Last night I was in charge of the Ward Christmas party program. Throughout the week, plans kept changing. I realized my communication skills are sub-par and I have nobody to blame but myself. The more I struggled to hold it together, the more I felt the control slipping out of my hands. As I prayed for strength to go with the flow, I heard these words impressed upon my heart, "Simplify". After all, wasn't that the whole point of the message of the program?
I searched through tons of decorations ideas and finally found one I liked... a lone christmas tree on the stage. Perfect! Lavon had brought some red and white rolls of cloth like paper so that would serve as the swag across the stage. Not that I've ever had any decorating experience but how hard could it be right? The night before one of the sisters who was supposed to sing a duet with a less active member's husband, informed me she would now be singing a solo. In a twist of fate I ran into her at a grocery store later that evening. The moment I saw her I knew she was having a bad day and dare I say a rough week. Sometimes it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out when someone's in over their head. I knew immediately that relinquishing her from singing would lighten her load so I told her not to worry about it. Wow, look at me go I thought... I gave her a hug and told her everything would be just fine and I knew that somehow it would be. I scrambled once I got home for a Plan B. Got it! I will have Hagan and Will sing and play guitar and ukulele! Yes! They pulled together an awesome version of We Three Kings and which point we realized that Hagan would be attending Sweetheart dance. So then we decided to record them but that fell through too cuz by now it was 10 at night...oh and did I mention Will was sick? Well, I didn't know if it would be unconventional but I felt impressed to substitute that number with showing the youtube video of Pentatonix singing Mary Did You Know. Easy enough right? I bought the video on iTunes so it would play without buffering.
So I headed to work on Friday with all the electronic devices needed as well as the decorations and props I neeed for the program. I had my laptop, blue tooth speakers, cords, ornaments, "let it snow" snowman, and more cords, and I was ready to face the day! Work was crazy busy for a day without patients. At lunch, I had to drop off packages to both post office and UPS office for work. I swung by McD's and grabbed a sausage McMuffin (no cheese), hash brown, and orange juice to go. Best $5 I've ever spent;) Then onto the church to test out the electronics. A missionary conference was in progress when I arrived and I couldn't find the elders that were going to help me. I was pleased to see the tables and chairs were all up so I head to the stage area. Wow! It was trashed up there. I spent most of my time cleaning up the stage and getting it presentable for the christmas tree. Finally, the elders came out of the room where they had been giving a sister a blessing. I put them to work by making them bring the piano into the gym. Soon it became clear that my macbook air did not have the correct cable hookups for the prehistoric lcd projector. I started to hyperventilate. No worries, I could just hook the hdmi cord to the tv. So I wheeled the tv into the gym from the library only to find that there was no way anyone would be able to see the screen from anywhere in the gym! I looked at the clock...time to go back to work! Breathe in! Breathe out!
I was happy to have work as a distraction from the inevitable disaster that awaited me in just a few hours. Then I had an idea....Will! I knew Will would be able to help me with anything technical. I started to text him and realized that oh yeah...he is still grounded from his phone. (By the way, Joe hid it and now we can't find it...oops) But I digress... I called Joe and told him to tell Will after school to come over and help me around 5 when I got off work. He showed up at 4. Not helping... The other issue at lunch was that I couldn't get the microphones to work either so Will was going to bring his amp. Only I had put his amp in a closet the other day so I could vacuum and he couldn't find it. Again, a phone would have come in handy. Anyhoo, I had him grab a few more things from home that might help. After 5, I went straight to the church from work. Our technical problems went from bad to worse. Keep in mind I had everything neatly downloaded and cued up on my computer but now we were forced to use Joe's old laptop that had the proper connection for the lcd projector. And of course...splotchy internet. There was a reason I bought the Pentatonix song and had downloaded the lds.org video. Now I would be at the mercy of the dreaded b word...Buffer!
Nothing was falling into place. My youth singers had never practiced their song, my one solo I had let off the hook, I had no clue how to decorate the swag on the stage and I was ready to sit down and start crying. One more hour till everyone would be showing up with their salads. Oh no, my salad was at home! Right then Joe and Kristen walked in...with my salad. And miracles continued. Farrah had come early with her family and boy did I put her to work! We wrestled with the red and white trying to get it to swag across the stage. I had brought blue painter's tape so yeah that looked fantastic;) I couldn't have done it without her. As I was in the hall trying to smooth out the next section of red and white, people were starting to arrive. Someone was banging on the back door...it was someone who had betrayed one of closest friends. I feel guilty for even thinking it but for a split second wondered if I should open the door. Shame on me. I decided to let him in and as I walked back down the hall saw a gentleman who had just written a horrible nasty letter (but sorry I promised not say who;). I wanted to punch him in the face. Breathe in, breathe out! 30 minutes till everyone comes.
