Cassie's Journal - December 18, 2014

The school Christmas pageant became one of my favorite events of the holidays last year when Michael and I did our first duet and played for the younger kids; and we had even more fun with all of that today – and it was just as special for me.

Before I get to that, though; I should probably start this update with the snow report.

The fluffy white stuff won’t be staying around until Christmas, but it did make our Christmas show today feel more Christmassy.  It also gave us more work to do this morning because we woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground that needed to be cleared from the driveways, sidewalks, and roads.  That’s why Tai Chi was cancelled this morning in favor of some outdoor work and fun.  That was a total team effort, and while we donated the garden tractor and snow blower; Jake actually took care of running it and clearing driveways and the sidewalk between our house and his while Michael, Rebecca, and I were on shovel duty for the sidewalks and porches at our houses.  Ethan and Ehlana came out to play for a while too; we had a snowball fight; and built a modest little pair of snow twins too before heading inside to our own houses to have breakfast and get ready for school, work, or other activities.

That made for a fun start to our day, and the entertainment continued all morning as Michael and I split our time between doing music warm-ups with the kids we played guitar and keyboard for this afternoon and helping out with the set-up in the gym for the pageant.  We had time for one last, quick run-through of our duet song with Rowen and Tim too shortly before lunchtime; so we were ready for the break at lunchtime before needing to move on to the gym and the big show.

The snow had pretty much ended by then, and had just been very light for most of the morning; so the weather didn’t get in the way of a really good turnout for the pageant.  Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana were there with our usual group of family and friends – and Aunt Grace and Aunt Deborah came with Caleb and Sebastian too.  The program started at a few minutes after one, and after our teen ‘hosts’ opened with a little Christmas comedy; we got right into the program.  Michael and I weren’t involved in the first act; but the ‘class’ performances were done in order beginning with the Kindergarten kids; so we were up second with them; and then with the other classes as their songs or skits were mixed into the program with the other performances.  While I loved all of the songs we did with the kids, and our band performance; I’m sure you won’t be surprised to find out that my duet with Michael that Rowen and Tim helped us out with was my favorite part of the afternoon.

That’s why I’m adding my Christmas music video clip into my update here, and while our version was a bit different; I’m sure that we did an amazing job too.  I got that same perfect moment feeling while Michael and I sang it; we made a lot of girls cry; and had those seconds of hushed audience silence before the applause that you know means that you did a great job.  I’ll add in the lyrics too, along with which parts Michael and I took for our solo parts of the duet, so when you listen to the song clip; just imagine it as a boy-girl duet.  Tim did an awesome job as narrator; and Rowen’s flute arrangement was soft, light, and beautiful.

It Could Happen Again – Collin Raye

Tim’s Narration:

"One frozen night in 1914,
at the height of WWI,
the unthinkable happened.
All along the entire western front,
the British and German soldiers
lay down their weapons
in an unofficial cease fire
to celebrate Christmas Eve together.
They exchanged gifts
and saw each other as brothers.
And that piece lasted for two more days,
when they were ordered back to battle.
In those few days, though,
men remembered the true meaning of Christmas
amongst the devastation,
and it's a story that should never be forgotten..."

Michael:
Through the smoke-filled night
Silence rolls from both sides
Across a bloody battlefield
It was a cold Christmas Eve
In 1914
For those who were there it seemed unreal

Cassie:
As time was still the Spirit moved the soldiers
To lay down their arms
Raise their voice in song
And pretend for awhile
The war was over

Michael – melody; Cassie – harmony:
If it could happen then,
It could happen again
A world torn apart
Could join hands and hearts
To celebrate His birth
And peace on this Earth
If for one magic night
We could find again a reason not to fight
Maybe there's a chance ..
This time it might last

Cassie:
As opposing sides approached
Through broken words they spoke
It wasn't long before they felt at ease
They shared their cigarettes
What they had they used as gifts
They didn't feel like enemies.

Michael:
With candles lit,
They stood shoulder to shoulder
And on that field they found
True common ground
And as they prayed
They dreamed the war was over

Cassie – melody; Michael – harmony:
If it could happen then,
It could happen again
A world torn apart
Could join hands and hearts
To celebrate His birth
And peace on this Earth
If for one magic night
We could find again a reason not to fight
Maybe there's a chance ..
This time it might last

Michael – a cappella:
If it could happen then,

Cassie – a cappella:
It could happen again.

For us, the little bit of history lesson in the song was a bonus, but from what we were told later; that message for the kids and teens was very important to quite a few of the grandparents and seniors.  I won’t drag that part of my report out, though, and while our song was one of the highlights of the pageant; nearly every kid and teen had a chance to shine – either as part of a group or with their own special contributions.  The most important thing about the pageant is that we all had a really great afternoon filled with music, love, and a lot of Christmas fun and cheer.

