We have now prepared seven of the 57 jacks for final voicing. We didn’t work on it yesterday because we were out Christmas shopping and finding a tree. The latter turned out to be a bit of a problem. We went to where we often have bought trees and the trees were not quite what we wanted (small) and were expensive and the pricing was very confusing (trees had tags with prices that didn’t count and were often lower than what the salesman told us).

We drove north on US 131 for a while looking for tree lots. Nothing. So we came back down to town and drove down the main drag. Lo and behold the Masons were selling trees to raise money for local charities. We found a tree and bought it vowing to remember this lot for next year.

I spent a couple hours prepping for this morning’s service. I am truly in the depths of burnout right now. I don’t remember another Advent/Christmas season being quite like this but maybe they have been.

I am playing a Scarlatti sonata on the piano for the prelude today. I recorded it a couple of times and found that immensely helpful. It will affect my interpretation. I find it easy to race from section to section. Better to breath more and allow listeners (assuming any one listen to the prelude. ha ha ha) to better understand Scarlatti’s charming ideas.

I have already rehearsed the Scarlatti three times this morning. I will probably go through it one more time (four times is charm for jupe for practicing, right?).

Eileen was busy so I walked by myself to see my Mom yesterday. She is doing better. She has had a cold (which I think I gave her) and been confined to her room for a while. Yesterday they let her eat in the dining room again. That’s a good sign.

It was a cold walk. One man flagged me down on the way and asked me if I was a choir director. Funny. Apparently his wife is member at Grace and he sometimes comes along. Friendly dude.

I didn’t put a video up on Facebooger yesterday. Too busy and burned out. I will try to come with something for today.

In the meantime I listen to this every year. Enjoy.