My favorite holiday is definitely Christmas, bar none. No other holidays are compared to it. The gifts, music, decoration, the joy, love, the anticipation, exhilaration and sometime the overwhelmingly stressful of the preparation are what make the season great and memorable. Ultimately, it’s the season to reflect and celebrate the gift of Christ to mankind. At church, we usually we start preparing for Christmas in mid-November. However, this year we have some difficulty with reserving the church for our special service and some other reasons, we started way way late. Instead of having one big production as we mostly do every year, we go with varieties this year: choir songs, solos, duets, dramatic dancing, hip hop dance, children song and dance, and a short skit. We had 3 weeks (well, 2 Saturdays and 2 Sunday evening) for practice and rehearse. Yeah, as you can imagine, it’s not pretty!
Practice schedule was tight, but I think somehow we pulled it off. After couple songs practices, we divided into groups: one group to practice hip hop dancing, other group to practice the skit and line reading, another to teach the kids their moves. We switched our performers from group to group like crazy, taking advantage the limited time slots we have. Our Pastor, the multi-talents director/writer/actor/music director/supervisor, who I proudly call him Dad, was overlooking the whole bits, from music playing, choirs practicing, skit lines reading and acting, dancing. He also recorded MIDI from his old trusted keyboards and sent email to us the songs to practice at home. It was awesome! Everyone was doing their part, as it’s like …. Santa workshop.
Now for Me, I took in the responsibilities of Power Point, Projection, Video clips, Stage and Lighting. Yeah, crazy me, right?! Well, the Powerpoint and Video clips are things I do for church regularly, so those are given. I shared with my dad with the idea of the manger scene, and he said go for it. So I came up with several designs in my head, but as decision and choices made, it ended up more involved than just a picture-stapled-onto-the-wall. And to get the effects right, it needs lighting and background, and so and so… My wife asked me why didn’t I just ask someone else to do, but somehow I think with the time we had, it would take much longer to hand off to someone else in charge. Then I have to explain the idea, draw the concept, specified the measurement and the equipment, set appointment and time to meet, reviewing the plan, answer the question… you get the picture. It’s just too long. All of those are in my head, so by all mean, let me do it myself. So, I told her: “Honey, I got this! I got this.” … Of course, I don’t. My stubbornness will come back and bite me later.
Tonight, the rehearsal night, I had the Powerpoint and Video clips for the drama dancing done. However, they need some minor adjustments. The lighting didn’t work out too well for my expectation. Light colors were just vanished into that dark wall. So much efforts of whole evening of install and setup… but I think it still looks better than without. The rock-wall idea for the inn at the manger scene didn’t turn out well as I plan, and it was quite labor-intensive with paper and glue. I dropped the silhouette shepherds cutout because there was no time. My painting of the Mary-Joseph-baby looked like cartoon. The barn structure came out alright. And if it wasn’t countless helps from my brothers and other youths, certainly there would be no manger scene on the stage.
Others have helped setup the chairs. The foods for after-service party are prepared. The flowers are made. Things are in place, mostly. I’m so tired. It’s 4AM and I need to catch some sleep for the program starts later today… There is just no time to pondering what-should-I-wear tonight.
One thing quickly before I’m heading to bed. Dear my wife, thank you for your love, care and support, for worrying about me, and be patient with me, and taking care of the children while I’m overwhelming with the prep works. I love you! Dear God, thank you for your greatest gift of Christmas, Yourself, to us. Thank you for bearing with my stubbornness and secretly helping me all along. Thank you for remind me that Christmas is all about You, not about other things that we do to celebrate!
