Sweet singing in the choir (Written the second week of December)

Well, it's been that kind of week.  We had a group of 6 missionaries head home Tue, so Wed was spent getting them to their various trains and airplanes.  The ones going stateside invariably have to leave here at 3:30 am.  It makes for a long day and broken up sleep schedule.  This time we also had some Spanish missionaries who left in the middle of the day and a sister who's father is now a mission president in Argentina so she 'went home' to Argentina at 7 pm.  We did find out something new.  When we went to pay for her second bag, we found out that they didn't allow extra bags going to Argentina.  We had to sort through her suitcases and split her stuff into keep and leave while standing there in the airport.  Fun! We did it though and I think she made it safe and sound.  She was our first Fuen sister and so is extra dear to us.  But then everyone of them feels extra dear.  Argh.  I knew from the start that the hardest part of this mission would be letting go of these wonderful missionaries.
Then on Saturday we had our Christmas Choir performance in Granada.  It had started out quite modestly, a small group of missionaries to sing a song or two during the  Christmas concert put on by the municipal band of Granada.  It has been a yearly event with a large community attendance.  The expectations of our missionary choir gradually grew from a few missionaries singing a hymn or two to a large choir singing 3 Christmas hymns from the hymn book, a secular carol, and a solo number, plus battle hymn and White Christmas sung with the band.  We (Rod) had to rent a bus to haul the missionaries from Malaga and Fuengirola, we had to rehearse everyone and get some idea of what we were doing with the Band.  Rod was quite nervous that we might disappoint.  I was sure they would sing wonderfully well, but I ended up being the director and that had me going.  It turned out well though and the music was beautiful.  We had a triple quartet do a jazzy version of 'Walking in a winter wonderland' that was really fun, and Sister Roan sang a beautiful Oh Holy Night.
I didn't get any photos of the whole choir because we locked up the purses and my camera was in mine.  Sister Deere put some on the mission blog so you can see them there.

About half of them sang songs the whole way home (2hrs)

 

The Sister on the left was our soloist.  Her voice is wonderful.

They gave the Band director, our soloist and I all bouquets of flowers.

My sweet husband got me a flower too!

Usually the Mediterranean is calm but it was stormy and I loved seeing the waves.

Friday night the branch president called and invited us to see this concert.  The violinist and the pianist were  both amazing.

A lady in the branch was getting rid of this doll, so I took possession of it, made a cap and cape, and now there will be a doll under the tree come Christmas day.