Year End Catch Up

I'm about to head out to Camp Harmony tomorrow, as is usual for this time of year. Before I do, though, I wanted to breeze quickly through some of the good stuff from the last busy two weeks:

• Hearing Chanticleer perform in MemChu with Rowyn and Sandra. Chanticleer is an all-male chorus, but they still sing alto and soprano parts, and they're incredible. Especially in MemChu. One of my favorite bits was in Arvo Pärt's Sieben Magnificat Antiphone when they just settled in and sat on a minor second until the whole church just vibrated with it. Mmmmm.
• Going to the Christmas Revels with Mom. This was my first time actually going to the Revels, though I've been listening to the music for years. I loved Shira's opening with God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen on the fiddle, and Geoff Hoyle being hilarious throughout, and the old favorites like Lord of the Dance, and the Abbotts Bromley Horn Dance. And of course, I got to see and hear my favorite alto in the chorus.
• Waldon-Lieber-Edwards-Atkisson Christmas. After some heroic rescheduling on Dad and Betty Lue's part, Lacey and I got to go to this conflict-free. And we made delicious egg nog, which I still intend to try as ice cream someday.
• Friday Night Waltz and "Friday" Night Waltz. After a couple weeks of being sick and/or busy, it was quite nice to be dancing again. The Saturday one had a live band playing excellent renditions of many of my favorite waltzes.
• Boone-Haas Christmas. White elephant gift exchanges are usually more fun for the exchanging than for the gifts, but this time I ended up with a game that I've actually gotten some fun out of already. Also, Rowyn got to come along at the last minute and short circuit her brain trying to learn the names of 20 different relatives all at once.
• Christmas itself. Quite mellow after the parties of the preceding weekend.
• Planning my time off. It's actually being rather trickier to schedule some things than I'd expected, considering I'll be unemployed in a couple months, which ought to make it easy. But with Lacey attending a school and me a wedding, we might not end up taking our trip together after all. Plans are all still in the vague stage, though.
• Getting ready for Harmony. Hmm, have I done this yet? I probably should....

I've had various other blog posts queuing up in my head recently, but not quite making it out. Some may see the light of day in January, and others will probably just as well not. For now, I'm leaving the world of computers behind to go dance, sing, and play out in the redwoods for 5 days. Happy new year!