Friday, December 22, 2006

A Christmas Carol

Three more days! It's insane. I can't believe it. The malls are crazy here. You can hardly move in any store at any time. I'm really glad that my shopping is done.

This past weekend we had our Christmas Spectacular here at the church. What a great show. They did a modified version of Charles Dickens' timeless tale, "A Christmas Carol"...

What a great set design. It was complete with snowflakes falling from above and real smoke coming out of the chimneys.

It's pretty weird, but they sing many of the same Christmas carols here as we would back home. There's just something a little different to me about singing "I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas" in Australia, but they do. Here's a bunch of the cast singing "Frosty The Snowman".

It was a packed house. They put this performance on nine or ten times. The overall attendance was over twenty-thousand. In just the four performances on Saturday and Sunday in the Hills, there were over four-hundred people saved.

Here is Santa Clause landing his sleigh on the stage. They really did a great job with this play. The included recognizable Christmas icons such as Santa Clause and Scrooge and Frosty The Snowman, but everything pointed directly to the fact that Christmas is about Jesus. That's what Scrooge figured out in the ending of this story.

Here's the Three Wisemen. They were pretty crazy and really didn't seem that wise, but they did make everyone laugh.

This is Phil Dooley wrapping things up by explaining the real meaning of Christmas, just making sure everyone really understood what the show was all about. They had real goats and sheep and rabbits up on the stage with Mary and Joseph there. When the lights went down I could see a couple of the crew frantically scrubbing one spot in particular on the stage. I'm guessing one of the goats got a bit excited and made a little mess.

Thanks to Paula we'll be watching the real movie "A Christmas Carol" on Christmas Eve. Hope you all have an excellent Christmas. I'm looking forward to the turkey and stuffing and pie and cookies, and I'm pretty sure most of you are too.

Ryan

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We Wish You A Merry Christmas,
We Wish You A Merry Christmas,
We Wish You A Merry Christmas,
And A Wonderful New Year!
Have fun you guys - we miss you. Dean had Hillsong music playing on the computer when I got home last night - some of the songs that you guys used to do here and it made me wish you were here to sing for us. Went to see Kady & the new apartment last night - it is cute and all decorated up pretty. Her room is slowly disappearing under pictures of everyone-lots of you guys. Got to go, but wanted you to know we are all thinking of you.Love, Kelly

Anonymous said...

hey guys...that looks like a lot of fun...and hard work...but fun!...anyways...vicki is working away at the list you gave her to take pictures of...should be a good familiar time to look at them...anyways...merry christmas in 2 days (canadian time)...enjoy your day!

Anonymous said...

Well Ryan... I don't know if you get to watch "Rudolph" there, but not to fear... I did get a picture of him for you at Alison's the other night... and have been trying to get pix of EVERYTHING so you can see what Christmas was like. It won't be the same without you guys... but this is an experience you guys will never forget, so ENJOY it! :) Last night we did Jeremy and Laurie's... and as you can imagine had lots of "sweets and Pepsi" to enjoy. And tonight (sat) everyone is coming down here to deliver gifts to the boys... and maybe one or two for Jason and I??? :) Hopefully over the holidays will have time to do up a "blog" for you guys, of the boys.. Love you and miss you! Vicki xoxo

Anonymous said...

I can't beleive that i am setting here with tears running down my face because i miss you guys so much....Christmas in Australia is definately a once in a lifetme experience so and i know that even though you are missing everyone, you are in the place that God wants you.....we will be thinking of you on Christmas day. Have fun and don't eat too much turkey....but what is "too much turkey"....love you guys...take care...merry Christmas and happy new year...Love Aunt Tish..Uncle Gary....Kady, Tricia, and Madi...