More Christmas Bells

Yesterday was eventful for a few reasons: My last ever Psych Stats class, my last ever Psych of Gender class (including my presentation that went rather well--perhaps I'll post the powerpoint of it up here sometime), and the annual Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert! There was a huge fiasco getting there and getting in, and thanks to my class, we were pretty late, so our seats were given away and we were denied entrance into the Conference Center. It's amazing, they almost always have a few extra seats during General Conference, but come the Christmas concert, people are practically breaking the doors off their hinges to get in! When we were refused entrance, we were invited to head to the Tabernacle across the street, so we did (and there were PLENTY of seats available there...), but when we entered, the concert had started, and the choir, orchestra and dancers were there on the screen, but... where was the sound?!? As the ladies next to us said as they walked out, "they can get it to play in Europe, but they can't get it to work across the street??" Eventually a tech guy appeared, turned a knob, flipped a switch and the sound came on. Eventually again, the lights were dimmed and it was finally like a concert.

Although we were unable to get into the actual venue, and as I'm quite sure the experience would have been rather enhanced by that difference of seating, it was still a really nice concert. The guest soloist was the amazing Brian Stokes Mitchell (whom you may or may not remember from my post on a previous Motab concert, and whom I'm not going to bore you gushing about again), who charmed the audience with his style and personality, and the guest narrator was Edward Hermann, who provided a moving and inspiring recount of the story behind they hymn "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". It's really interesting how every year the choir gives a consistent concert, but manages to make them different, tailored particularly to the style of the guests. I do want to say that last time Brian came to sing with the choir, I kept hoping he would sing "Through Heaven's Eyes", which he recorded for the soundtrack of The Prince of Egypt, but he didn't, until this concert, when he did! And now it shall forever be a Christmas song to me. Also, just as I was thinking of it, they started "Whence Is that Goodly Fragrance Flowing?", which I certainly love (see previous post). Of course there were dancers, bell ringers, and the flawless Orchestra at Temple Square, and in the end, Mom, Dad, Elise, Jeff, Lacie and I were really glad we went. Temple Square was gorgeous as ever (albeit with a shocking lack of snow) and the company was nice. I know they release it on DVD, so we could have just waited until next year to see it at home, but I really needed this, and it was a great way to end up my last official day of classes.

And as ever, thanks ever so to Britney and Belinda for getting us tickets! Whether or not we were able to get in, we were certainly in attendance. Well done for another year!