Christmas Festivities

The month of December seems to have flown by! I can't believe we are only 2 days away from Christmas. There is 15 inches of snow on the ground in Corinth, so it definitely looks like Christmas. I've been busy the last few weekends with the usual holiday performances. I finished up my work at Foxcroft Academy with our winter concert on the 13th. It was sad to leave those kids, but they were very sweet to wish me good luck in my new job. I feel very fortunate that I had the chance to work with them and get to know them the past few months.

In addition to performances at FA, the choir at Mom's church had a big performance this past weekend. I've been directing the choir this fall in preparation for their Christmas Cantata. We've had a great time rehearsing every Wednesday night and I've enjoyed getting to know this group of church people better. They did an amazing job on the cantata and it was so fun to stand in front of them and conduct them in their performances this weekend. We all had a great time and I am so thankful to all of them for their energy and commitment. Here is a (bit blurry) photo of me and the choir as we warmed up before the performance on Saturday night. We sang to packed crowds both Saturday night and Sunday morning and it was great! Mom and I also had the choir over to the house for a party after the performance Saturday night, which was very fun. Lots of yummy food and good fellowship!

New Job!!!

Yes, you read that correctly - I have a job, a full time job!!! A few weeks ago I was hired as a long term sub for MS/HS music in Newport, NH. At that time, the job was only going to be for 4-8 weeks, beginning Jan. 5, but there was the possibility that the music teacher wouldn't be back for the rest of the year and I could stay through June. I heard from the superintendent today and it is official - the music teacher isn't coming back this year and the job is mine for the next 6 months! I really got a good feeling about Newport and the school when I went out there for my interview. The principal and superintendent were great and they just built a new fine arts wing on the school with a beautiful, HUGE band room. The job is 6th grade beginning band, 7-8 grade band, and 9-12 grade band and jazz band. I had a chance to hear the HS band the day I was there and they sounded really good. It was nice to see full instrumentation (I had no brass players in Peru - very tricky when it comes to band music) and they played at a pretty high level for such a small school. I can't wait to get in there and start working with them. I'm planning on going in over Christmas vacation to spend some time in my classroom and choose music and all of that stuff that I love!

And, of course, I need to find a place to live. I'm working on a couple of leads and hope to have something lined up in the next week or so. Then the next task is going through all my stuff in the basement and deciding what I need to take with me and what Mom will continue to let me store down there. I'm very appreciative that I could live at home for the past few months, but I am also very excited to have my own place again. And to unpack all my things, some of which I haven't seen since I packed them up in my apartment in Concord before I moved to Berlin.

So, things are looking up in my world and I am very excited about it! I'll keep you posted on further developments. And you're welcome to come visit me in the Newport/Sunapee area anytime!

Christmas Preparations

I have to admit that I do like living at home during Advent. My mom always decorates the house really beautifully and it helps get me in the holiday spirit. We were a little slow getting the tree and the decorations up this year, but they are up now and everything looks so nice.

Most of my ornaments are in storage in the basement (in a box that I wouldn't even begin to know where to find), but it was fun to put up all of Mom's ornaments. She has lots of nativity and Noah's Ark ornaments that are beautiful, but my favorite one is this very old picture of Marc and I. Yep, that would be 1979 - I was 3 and Marc was only 3 months old. I love it!

My mom has always collected Nativity sets and she has some really neat ones. I've bought her ones from the places I've lived or visited, so it is quite a multi-cultural collection. Here is a sampling of just a few of them, arranged along the windowsill in the dining room.

I hope you are having a beautiful Advent!