How the Grinch Found Christmas

First, a little visit from Jingle Bell.  The elf comes back, and it's tradition!  Maddie woke up this morning with her routine at the advent calendars, and then passing by the piano where we discovered something new.

Ah, it looks like he has a favorite musical artist!  After quick prayers, we were on our way out the door pretty fast.  It would be a really long day!

And it was such a huge day today!  Here's Maddie and the posse from KidPak upstairs posing with Santa.  Despite all we have going on with the Grinch play, the KidPak services go on in the morning too.  And as you can see above, we had a few cowboys with us as we continued with "A Lone Star Christmas."  During the break between services, they snuck upstairs to see Santa, and I thought it'd be fun for the gang to pose for a picture with him.

Meanwhile at the KidPak Auditorium, we had a good time with a message that covered generosity and the "you've done it unto me" story of the Bible.  Maddie was a cowgirl angel, here to proclaim a special Christmas visitor, Jesus.  It's a classic story - where throughout the day other needy souls come by and our main character gives them all portions of what he intended for Jesus.  And at the end of the day, the angel returns and announces that Jesus did drop by on Christmas - three times, one for each visitor.  For whatever you did to the least of these, you've done it for me.

It was a good morning, and it included our celebrating - and praying for Tytus and Madison, who are getting married this week!  It was a big surprise for those two on stage though, as they were hosting the game segment of our morning, and then we poured out from backstage to surprise them!

 

It was a really good morning.  But we didn't have time to go home this afternoon - instead, I quickly got out to the Chinese restaurant for some takeout, and we ate at the church, along with many other cast and crew members involved in the production, which went so well.  There wasn't much time for relaxing - I was still re-writing parts of the script, if you can believe that.  We had another run-through at 2:30 or so, there was a lot of the usual pre-production chaos.  Mom did so well with the costumes.  Consider the cast - at least thirty of the main Who residents, and then there were the twenty or so Nativity characters, all with specific costumes.  Mom was in the KidPak hallway, Costume Central, busily arranging costumes for everyone.  I was scrambling with new instructions with directions, adjusting and tweaking things from last night's performance.  In the end, our changes really made a good difference.

Below are a lot more pictures from "How the Grinch Found Christmas" from tonight's production on stage.  First of all, it was packed to overflow - there were 3371 people there.  Maddie had third-row seats, right there in the middle.  Secondly, it was a huge success.  There were so many points where everyone applauded or laughed so much that we had to pause the story somewhat before continuing.  

Pastor congratulated us afterwards with a host of glowing compliments, as did so many others.  It was well-received by all, and that was a huge burden off our shoulders.  We did it, and it was such a team effort.  Mom's costuming, Dawn's choreography and direction, Lance's editing and coordination... and then the performances were so good, with such dedication and time involved.  The backstage workers were fantastic, efficient and friendly - everyone was always smiling.  We actually enjoyed this - although it was nerve-wracking at times!  

But the cast were like family.  Several actually gave me Christmas gifts, and not just little trinkets either.  One person gave me a hand-crocheted Grinch - a gift that touched my heart!  It got me teary-eyed right away - it was so sweet!  Another family heard I like Star Wars, so they got me an R2-D2 humidifier!  And another family was so grateful that they got Zena and I Christmas-themed dishtowels.  The cast was so sweet and loving, and although we had to sacrifice a lot of time to be in practice, it was good to be with the citizens of Whoville.  I have a new appreciation for this story, I really do.  Coincidentally, the Grinch and I have had fifty-three Christmas seasons, and this one was so wonderful.  

And here are some pictures that Maddie took tonight with her cell phone - she sat dead center in the third row, and also hung out with some of the cast members beforehand.

Downstairs in the preschool area, it looks like another Grinch was lurking about!

Maddie was right there in the middle, and I could see her throughout the entire performance!

She got a picture of me doing some beatboxing...!