A star is born!

Two years ago, my husband wrote an original Christmas song called It took an Angel. It's an awesome song written from the perspective of Joseph. As scripture tells us, Joseph was visited by an angel and told that what Mary was telling him was true. Thus the chorus "It took an angel to convince me every fear I had was wrong....it took an angel to assure me this was part of God's plan all along" is very poignant and quite an original perspective. Last year he had the thought of adding actors (namely Joseph and Mary). A stunning manger scene was constructed in the sanctuary....really, it was stunning

(a la Piantine style) and the difficult walk to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus were acted out to the song. It was incredible. This year, James has written 3 more original songs, and what began with one song has, over the past 2 years, grown into a major production! I said to him one night (after he sang for me the the innkeeper's song), "it occurred to me that you are writing an original musical!" I mean, an innkeeper's song? A shepherd's song? Wow.

Last night at rehearsal, after James had gone over the shepherd's song with the band, a gal from the choir said, "did you write that?!" James smiled at her, and I turned around and said, "yes! he wrote all of them!" which shouldn't surprise anyone in the choir at this point, because he's been known to write a song on the spot right in the middle of Sunday morning worship, and his expectation is that the singers will catch it and go with it (find your part!) but it's just that this musical is really amazing.

The production is called, There's no room for You.

To say I'm proud of him would be a complete understatement. I'm simply blown away that over 100 people are involved in this production, and his direction at every turn is spot-on. Everything from directing the actors, to writing the script, crafting the songs and helping Tony Piantine coordinate the sets. (I can't wait to see the inn and the shepherd's campfire!) But I was not prepared for the lump of pride in my throat when my 13 year old daughter stepped up to the mic to rehearse her song Holy Ground.

She had to stand in front of the entire choir and sing a capella and let me just say....it was breathtaking. I could hear many of my friends in the choir gasp and sigh while her beautiful voice lifted and fell. You see, she's singing Holy Ground, because she is Mary.

She is singing this to Jesus as she cradles Him. She has to turn on her cordless mic, hold the baby, sing a capella in front of hundreds and hundreds of people, make sure to stay on pitch so when the music comes in at the second verse it's on key and then turn the mic off from within her costume (and not drop the baby!).

This is all very tricky! I know, because I was Mary last year. Not to mention all of the acting involved to boot.

The girl is rock solid! She's a superstar. I can't believe it. She's awesome.

So after rehearsal we all went out to DQ. Andrew is also in the play, and he is a shepherd. In fact, the shepard's song is written a bit tongue-in-cheek...with a chorus like, "what about the campfire, what about the sheep? What about Andrew, he's still asleep!"

So Andrew and James were talking and laughing at Dairy Queen about this and that during the shepherd's scene and Hannah says, "Andrew you got it so easy!" And Andrew's like, "Oh yeah Hannah..." yadda yadda whatever like brothers do. Hannah says, "Hey, I'm the one who's pregnant!" LOL