Getting Into the Christmas Spirit

Elaine and I took a quick road trip this week(end). I picked her up on Friday morning around 10, and after a stop in town to deposit a check and another stop at the quilt store to check in with the owner and the class coordinator, we were on the way to Moscow, Idaho. What is in Moscow, Idaho, you ask? Elaine’s niece is a junior at New Saint Andrews College and we were meeting Elaine’s sister’s family there to attend the niece’s Christmas choir concert. Moscow is south of Coeur d’Alene. It took us about five hours to get there.

Elaine’s sister Alice lives in Seattle, and I spend enough time with their extended family that we all know each other. Alice arranged for an AirBnB large enough to accommodate Elaine and me for an overnight stay.

The concert was amazing. New Saint Andrews has a conservatory program that, while small, easily rivals that of a larger college like Oberlin in quality. The program also included two opportunities for congregational singing: ”Angels We Have Heard on High,” whose alto part I can sing from memory, and “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night” sung to a new-to-me tune by the name of “Otford.” Elaine and I are going to see if we can teach that latter tune to our congregation, because it is a four-part arrangement that is great fun to sing. The sheet music can be found here if you want to take a look.

We had breakfast with the family yesterday morning and then Elaine and I headed back to Kalispell. I am the pianist at church and she is my backup pianist, so it isn’t good if both of us are gone on Sunday morning. The roads were clear save for a stretch over Lookout Pass crossing from Idaho into Montana, but nothing I haven’t driven through (many times) before.

Whew. And now it’s Sunday again and we have church and choir practice.

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I received a lovely gift from my friend Janet—one or the other of us is often referred to as “the other Janet” in an attempt to keep us straight because she is the class coordinator at the quilt store. She made me this adorable zipper pouch!

I’ll have to check with her, but I think this is the Noodlehead Pencil Pouch. We are both big Noodlehead fans. I love the combination of the minky leopard print and the faux suede, and one can never have too many zipper pouches.

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I didn’t go to Thursday sewing last week; I started a deep clean of our bedroom and decided I didn’t want to stop. Not only did I clean the bedroom, I did our bathroom and the hall bathroom, too. I will go to sewing this week because it is our Christmas party. I have a few other things happening, but mostly I plan to stay home and get some work done.