The Democratic Republic of Calum: Christmas Cheer

Well Christmas came and went for another year. That was quick. The build-up to Christmas was so long that the actual Christmas Day passed by extremely fast!

To start off the Christmas celebrations leading up to Christmas Day, our church had a Christmas concert on the night of Christmas Eve. My brothers and I would be performing a slightly jazzed-up version of Good King Wenceslas and the first movement of Spring by Vivaldi. We were also going to play as part of a string group made up of members from our youth group, performing Humoresque by Dvorak, You Raise Me Up (sung by Josh Groban), Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Aonghas was working for most of Christmas Eve, and so we had to wait till he finished work at about 4pm, before all three of us could do some practice. We had to be at church by 6.30pm so we could do some practice with the string group. It was about ten minutes to 6pm when we realised we hadn't bought white bow ties to accompany the black shirts we would be wearing! Aonghas and I quickly jumped in the car and went down to West City to buy some. We were lucky to get the last three bow ties left at the shop!

We got to church slightly late, but there was still time for us to do some practice before the show started. Jireh, another guy in our youth group had brought along a pack of cards, anticipating that we would have a long wait with nothing to do. I amazed though at how fast time went by! My brothers and I went into a corridor to do some quick practice before Jenny wanted us to do some string practice, and then we were on!

My brothers and I were up first. I was really hoping we wouldn't screw this up, since it was the first time we had performed at church in a long time and I didn't want people who had never seen us perform before to leave with a bad impression of us! Our first piece Good King Wenceslas went well, without any major stuff-ups. At the beginning while I play on my own, Aonghas and Hamish were originally going to click their hands in time, but there were some...difficulties with that so we changed it to whacking our accordions.

Our second piece, the First Movement of Spring by Vivaldi wasn't too bad as well, except for one screw-up by me that nearly brought everyone down! During one part of the piece where we're all doing trills and little frilly bits that sound weird, I jumped a bar, which almost threw Hamish off! I ended up just extending one of my trills for the whole part and we all carried on in time. I don't know why I always screw up on stage! In practice I'm usually tough on the others but then I go and blow it on stage! At least I didn't screw up my little solo. That would have been a WHOLE lot more embarrassing! So yeah I was a little disappointed after the performance, as I felt we had performed a lot better at the dress rehearsal the night before. I was reassured that non-musical people wouldn't know, but I have a habit of pointing out my own mistakes to others which doesn't help!

Our string group was to perform next. I don't think we actually sounded too bad! Peopl even started clapping as we played Jingle Bells! When I went into the second version of Jingle Bells, I couldn't hear the others entering because everyone was clapping so loudly (thinking we had finished!) and played a few wrong notes! I guess no one heard that though which is good (but hey, now you know!)

After the concert, everyone from youth group who came to the concert gathered together and it was time for Secret Santa gift exchanging time! By now it wasn't much of a secret for some. Some people got really nice presents. One guy in our youth group, Andrew always seems to be able to find something nice to give the girls! He's going to make a great boyfriend one day! I ended up getting this Santa-shaped trinket/jewellery box thing which my mum says I can put all my teeth in! Hamish got a mug with the NZ House of Representatives (NZ parliament) logo on it - whoever got him that must know him well! Aonghas got some cuff links which look pretty flash too! Fortunately my Secret Santa liked her present (I don't think she knows I'm her Secret Santa yet though!)

As the clock ticked over to Christmas Day, I was still away at my laptop furiously sending off Christmas emails, which has sorta been a bit of a tradition for me. I don't think people read emails as much as before though, so I sent other people txt messages later in the day. It's sorta my excuse to say heaps of nice and wonderful stuff to people at least once a year! While I didn't get too many replies, at least I've said what I have to say, and I did get a few really nice replies! Thanks you guys (you know who you are!). Sorry if I didn't get around to you, I may not have had your email or cellphone number!

I crashed at about 4.30 in the morning. I thought I better get some sleep before church in the morning, as I had to lead children's worship! It was going to be the first time Aonghas and I had led worship on our own, so I was slightly nervous. There weren't that many children there though, which left me slightly disappointed...maybe I like large audiences, I don't know haha However, it went really well! There was one song I sang with the kids where they had to do actions and scream and shout, and I was egging them on to make heaps of noise so the adults in the auditorium nearby could hear! I then tried Gabrielle's (she's one of the proper children's worship leaders!) suggestion of turning it into a competition between the boys and girls. I forgot to mention to them it was a competition though, so the first round was OK. When I did it again but switched around what they had to say, I told the girls to see if they could see if they could beat the guys and shout louder. That's when one of the boys moaned

"You never said it was a competition!!"

I just told the boys to try shout even louder than the girls! What we got was heaps and heaps of noise! It was great!

After children's worship I went back to watch the main service, which was extra long because of all the baptisms. I was sitting right at the back with Aonghas, a couple of the Chin sisters from my youth group and this other girl Daisy, who I've promised to be a whole lot nicer to from now on! I might talk about that sometime later when I review my New Year's Resolutions ;)

After the church service, we hung out with some of the others of in our youth group and had lunch. They were serving pies! Yay! It's not often they serve pies at church! We probably should've left a lot earlier than we did since we had to go to our cousins' for lunch, but we helped out a bit with tidying up and the minister wanted to see us about playing some music for the Sunday service.

When we finally got to our cousins' house for lunch, they had already finished and were moving on to dessert! It's a bit of a tradition with the Andersons/Brens that whenever we have a meal together we always have the main meal then dessert! I always get full from these meals which is great, although I hope I'm not getting fat!

Most of our cousins from the other Anderson family (my dad's brother's family) had left for Samoa early in the morning, so it was mainly us and the Bren's (our dad's sister's family). We just sat around catching up with each other, eating, drinking and discussing our big plans for Anbro Productions and coming up with short film ideas for early next year!

We eventually left after lunch and returned home, where I continued with my Christmas message sending, while the rest of the family just wilted in the heat! Christmas Day TV wasn't too great either!

Not too soon after our neighbours Szelin and Zippo came over to wish us a Merry Christmas! They had a family get-together as well and had been taking some family photos so they were looking pretty good. We just caught up for a while before they had to go back.

Our dad finished work later on and we went over to pick him up. He had to work at Smale's Farm over in the North Shore since the main office was closed for Christmas. It's a large place with a lot of buildings and open space, and all the trees were lit up for Christmas, so we spent some time there taking photos and checking out the nearby bus station before heading to Franklin Road in Ponsonby to check out all the houses decorated with Christmas lights!