The Real Meaning of Chirstmas

Merry Christmas, Gentle Reader!

I don't believe it is Christmas time once again.  I have reached that age where one's brain perceives the passage as time much differently than one may have in days of yore.  Translation: I'm old.

Time.

Moves.

Fast.

Very fast.

I appreciate that better now than I ever have.  I'll probably appreciated it better in the next ten years, Lord willing.  But that is a blog of another day; that is then and THIS is now.

These are the good old days, Gentle Reader.  May your holiday be blessed and joyous this season and may those blessings and joyfulness last the whole year through.

Merry Christmas!

“Joy, Joy, Joy” Part Deux

Another show has been added for 12/22/08, at 7:00 PM (There are also shows scheduled for 12/23/08, at 7:00 PM and for 12/24/08, at 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM). ALL of the performances by the Calvary Chapel Theatrical Choir will be on Live Streamed on the internet (and around the world) here: http://www.ccvineland.org/livewebcast.html.

Tickets are still available for the upcoming Christmas Musical but they are only available on a first come / first served basis (although, I have a hard time believing that we’d be turning anyone away at the door). The whole ticket thing is to gage how many people we have coming to the different performances. Bottom line is that is better to have a ticket than not so give Calvary Chapel a call at 856-696-9409. Tickets are free but they are moving.

Give it a looksee. It’ll put you in the Christmas Spirit.

“Joy, Joy, Joy!”

Man, I just can’t believe that it is DECEMBER. Time, most certainly, keeps on slip, slip, slippin’ into the future. The 25th will be here in no time and, come to think of it so will this year’s Choir Production. Speaking of which…

The Calvary Chapel Theatrical Choir Presents

“Joy, Joy, Joy"

Tickets for the upcoming Christmas Musical Production will be available on a first come/first serve basis. Please sign-up that info counter and let us know how many tickets you will need and for what performances. You will need to have tickets this year in order to be assured of seating. Tickets are available for Tuesday, December 23 rd at 7:00 PM, Wednesday December 24th at 6:00pm or 8:30 PM. There is a special family night preview-show on Monday December 22nd, which does not require tickets and is open to anyone, but those attending should note that this is also a final dress rehearsal for the production.

No pressure but if you want to see a singing and dancing Evil Chicken or, more importantly, come out and celebrate the Gospel and Christmas with us give the church a call (856-696-9409) and ask for tickets. Don’t pay scalper’s prices! The tickets are free. From what I understand there are still some seats left for the first performance but it is filling fast.

Merry Christmas, Gentle Reader; now’s your chance to scream “Break a leg, Evil Chicken!”

And ya know what? …I just might.

Countin’ My Blessings

I know that this is not Thanksgiving but I just wanted to drop a line to myself here at Chicken Scratch to remind myself how incredibly blessed I am.

The Christmas Musical, Peace on Earth has one more performance on Christmas Eve. This also happens to be Chick 1.0’s birthday. She is going to be 15 tomorrow. Let me spell that one out – FIFTEEN. We’ve been blessed with great kids. We have a lot of fun and get into a lot of trouble. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Speaking of Peace on Earth – what a blessing. Seriously. It is an honor to be associated with the directors, choir members and tech crew. It’s not about how well we sing or dance or speak, it’s about the birth of Christ and sharing that with others. That is a blessing.

I’m not mechanically inclined but a good friend of mine from church is. He happened to have a used bicycle for Chick 2.0 and one for Chick 3.0. He and I re-greased the bearings and replaced the chain on Chick 1.0’s bike too. The kid’s are going to light up on Christmas morning (I can write this since they don’t frequent my blog – and due to the fact that Christmas is the day after tomorrow). Come springtime we will all be mobile. This has been an amazing blessing.

Then there are the completely unexpected blessings that have hit us recently – things that I will not go into too much depth here but wouldn’t be too hard to coax out of me over a decent cup of coffee.

I’m 39 and well aware that these are the best days of my life. I’m relatively healthy (to the best of my knowledge no open wounds or internal bleeding that direct pressure won’t cure) and so is the family. Come this April, Mother Hen and I will be celebrating out 18th wedding anniversary – and I still love the woman (more now than then). I get to write here on this blog, on puppet scripts each week, short stories, screenplays and the occasional novel. There’s a roof over our heads and a full docket of movies coming to the multiplex in 2008.

Life is good.

Oh I could dwell on the glass being half empty but why? I’ve only got a certain amount of days so why waste them with dreary conjecture over the future? I don’t know what’s around the corner but I do see what is in front of me right now.

I’d rather count my blessings.

Please forgive the sappiness factor of this blog entry, Gentle Reader – It was just something I had to do.

Peace

Peace on Earth the Musical

No pressure or anything BUT if you’re not too busy and want to enjoy an evening out away from the malls, Best Buy and Toys R Us stores swing on by Calvary Chapel Vineland on December 21, 22 and/or 24th at 7:00 PM. The Choir production is going multimedia this year and it’s gonna be fun.

We were initially going to go away for Christmas this year and yours truly was not going to participate. Our plans changed. I’m not trying out for American Idol or anything but if you want to see a singing, dancing, Christmas Story narratin’ Evil Chicken and Mother Hen come on down. Calvary Chapel Vineland is located at 930 North Main Rd., Vineland NJ 08360 – it’s next to the Rite-Aid across the street from Larry’s Restaurant.

Merry Christmas!