Michael and I were not on the post-pageant clean-up crew; mostly because we were politely told that we’d done enough for the day – and because some of our teachers knew that Michael’s parents needed our help at the Inn more than they needed help with packing up chairs and the rest of the gear.  I ran home first to get changed and freshened up after hours of busy and music; but then I spent the next six hours or so at the Inn.  Helping out with the dinner prep-work was more fun than the cleaning that followed the main dinner rush; but this was the quietest dinner rush of the week – even though most of the diners stayed for the last game night of the year too.

I had a lot of fun with Michael and Rebecca while we worked; though some of the highlights of our kitchen time came from Miranda and Stephanie passing on diner comments about our duet – and the ongoing jokes and razzing about that from Jake.  That was directed at Michael more often than me; but Michael was okay with that – Jake is proud of his little brother even if he has a back-handed way of showing it.

There isn’t much else to add for the dinnertime part of my day, and while it wasn’t the busiest night of the week; we were still kept busy – and only took quick breaks to have our own meals.  The teen conversation in the kitchen was mostly about plans for the first weekend of our Christmas holidays, and though fun with family and friends was the biggest part of those chats; the fun parts of the holidays are still going to happen around the work – whether that’s at the Inn, home, or elsewhere.  That’s just the way it is when you have jobs that are busiest during holidays and weekends.

Okay, I don’t technically have a job doing that; but I will be helping out if for no other reason than I want to spend the time with my boyfriend while he’s busy anyway.

We didn’t help out with the game night set up this week; and didn’t win the junior championship; but Michael and I did have fun playing the games and hanging out with our families and friends.  Mom and Miranda did win the senior championship, so Miranda is very happy to get to hold that title over the holidays again this year – and into the New Year.  I’m beginning to suspect that her friends are helping her out with that a bit by not trying to play their best – or even fudging their numbers so that Miranda has a better chance of winning this particular championship; but I’ll probably need another year or two of data before being able to statistically prove that.  The rest of the top-ten scores were lower than last year, and there was a bigger margin of victory; so there’s a good chance that I’m not going to be wrong about that.  I’ll keep you posted on how that works out next year.

Because we were doing our Christmas game night, we were at the Inn a bit longer than usual; and I did stay to help with the clean-up tonight.  That wasn’t just to be able to walk home with Michael and share a better goodnight kiss with him that we generally can manage at the Inn; but that was a nice bonus!

I didn’t stay at his house, though, and while we don’t exactly have a tough day ahead of us at school tomorrow; we did want to rest up so we’ll be ready for our sleepover plans tomorrow night.  Going straight to bed wasn’t an option for me when I got home; but only because Mom did a Magi lesson with me while Ethan and Ehlana wrote another final exam.  Mom didn’t want to stay up half the night either, though; which is why my lesson included a time-phase as part of some multi-tasking that also allowed the twins to write those exams without using up a lot of ‘real’ time to do that.  It took longer to get them ready for bed and tuck them in; but then that was more fun for all of us too.

There’s been a lot going on today around here that I haven’t covered in this update; but I won’t be able to get to everything.  Violet and Dillon are at his house again tonight; and I think they’ll be there most of the time they’re here – though they might stay with us while Violet’s family is here for the weekend after Christmas.  I know through Jake and Stephanie that they’ve spent some time with their best friends – and with Josiah and Christina – during the days; but have mostly just been at Dillon’s house at night to hang out with his parents, Isabelle, and Andrew.  I should do a college friends update sometime soon; but let’s not do that tonight.  I’d really rather just wrap this up and head off to sleep now.

After tucking Ethan and Ehlana in for the night, I came up here to my room; got ready for bed; and then snuggled in for the night with Mandy and my computer.  The usual nightly computing hasn’t taken too long; though I have had some family business work to deal with – little updates for a half-dozen different jobs and projects.  I didn’t want to be up late doing any of that either; so I time-phased again while taking care of those jobs – even though I needed to trade that off with being even more tired out after using up a fair bit of energy during my lesson.  There weren’t any other email from friends or family that need mentioning here; though I have been kept mostly up-to-date with holiday plans for my cousins and their families – especially since they won’t be here for Christmas Day this year.  We don’t have family Christmas plans for this weekend; but almost all of my cousins outside of Witch Falls do.  While I do sometimes wonder what that’d be like; I’m also glad that our family Christmases are always here – and that we don’t need to do a lot of travelling to get to those family events.  Yes, that always means more work to get ready for hosting those events and visits; but I’m going to keep enjoying the hometown life for as long as I can after our years of hiding and moving around the country.

I don’t want to go off to sleep thinking about that, but I don’t have anything else to add tonight; so I’m just going to think happy thoughts about our plans for tomorrow night and, hopefully, spend some quality time dreaming about that for the rest of the night – with Michael and me in starring roles for that dreamland show!

Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!