Lessons and Carols

When I was a young teenager (age 13-17) I sang in the High Church Choir at St. Lukes and my favorite time of the year was the 9 Lessons and Carols that took place at midnight on Christmas Eve.  The lights were low in the church and we processed from the back of the church to the Choir Stalls up by the altar, with our choir boys leading the way.  We looked wonderful in our pale blue cassock's and White surplice over that.  The songs were magnificent and the spirit was pervasive.  What a wonderful way to usher in Christmas.
Last night we went to the Lessons and Carols at the Green Street United Methodist Church here in Augusta.  We found a place to park and an added gift to the city was a house on the corner of State Street and Green that had lights all over it and they were synchronized with the music they had playing in the front yard.  It was a spectacular sight and was a grand way to start the evening. 
The Green Street UM is a very old building and very ornate.  The ceiling is the pressed tin ceiling with spectacular gold leaf design on the support beams.  They had a bell choir and a singing choir.  The bell choir was very soft and hard for me to hear due to the children and people talking during the performance and when they accompanied the organist, he drowned them out.  Still, a good time was had by all.  The minister called the children to the front and was talking to them about the baby Jesus and then he handed them all gifts that were a mug, hot chocolate packet and marshmallows.  I was certain that we would find marshmallows all over the pews by the two little 2yr old girls in the pew in front of us, but their mothers confiscated the gift as soon as the little ones returned to their seats.  These little girls love each other.  They are cousins and one is four months older than the other and she was quite motherly to the younger one.  In fact, the people in the row in front of us and the people in the row in front of them were all family - about  15 people including children.  One of the little girls kept waving to her grandma who was in the bell choir.  It was very cute.
As we left the building after the service, we could hear the music from the house on the corner and could see the synchronized lights.  As we turned the corner to the parking lot, some people called to us from the truck leaving the parking lot and it turned out to be our Bishop and his wife and family.
It was very cold last night and was 3 degrees this morning when I got up.  We had strict instructions to call Sara at 7am (our time) so that she could see us open the gifts she had sent to us.  She sent some music to Bill which was a piece that she performed a dance to earlier this year and she sent us some Hand Warmers - like the type that hunters use.  She sent us a set of nesting Matrushka food containers for us to take our food to the Archives.  She also made a scrapbook type booklet for pictures of highlights of our mission.  She promised to send us more pictures of their family throughout the rest of our mission.  I am still waiting for the last promised bunch of pictures...............
It is now 5 degrees - I hope that the car starts so that we can go to church this morning.