The stage was finally swagged, Ronda got the tree up and lit, but Will was still scrambling. We were trying to email the info from my computer to Joe's old dinosaur. They weren't playing nice. At least my computer was able to pipe through some beautiful Christmas music through the blue tooth speakers as everyone arrived. Joe's computer was too old to have bluetooth. I vaguely remember Joe telling me to breathe and dish up some food. My blood sugar was crashing hard and he could see it. I had one piece of ham but was so nervous that I couldn't stomach anything else. It smelled and looked delicious but I couldn't eat. The gym was full to capacity but I couldn't tell you who was and wasn't there because I was so pre-occupied. My narrators Natalie Hawkes and my little Kris were practicing their narration, I was giving last minute instruction to Liesl our piano player, and Gracie Hawkes saved the day by rounding up youth carolers and getting the hymn books ready. Will missed the entire dinner as he was still trying to get the technology to play nice. Finally, the program began!
The primary kids started it out by singing A Christmas Story Tree. Perfect! Then the moment of truth...Mary Did You Know! Went off without a hitch. https://youtu.be/ifCWN5pJGIE Then Elder Mason who was lined up to do a piano solo came up to me and said, who is singing with me? What? Huge miscommunication. I thought he was playing a solo. He thought he was accompanying singers. At this point my lips were almost bleeding from chewing on them with stress and I said another silent prayer. The answer came quickly, as it always does, and the answer was to cut it out. Just roll with it. Next, Rockin Around the Christmas Tree. I asked the children to come up and decorate the tree whilst dancing to Brenda Lee's awesome holiday favorite. Pierce Yaskus brought down the house with his moves...with Cash Hawkes not far behind;) Next the youth carolers singing one verse of Far Far Away on Judea's Plains. Not sure how nobody knows that song but they muddled through with Liesl on the piano. Next, Congregational hymn Angels We Have Heard on High. Somehow, Will had managed to type up the words and showed them on our white board screen. Awesome! Heading into the tail stretch. All that's left is to show He is the Gift and sing Silent Night since we had cut the piano solo out.
Joe rolled out the white board and Will hit play....Nothing! No buffering...nothing! No, no, no I screamed in my head. This is the whole point and message of the program! Improvise.... I explained that we were having technical difficulties but that we would play it on my laptop, which I knew nobody could see, and have Kristen narrate the words. We had planned to narrate the words all along so Kristen was ready with mic in hand. Only problem was that when I pressed play, apparently the iTunes playlist was still playing in the background. I love Charlie Brown's version of Oh Christmas Tree as much as anyone else but it kind of disrupted the mood of the video! Haha! Not to mention, when Kristen spoke into the mic, it wigged out the Bluetooth speaker as if a microwave was on. No, no, no! We stopped. Pressed pause on the music. As I was getting ready to press play I said another earnest prayer. Please let this work....this is what Christmas is all about. Please remind people to keep Christ in Christmas. I still have no idea what magic Will performed but at that very moment he whispered...I got it! I apologized once more to the audience and Will pressed play. Kristen's voice echoed through the gym. Perfection! No buffering! No pausing! No dry eye in the room!
We sang Silent Night to conclude. The program had been a success!
I ran out into the hall and just wanted to hide in a corner and cry...but I didn't. My friend Bob Wischmeier, visiting from out of town, congratulated me in saying it was the first Christmas program he hasn't fallen asleep in;) I think that's a compliment, right? Everyone said it was the most unique program and they loved that Kristen and Natalie had been the narrators. I was just glad it was over. I didn't get to visit with any of my friends but Bishop Hawkes gave me a squeeze and thanked me for the beautiful spirit everyone felt. I am super proud of myself for persevering. It's hard to live with anxiety. I'm doing so much better than I have ever done but still, just once I would like to be calm. I know I couldn't have pulled off the program without the help of the Holy Ghost. And I would have been paralyzed had it not been for Will swooping in and saving the day. Maybe it was divine intervention that Will was still grounded. Otherwise, he would have been at sweetheart dance too. All the trust I have lost in Will over the last few weeks, has quickly grown back to a love, respect, and admiration I can't put into words. He may not admit that he likes me, but what he did for me was true love! Even this morning, he woke up and thanked ME for letting him help last night! This from the kid who was begging NOT to go to the ward party at all just a few hours earlier. He then told me how he got that last video to work and I am blown away. He had to email it, convert it to jpeg, then to pdf, and then back to video playing it on adobe player....or something technical like that. He did that all in a span of maybe 30 seconds as the Charlie Brown music was blaring away;) I love that kid! I love Joe for helping me stay calm!
Last night was a perfectionist's nightmare yet at 3 in the morning I realized (as I didn't sleep from 3am-6am last night) that everything still worked, with or without me thinking I was in control. I think there is a lesson to be learned there. Everything that could go wrong did, yet everything went right all at the same time. Now that I have spewed out all the details in writing, I think I am ready to get dressed and ready for the day;) I attached the program so you can see the narration too. As the holiday season is now upon us, I hope to continue to simplify and keep Christ in Christmas! Thanks for letting me debrief. Now...back to life... I think I can finally relax and enjoy the holiday season!
love, allie
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