Journey to Bethlehem

So back on a Thursday evening in November (after dinner) I said to Jared- "I'm just nipping out for 15 minutes to sign up for Journey to Bethlehem" (it's a big stake activity put on for the public, they decorate the chapel and rooms as places in the Christmas story - so they have angels in a room, Herrod in a room, Shepherds etc). I went along to say - "yup, I'll help out". So when I got there, Amy our RS president said - "excellent I've been hoping you'd be helping out", I just laughed and said - "where do I sign up?". She handed me a piece of paper with about 15 questions including my age, whether I can read, instruments I play etc, so I filled it out and Amy stuck a sticker on my jumper, 37, I thought what on earth is that for?
So I said, "are you keeping track of how many helpers you've got?". She just laughed and said, "yup, Ericka said to have you try out". I thought erm, harsh! I can bring towels or pour juice you know... not completely useless! Fair enough don't let me decorate anything (that would be a disaster!) but I can perform basic tasks without demonstrating that I can walk and chew gum at the same time!!! Anyhow, Amy said, "what are you going to sing?" SING? In order to pour juice or hold doors open I need to demonstrate that I can SING? Oh my goodness, it's worse than I thought! She suggested I pick a song out of the hymn book. I thought - I THINK NOT! I'm going home for some sheet music, if I'm going to be woefully embarrassed it'll be on my own terms!
So I went home and picked up my Brave soundtrack book, When Mary Sang her Lullaby and I dreamed a dream from Les Mis. So I had to wait for 2 whole hours to "try out" after the first hour I did think perhaps I'd like to be a donkey, maybe I could sidle up to Mary in the nativity room... you know it would be like being Mary hahaha. So anyway - after a very very long time talking to a lot of teenage girl about Zac Effron and giving cockney lessons and hearing everyone practicing their prepared piece for the try out (oh my goodness that was awful...) I finally got to sit in the chairs outside the audition room. It was ridiculously like X-Factor.  I went in there and there were 10 people around a box table, staring at me! So I just decided to have a nice time... nice being an ironic term, meaning I just decided to be very naughty! So I was laughing, cracking jokes, generally having a good chat with everyone, when the director lady (who I really wasn't fond of... she looked like she was in her mid 60's and had brown hair permed down past her waist and a Dolly Parton hair do), said so what are you going to sing for us! So I said, well I have a Christmas song by Sally DeFord or I dreamed a dream from Les Mis. So all the ladies (apart from the director) were all OOOOH, we love Les Mis, lets have that one, lets have that one). So I sang I dreamed a dream and accompanied myself.... not exactly how I thought my day would go!
So after that the Director said "can you read" and I said "yes yes I can read", but unfortunately I hadn't let her finish and she meant - can you read music, fortunately I can do that too so I just passed it off as mind reading! So they had me read a whole load of parts (I think mostly because they were lamenting that when a person sings you can't hear their accent and thought they'd been somehow cheated from gawping). So after about 5 parts they started to quiz me as to whether Jared would like to be involved (erm, No - unless your songs are written by Metallica or Rush I don't think you'll have much success). I think they wanted him for Joseph and myself for Mary - especially when they were talking about the staging difficulties of having an actually pregnant Mary - would it look strange to have a huge baby bump and then Mary and Baby Jesus cuddled up on top of a huge baby bump! Interesting idea! Fortunately I think I've gotten out of the Mary part as Jared wasn't at all interested as I had predicted! Besides which what would Bridget do for a whole week... not like Jesus had an older sister, and there weren't any try outs for Mother of Moses!
So yes, I managed to slink out of there with my dignity in tact! Though I did manage to work out that I was auditioning for a place in the Journey Cast - not to pour juice, so that made a little more sense. In retrospect, I wish I'd gone in and said I'd like to audition for the part of the star, or the donkey, or even a camel.... Clearly I'm cut from a different cloth than their usual entrees as they seemed genuinely shocked that I had just popped along to sign up to help, apparently that's not done, even pouring juice for the Wise Men requires some level of skill inspection. Interesting.

So, shock of all shocks - I got a call about a week later to say that once again (not to their knowledge) I had been cast as the Narrator, as I have been for the last 20 years AT LEAST! So, after being consoled by Kathryn (Sister Coull) who swears she actually was a donkey one year, I embarked on three days of feverish memorisation (otherwise known as procrastination followed by craming) and I finally learned my part for Journey to Bethlehem! The first night was AWFUL. Jared was more than an hour late picking up Bridget and my enormous smelly costume rendered me speechless, then I forgot my lines and froze in the middle of the dress rehearsal VIP performance! Never mind, it was only the Bishops and Stake Presidents (haha). All that said, I got myself a babysitter, begged to wash my smelly costume and practiced performing my 5 minute soliloquy for the actual opening night - which went swimmingly well!

 The Nativity Room

Our Nativity Set on show

 

 The last night before clear up, Laura (our fabulous Harpist) and I braved a photo in our costumes! Laura was great fun, unfortunately after three nights of bonding I realised she travels 9 months of the year with her husband who is a professional Baseball player! I guess that makes my travelling for 2 - 4 months a year as a professional baby woozler look a little less excessive ;)

I had two favourite rooms - the angels room (above) the girls sang a beautiful arrangement of What Child is This? and Mary & Joseph's Room was lovely.

And, in other news I finally found a Mary I didn't want to throttle, Lindsey sang beautifully and shunned the lip-gloss which I totally respected!

Bridget mostly liked eating the chocolate gold coins and wriggling, but the Jesus Christmas education we began in October with Bridget's Little People Nativity Set is more exciting than I would have thought possible!

And, actually, for all the fears that have been expressed to me regarding a Santa-free Christmas, I'm beginning to think it might be like Sugar-Free Ribena, totally yummy and free of guilt! So far, our Christ centered baby Christmas has been magical!