Carols by Candlelight

I never thought it would happen. I know Kelley Leidenthal really didn't think it would ever happen but yes folks, I got to be a part of our school's choir! I don't have the best singing voice in the whole word but in a sea of voices I can do okay. I sang Alto and it was so much fun! We had enough good singers to help us carry the tune and we had TONS of practices for a couple weeks before the event that is held every year.

Before the actual Carols by Candlelight event, we had some fun practice singing at the town hall in Cambridge. Here's Leah, Rachel and myself by the sign announcing our "gig" outside the town hall :)

Here's me rocking the smile :) Mitch was the choir director because he has a lot of experience being in choir and he made up a smiling contest so we didn't look like we hated life while singing, and guess who won..... yup, it was me. I'm not one to back down from a little competition.

This one I'm not smiling probably because I DID NOT know all the songs that well. My favorite song we sang was an African one called "Betelehemu". I think it was everyone's favorite. We sang 13 songs in total and interspersed was bible readings and Peter Thomas, our principal, gave a message.

Weird to see Christmas lights and people on lawn chairs. I know. It's so strange to have Christmas in summertime. I have yet to get used to it. Not that I'm complaining because I LOVE not having to scrape the ice off my car windshield :) They have been doing this event for 10 years now so it was neat to see that it's become part of people's Christmas tradition to come. We also had a lot of new comers this year which is always good. I guess they also have a choir around Easter time too so we'll see if I can finagle my way onto that one as well. CCC access band watch out :)

Monvale Homestead 100th Celebration

A couple weeks ago we celebrated the Monavale Homestead's 100th Anniversary. The old house that we use as study rooms and guest rooms has had 11 owners since it was built in 1910 so it's been a part of a lot of people's lives. Capernwray has had the building since 1995. The celebration was a week long thing, mostly with past owner family members and people in Cambridge. The biggest part of it was on Saturday when we had an open day for anyone who wanted to attend could come out. Elizabeth Thomas, our principal's wife, was set on all the students being in period costumes and getting everything organized. It was a ton of fun!

Here is the front of the Monavale Homestead.

Here is a picture of the different booths that we had out on the main lawn. Different people and businesses occupied the booths and sold various things. Once booth even had some alpacas.

Here is the barbershop quartet (ok, quintet) that Mitch (far left) put together. They sang a couple songs every other hour, even "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". I had that song stuck in my head for about a week after listening to them practice all the time.

Here's Leah and I in our fun outfits. Leah has become one of my closest friends at school, she's from Olando, Florida and lives right next to Disneyland. We have really similar personalities and don't we look cute :)

Not every girl had a fun hat so the group that did definitely had to get some fun photos together after the open day was over.

Here's the whole group. The girls with red aprons were serving in this big tent and the guy's costumes reminded me of the movie "Newsies" I think I've dressed up more at Bible School than years combined back home.