really Christmas-y people, so the holidays with them aren't all that festive. I'm also guessing there will be some wedding planning drama. Sigh. More on that later though. Anyway, I'd much rather be on the ranch or in Denver singing with the choir at the midnight candlelight service...not standing in an Asian strip mall parking lot for an hour on Christmas morning surrounded by other Chinese people waiting for dim sum. Last year though, my family went to the beach, which was pretty nice; maybe we'll do that again.

I'm not going to stress myself out about going home just yet though. Tonight, it's dinner and the third Star Trek movie in the "Spock trilogy" with MD; on Tuesday, I'm headed up to Westminster for sushi and cookie baking with J's aunt. I do love the holidays...as long as it's not with my family in LA. Okay, clearly, I am stressing. Must. Stop.