A Christmas Story in Dahlonega

This is the long weekend, but it's a wonderful one for so many reasons.  Today's entry we'll start backwards, which is to say we'll talk about what we did tonight first.  Some time ago we purchased tickets to see "A Christmas Story" at the Holly Theater in Dahlonega.

We had been wanting to see this for a while anyway, and on top of everything, it turned out the boy who is playing Ralphie is someone we know.  So that sealed the deal:  we bought our tickets early.  And it's a good thing we did, because this show sold out.  We had our usual front row seats reserved, and were ready to head up to Dahlonega for Christmas time.

It's a beautiful place at Christmas time, with lights on the trees all over the square.  They really spend a lot of time decorating the place.  Here you can see below an ornament on the tree, and the courthouse reflected in that ornament.

There were quite a few shoppers looking for seasonal treasures, and the weather was the right sort of chilly to remind everyone we were pretty close to winter here.

There were quite a few lights.  We arrived about a half-hour before start time, so we could walk around the square with others, just looking around and enjoying the atmosphere.

There was even a horse drawn carriage giving people rides around the square.  As we walked around, we kept walking past our car - parked in the best spot on the square because of parking favor!  There was a car backing up from that spot just as we arrived.  With the crowds and so many cars out there, it was amazing we got such a great place.  Anyway, we passed that car, and walked down the street a bit to the Holly Theater.

SOLD OUT.  It was a Christmas play, and it has been sold out for a bit of time now.  We got our seats in the first row of the balcony, and soon enough, we were enjoying the show.

It was a very good show!  This was not the musical version we saw a few years ago on television, but a recreation of the events shown in the movie, along with a few extra bits from the book that inspired it all.  The adult Ralphie who narrated the thing was the most impressive of all:  he had to narrate this entire thing doing a huge amount of dialogue as he walked in amongst the actors portraying each scene.

The audience loved it.  It was such a nice thing to do just before Christmas, and of course you can see Ezra up there to the right - he's a friend of ours from church.  He was in our "Acting Up" classes that we had on Sundays, and he did fantastic as the main character in this play.  The bunny suit was perfect.  We saw one at Walmart the other day, and I'm kind of wanting one... oh, and here's something Madison saw in the storefront next door:

It's a Red Ryder BB-gun with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time!  It was a nice evening together, and so "Christmassy."  We were in amongst the beautiful scenery of town, seeing a classic seasonal play - it was all very nice.  

And it was all very late.  We had been practicing all day on something, and had to get to bed early tonight, because we set the alarm for 5am tomorrow morning.  Yikes!  And of course, what we set the alarm for was our big production of Holly, which we practiced on all day today, from morning to right about the time we had to leave the church to drive up to Dahlonega.  We didn't stop at home.  Daddy had to do some last-minute writing for tomorrow's play, but today's practice was very good and very hopeful.  Other practices have left us wondering about this or that, but this one seemed to feel really good, and one of the reasons is our nine orphan characters.

Here's Madison and Nia, who play the parts of Mei-Mei and Princess.  These kids have become good friends through all of this, and have sacrificed a lot of the Christmas season to make this play happen, and happen well.

We were sharing before the practice began what it is we hope this play will do, and why we are even doing it, and Madison shared some very wonderful thoughts with the rest of the cast, as you can see above.  She was telling us all how it was good to give up certain things (in her case, taekwondo), in order to serve others.  She just wanted to do something for the church, she said, and help others this season.  And that, of course, is something she's done a lot of.  As have all the other children!

Here below are a lot of pictures that were taken from the practices today, all of them taken by a mother of one of the child actors.  She was very generous in sharing them with us, and did a nice joy capturing some of the moments of the cast and performers on stage.

One note though, one that is concerning:  many of us are sick.  Not just mildly sick, either.  One of the children has nearly lost his voice, while our main character has come down with what could be strep throat.  Her sister is in the play, and she's feeling symptoms too, while the boy whose mom took all these pictures has been out of school with symptoms as well.  Meanwhile, Daddy himself has been feeling terrible, and his voice is nearly shot, all hoarse and raspy.  Down in Gwinnett, similarly, three of the cast members there are feeling the same way - Camille and Daniel, who play the two main characters Holly and Steve.  So there's a lot to be praying for.

Fortunately, Madison has been feeling okay.  We're praying for everyone tonight before going to bed. It's a long day tomorrow, and we'll need some supernatural strength to get us through it all, and some healing too for everyone.  But we'll power through and make it happen.  Madison is super excited.  This has been a great experience for her!