12/6/09

Remembering School Christmas Memories Through Music

IEG gave the Sibling Assignment this week. 

"Write a memory about Christmas related to an experience at school."


To find out about IEG's Christmas art project, go here.  RP's will be here later.

Many of my memories about Christmas in school center around music.

When I attended Sunnyside Elementary, the sixth graders were the ones to put on the Christmas program.

Christmas programs were a bit different back then, because it wasn't wrong to have something about the birth of Christ in the program.

I still have this vivid memory of Teresa Vergobbi dressed in a black dress and reciting this reading....

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village, the son of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he became a wandering preacher.
He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn't go to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of those things one usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. He was executed by the state. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.



When I was in sixth grade, I remember playing my flute for "What Child Is This?"

I also got to direct the band.

And I think it was that year I got to help at the Silver King Christmas program, by being the page turner for Mrs. Williams, our music teacher.

I still love Christmas music.  Tonight, I got to perform some Christmas tunes with The Princess and Kiki Aru at the Wallace Elks as part of the Wallace Lighting Ceremony.  It isn't every mom that can have such willing kids to go sing Christmas tunes with them.  I am blessed!!!

Z2 and PKR were not with us, because they were in Idaho Falls at the State Drama Competition.  Z2 and her partner CM made it to the final round in Ensemble Pantomime.  We are very proud of them!!!

Speaking of Christmas music, I am going to put a plug in for my blogging friend at Blog My Rabbit.  He is doing a holiday countdown of some unique Christmas music...Here is what he says..

I embark on a 27-day blog voyage, offering up daily some of my favorite Christmastime-related tracks to the yuletide spirit, in hopes that the exercise might help me enjoy the season more while annoying those around me less.

I invite you to check out Blog My Rabbit, and enjoy some unique Christmas tunes.

3 comments:

Christy Woolum said...

I almost wrote about the sixth grade program! Did you know I sang "What Child is This?" Sometime we will have to do a duet! The part I loved is we came down the aisle dressed in coats and carrying presents singing ( I think) "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas". Important memories!!

Nita Jo said...

Love Blog My Rabbit and the fun selections he has picked so far!

I remember a Christmas program in the cafeteria of Meridian Elementary. Marla sang "Do You Hear What I Hear" and there were other songs of faith. That was long, long ago...

Cedar Street Kid said...

I feel so sorry for kids today because they do not get to truly enjoy all that is Christmas in school. All of my band concerts included religious music as well as secular.