It is finally done. Our committee put in HOURS and hours of work. It turned out so well. We did "A Night in Bethlehem". Our wonderful leader, Kristen Seare, helped keep us all motivated and working well together. She has such a positive, upbeat personality that it keeps everyone motivated to do their best. Thank you Kristen! Shanna Johnson, also on our committee, did so much. We've been working on this activity since early September. When we started Shanna was just barely pregnant and so sick. She fought through it and really did so much to keep going. She helped round up people for parts and help. She's so sweet. I don't know how anyone could ever tell her no. Kaleen Godfrey, who is also on our committee, was kind enough to play the prelude music and all the congregational Christmas songs for the evening.
We started in the chapel to have an opening prayer, bless the food and give instructions on how the night would progress. We started off with Tyson Cook, the 2nd counselor in our bishopric, conduction. Julian Hawks, 1st counselor in our ward's bishopric said the opening prayer. Then we had a men's quartet made up of Matt DelBianco, Dave Sorenson, Mike McGuire and Floyd Godfrey sing "Come Thou Fount" and were accompanied by me... but only in certain parts. There were 3 key changes in the song so I just played a few measures at the beginning of each key change. Otherwise they sang a capella. They sounded awesome. Dave hadn't heard the song before our practice the night before, but he totally learned it, and did an awesome job.
After Tyson gave everyone the instructions he started dismissing rows of people so that they could go to Bethlehem and eat their dinner. We had several Inn Keepers at Pita's Inn (pita bread with chili and cheese), Fruit Market (fresh fruit), the Bishop's Winery (water and hot apple cider) and the Sweet Shop/Bakery Shop (desserts).
Here are the people who performed:
Derek Rudd and his sons Taylor and Conner were our tax collectors
Cole Greer filled in at the last minute as our Census Taker
Brad Cottle filled in last minute as our Centurion Guard- he got things started for us, and didn't even get his lines until a few minutes before the program
Gene Daniel was the Inn Keeper for the Manger
Kjell Anderson was our narrator
Matt Del Bianco sang "O Holy Night" and was accompanied by Chanda Evans
Brady Hall was our Angel Gabriel
Elena Yeager sang "Mary's Lullaby" and was accompanied by Martha Bigler
Michelle and Dave Sorenson were Mary and Joseph; their baby Christian was our Baby Jesus
The YM and their leaders were shepherds and sang "A Shepherd's Carol"
Our wise men were Joe Hernandez, Joe Zezulka and Dan Engel
Matt DelBianco, Floyd Godfrey, Tyson Cook, Rob Pickles, John Bigler, Spencer Lamoreaux, Mike McGuire sang "We Three Kings" and were accompanied by me (There may have been 1 or 2 other men, but I can't remember!)
The YW and their leaders were angels and sang "Picture a Christmas" and were accompanied by Kelli Broadbent
Here are a few pictures from the night... For those of you in my ward I can make you a CD with all the pictures if you want. Just let me know! I have 85+ pictures that my mom took.
The Pillions- Kendrick, Anderson, Clayton, Garrett and Cydnie
The Sorensons- Christian, Michelle, Taylor and Dave
Kristen Seare, Rob Pickles, Mike Jensen and Shanna Johnson
Joe Hernandez, Debbie McGuire, Scott Braodbent, Gaby, Taya and Brian Washburn
The Lines- Lily, Lucy, baby, Emily, Hudson and Troy
Julie and Gene Daniel
Sybil and Kjell Anderson
Tanner and Brady Hall
Chloe Seare and Natalie 
1 People left their thoughts:
Maryann,
You are so amazing!! For anyone who reads this comment they should know that Maryann wrote the program, spent HOURS sewing bags and canope covers, painted posters, cut out "words" for the posters, made a census sign, shopped, lost sleep, made phone calls, and so much more!! You are seriously amazing and I am so dang lucky to have you on this commitee!! Thank you so much for all your HARD work and fun personality. You always make "working" fun!!
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